According to a recent survey of 400 chief information officers, including 100 in the UK, 51% expected to increase the use of free software across their networks in the coming 12 months.
Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word were found to be most at risk from slashed and frozen IT budgets, with 38% and 24% of respondents respectively planning to drop the software packages.
The main driver for using free software was to complement existing desktop applications in order to extend functionality to users that could not be provided for using paid-for software.
The survey was carried out by software developer Global Graphics, which launched its own enterprise-level free PDF creation software, gDoc Creator, late last year.
Gary Fry, chief executive of Global Graphics, said: "Free software is a critical part of organisations' IT strategies."
"Large organisations are perfectly prepared to use free software where possible, and upgrade to a full paid-for version of the product where it makes sense for them."
Free software use to expand as budgets tighten, research finds
The majority of large organisations will deploy more enterprise-wide free software in 2010 as technology budgets continue to come under pressure through the recovery.
