The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

DELL'S chief technology officer sees a huge future in Linux virtualisation for the once-dominant PC manufacturer.

A federal court in Utah ruled that Novell Inc., not SCO Group Inc., is the rightful owner of the copyright in the Unix operating system.

The ruling is a boon to the "open source" software movement and to Linux, the freely available computer operating system that has become an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

Linux is a key part of the success mix for virtualization. That was the message of Mendel Rosenblum, chief scientist and cofounder of VMware.

Critics say vendors such as Sun are not doing enough regarding interoperability to make the standard a viable competitor to Microsoft.

The advent of desktop virtualisation will provide the missing link for Linux to shine on the corporate desktop, Dell chief technology officer Kevin Kettler predicted in a keynote speech at the Linuxworld conference in San Francisco.

In its latest cost-cutting move, Sun Microsystems announced it will eliminate an undisclosed number of jobs. The company has cut about 4,000 jobs through layoffs and attrition since June 2006. It reported its third profitable quarter in a row last month, earning $329 million on revenue of $3.84 billion.