Big companies are increasing how much they spend on putting Linux software on mainframes, according to a global study.

Linux kernel 2.6.30 has been released with hundreds of changes from the previous version, including a new architecture for suspend and resume which Linus Torvalds says switches the kernel to a "new world order".

With public and private clouds in mind, venture-funded Certeon is now using Linux development tools running on Ubuntu and CentOS to build "virtual accelerator" software for speeding application response time on congested Windows- and Linux-based networks.

On-line stores for third parties to sell their applications for your platform might be all the rage in the mobile arena at the moment, but Novell reckons that desktop Linux is about due.

Over the years, the question “is Linux ready for the desktop” has been raised time and time again, and countless articles have been written about the strengths and weaknesses of this operating system. While desktop Linux adoption has yet to go completely mainstream, recent indicators show that a major change is underfoot.

Two British IT workers are planning to spend a month without Windows, using GNU/Linux instead in a project designed to see whether "the Linux operating system is capable of delivering the function and style of delivery that an established Windows user can adapt to easily."

The Linux community is poorer this week following the untimely death of Anthony Rumble, founder of Everything Linux and well-known member of the Sydney Linux Users Group.

The TomTom case exposed a long-simmering problem resulting from the combination of patents, proprietary software companies and open source. Andrew Tridgell recently patched Linux’s VFAT implementation, but the cult of silence that surrounds intellectual property will bedevil open source projects for some time to come.

Canonical's leader Mark Shuttleworth has recently chimed in on an important aspect of desktop computing when it comes to Linux. Going over the role that Linux plays on the desktop and where its future lies, Shuttleworth specifically commented on a question issued about Wine – which as many of you may know, is the most popular way of running Windows-based programs on Linux.

So how many desktop Linux users are there? If you believe in Net Applications' numbers it's just over 1%. If you want to buy W3Counter's numbers, 2.16% of users use Linux. Or, if you want to go by my own Web site, Practical Technology's AWStats statistics, 29.9% of desktop users prefer Linux.

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