An increasing number of small and medium-sized British businesses (SMEs) are adopting open source software, according to a poll made public today.

The UK ranks second in the world after Germany, in which 51 per cent of businesses are using free software to lower the total cost of IT operations in their company - Britain is close, with 43 per cent actively using the technology.

Actuate senior vice-president Nobby Akiha said that the company's study validated the notion that there was an increasing adoption of open source software across the world and in a wide array of industries and sectors.

He continued: "Not only is awareness high but increasingly adoption is high, which validates the fact that people are really using the software they're downloading."

Earlier this month, Stephen Fry praised the embrace of open source software by celebrating the 25th birthday of the GNU operating system, describing it as "good science" as opposed to the "kind of tyranny" shown by companies such as Apple and Microsoft.