Expanding Linux adoption beyond key vertical markets is an important driver for Red Hat Inc.'s growth, which remains steady even as one of its strongest customer sectors -- financial services -- is getting hit hard by the U.S. crisis, the company's CEO, Jim Whitehurst, said Tuesday.

Linux has made its way from the desktop to the server room, and now it is poised to take over mobile devices. In fact, by at least one report it already has. But as mobile developers are painfully aware, the mobile space is quite fragmented, and there are many versions of Linux to target. Which one is best for your project?

Last year, word swirled in the air that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) would be the next big PC vendor after Dell (Dell) to add support for Linux on desktops. So far the official word remains muted, in the realm of "we're exploring options, we'll make an announcement when the time is right", but the guesses now center around HP providing SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop as its distro of choice.

Unless you have been living under a tree, you are aware of the fact that money in the Linux market by and large appears to be coming from the mobile market. Despite efforts from developers and various companies alike, the fact remains that it is the mobile development world that is gaining the bulk of the Linux developers out there.

According to a Computerworld Singapore report quoting newly published research, 2012 will be the year of the Linux mobile phone, with some 31 percent of all smart phones, or 331 million devices, running Linux. The prediction is based largely upon the fact that Linux has a much faster growth rate than either Symbian or Windows Mobile, some 75 percent year on year.

Leaders in the Linux community seemed resigned to the fact that Linux still hasn't made headway in the desktop market, but they made it clear on Monday that their success in other markets, such as mobile, is at least as important.

Within the Open Source, and especially the Linux community, there are basically two options for replacing Microsoft Outlook: Kontact and Evolution. As you know, Outlook is an all-in-one email, calendar, todo, contact application that also publishes information. In a corporate environment (especially a large corporate environment) most companies use and Exchange server to handle mail. If you are an employee in such an environment, and you want to adopt a Linux desktop you will be very limited in what you can do with an Exchange server. Will either Kontact or Evolution fit into your environment? Let’s find out.

Windows 7 may be generating some positive buzz, but Jack Wallen remains skeptical. In fact, he says it’s only a matter of time before Linux takes its rightful spot at the top of the OS heap.

The leader of Microsoft’s integration efforts around open source software and its proprietary technologies is expanding his role by adding the title "general manager of Windows server marketing," further indication that Microsoft plans to crank up the volume on its Windows/Linux story.