While the thought of Linux actually powering the massive financial exchange computer systems around the world would have been absurd just a couple of years ago, there is a growing feeling that the open source computer operating system is ready to make the jump. We are not talking about speculation, we are talking about solid performance figures which suggest it is possible. So what next?

The educational community has discovered open source tools in a big way. Analysts predict that schools will spend up to $489.9 million on support and services for open source software by 2012, and that only includes charges related to operating systems and learning management systems.

Linux has games. I'm not just talking about solitaire, chess and mines; I'm talking about the dozens of great 3D first person shooters, puzzle games, role-playing games, community games, simulators, and more.

This post is about the desktop operating systems that fly under the radar of most people. We are definitely not talking about Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, or even BSD or Solaris. There are much less mainstream options out there for the OS-curious.

I had an interesting chat yesterday with Javier Soltero, the CEO of open source web infrastructure management firm, Hyperic. We got to talking about the different attitudes to open source in the US and in Europe; you’ll recall a recent blog entry I did found slightly higher Linux desktop penetration in some European countries than in the US.

I've blogged about it before; users have a deep emotional connection with Microsoft Office. I'm not talking about those of you that are super power users and make use of advanced features. I'm talking about regular clerical and office workers that are not creating documents much beyond set margins/bold this/italic/insert graphics and print.

If you want to put a boatload of useful open source applications on a computer or, as I do, on a pocket USB drive so that you can have them with you at all times, there are now some very fast ways to do this. MacLibre is a great way to get tons of good free, open source apps in one download for Mac users.

The other night, a good question popped out of my head — How many of the geek teenagers wish to work on closed source technology today?

Enterprises and other users deploy open-source software because it works. For those of us in the open-source vendor community, however, too often we waste time talking about issues that have relatively little resonance for the vast majority of users.