Software suppliers at LinuxWorld Expo rolled out products aimed at embedded applications ranging from set-top boxes to cellular phones to flight simulators.

Linux may be moving off the farm and onto a PC or high-end server near you.

SCO made a series of announcements at its user conference designed to demonstrate both the software vendor's increased commitment to Linux and highlight the transfer of two of its divisions to Linux distribution company Caldera Systems.

SCO says that it will deliver a Linux-compatible environment based on the UnixWare kernel by the end of the year. It is claimed that it can already host Linux applications with far better performance results than can be achieved by running

the same Linux software on a native Linux kernel on identical hardware.

Linux is predominantly found on Intel boxes, but if this year's Linux World Expo is any indication, it is making steady inroads into the Mac community.

More and more of the larger corporations are delving into Linux as fast as they

can port their products. What kind of impact will this have on the growth and expansion of Linux and the Linux community?

Open-source backers may aspire to a world in which software rivalries are a thing of the past. But at least for now, there's an undeniable rift forming within the ranks.

Timpanogas Research Group, a company led by former Novell executives, hopes to offer its open-source NetWare-compatible OS to Novell customers in the second half of 2001.

LinuxWorld Expo featured high-profile announcements from big systems stalwarts IBM, HP, Dell, Sun and start-ups such as Linux NetworX, all bent on making the Linux operating system as bulletproof as possible for the enterprise customer.

KDE 2 may very well help spreading Linux through the desktops because of two very simple reasons: it's good and it's sexy. People will want to have it and play with it the moment they see it.