We're helping companies build content solutions, commerce solutions, operations solutions-and Linux is a standard that we can use to help integrate all of these. It makes it much easier to move application components around.

I believe in Open Source, but the promise of "better software" isn't materializing, despite all the noise to the contrary. The process won't do it; the developers have to do it. We need to be engineers first and artists second.

Neoware's textbook-sized embedded Linux desktop is a textbook example of where Linux is heading in the thin-client market. Small,power-saving, and functional.

Linux's most important distribution helps counter the growing commercial involvement in open source.

Music and entertainment store MVC has deployed over 900 Electronic Point of Sale devices in MVC stores operating across a network of IBM Netfinity servers running Linux.

Apache is still the most popular Web server on the Internet, powering 10,704,306 hostnames (the first time that Apache surged past the 10,000,000 mark), representing 62.53 percent of all Internet sites.

For the TM3120, Transmeta has created its own specially tuned distribution of Linux that it is shipping along with its microprocessor line. Mobile Linux has been optimized for power consumption and is small enough to fit on a ROM.

Although hundreds if not thousands of new online businesses are launched each

week, this one had a major difference, Sydneypix.com was built and is entirely hosted using Linux software.

Linux has to take the battle to the desktop. I'm not saying Linux has to be dominant on the desktop. An Apple-like market share of 5 to 10% will be enough to fly the flag and push Microsoft's focus back on to its home turf.

Because the real opportunity is still ahead of us, it is very difficult to say who is or will be the leader. However, this much I know, Caldera understands better than any other Linux company where Linux needs to go to be successful.