March of the Penguin; Open source has come a long way since the first LinuxWorld

It's a bit like moving from the basement to the living room. Open-source software, once primarily associated with computer operating systems, is now being used by companies for critical functions and software applications such as storing data, managing customers and analyzing business information. The success of Linux, the free computer operating system created in the early 1990s by Linus Torvalds and developers around the world, has paved the way for a growing open-source ecosystem. ``The technology is evolving very rapidly,'' said Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst with research firm IDC. As more than 10,000 software developers and other tech workers gather in San Francisco this week for the twice-a-year LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, the focus will be on this new era of open-source software.

Source: Mercury News

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