Red Hat turned in a healthy first quarter amid signs it's evolving into a multifaceted operation, thanks to growing sales of JBoss and use of channel partners.

While it has an over 20 per cent market share when we speak of servers in India, the free OS called Linux has just around 5 per cent market share in the country when it comes to desktops -- the lion's share going to Microsoft Windows. The scenario is gradually changing, it appears.

Citing the results of its "CIO Pulse" quarterly survey, investment firm UBS said Tuesday that the rapid rate of adoption of the Linux operating system by businesses is likely to slow in the next year.

Windows is still the server platform of choice in India but enterprises, especially small and midsize businesses (SMBs), are increasingly favoring the Linux operating system, according to a new report Monday by Springboard Research.

Virtualisation is on the brink of turning operating systems into a commodity item. It may be realistic to see software applications shipped as virtual computer images in the near future. Linux has much to benefit from this, with a repeat of the phenomenal adoption rate it has enjoyed since the ASUS Eee PC.

Virtualisation is on the brink of turning operating systems into a commodity item. It may be realistic to see software applications shipped as virtual computer images in the near future. Linux has much to benefit from this, with a repeat of the phenomenal adoption rate it has enjoyed since the ASUS Eee PC.

I feel like Liang's statement is a personal attack...Linux adoption won't increase at a greater rate than before unless something else comes along. Asus' actions have shown that we can't pin our hopes of widespread Linux adoption on the EeePC. If Linux is the destination of the computing highway, the EeePC is no longer the onramp.

The use of Linux as a server operating system in India is growing, with SMEs leading the way. But Windows - specifically Windows Server 2003 - still holds the lion's share of the market.

More than 50% of IT executives in a recent survey said that they were planning to accelerate Linux adoption in 2009. “As organisations fight to cut costs and find value in this tough economic climate, Linux adoption will accelerate,” said Michelle Beetar, country manager for Novell South Africa.