Firefox is the single most prevalent open source software package, and Ubuntu 7.10 leads the way among Linux distributions. Those are some of the very early findings of a new project called the Open Source Census, which went live today.

First unveiled in December, the Open Source Census is a collaborative undertaking to find out how much open software enterprises are using these days, and what kinds of organizations are using it. It's spearheaded by open source software vendor OpenLogic.

Some of the information gathered through the project is available for everyone to see, said Kim Weins, OpenLogic's senior VP of sales and marketing, in a briefing this week for BetaNews. This includes charts showing the "Top 20 Open Source Packages," the "Top Linux Distributions," and the numbers of unique open source software packages found.

The preliminary results -- posted on the Web today, and drawn from a small beta test of the census -- counted 92 open source packages per enterprise.

In terms of Linux distros, about 50% of the 62 machines in the beta were running Ubuntu 7.10 (codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon"). Other distros found included Red Hat, Ubuntu 8.04 (codenamed "Hardy Heron"), Gentoo 2, and Fedora 2.

OpenLogic is planning frequent updates to the reported data, according to Weins, who also noted that enterprises contributing information to the project will receive more information than the public, such as comparisons between their organizations and others in the same industry.

To scan their systems for open source software, corporate developers are downloading a free tool from OpenLogic called OSS Discovery.

"We already have footprints for more than 1,000 of the most commonly used open source software packages in the enterprise," according to Weins.

But why not simply ask developers what kinds of OSS they're using? "We're found that surveys aren't the greatest way of finding out what's out there," she responded. "Open source is often grassroots. It permeates an organization, so that no one person knows about all of the open source software in the organization."

Why is OpenLogic, as an open source vendor, launching the census?

"We want people to get more comfortable about open source software," Weins replied. "In our sales calls, we've been learning that enterprises are running a lot more open source than they'd thought. We think that businesses will get more comfortable about open source if they can see what they're running, and compare their results with those of others."

OpenLogic unveiled a list of initial partners for the census, which includes very well known names like IT vendor Unisys and industry analyst firm IDC. Also among them are: O'Reilly Media, collaboration platform provider CollabNet, open source assessment and governance services firm Navica; open source strategy consultant Olliance Group; the Open Solutions Alliance); and the Open Source Business Foundation.

All of these partners are giving a mix of financial and "in kind" contributions, OpenLogic's senior VP said.

For instance, Holmes, Roberts & Owens, one of the first other sponsors to be named, is contributing legal advice, said Jason Haislmaier, a partner in the law firm, which runs a practice in technology and intellectual property transactions.

Haislmaier told BetaNews that, to alleviate any privacy concerns, the census is not collecting any personally identifiable data from participants.

"As you can imagine," according to Weins, "privacy and other legal issues can come up in putting together an initiative of this kind."