With LinuxWorld showcasing the popularity of the open source operating system, and with open source in general finding its legs in the enterprise, Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of open source and standards, made a slate of predictions for Linux and open source during his keynote address on Wednesday at the Black Hat conference.

Thousands of the Linux faithful will converge on San Francisco's Moscone Center next week (Aug. 4-7) for the LinuxWorld conference and expo and the accompanying Next Generation Data Center show. Everything from cool hand-held devices to data center-class servers -- and the open-source software to run them -- will be on display and put through their paces on the show floor.

An open-source competitor to Microsoft Project and discussion of the GPL3 are among the expected highlights of LinuxWorld, which kicks off today in San Francisco.

Last week’s LinuxWorld Conference & Expo drew a broad cross section of users, from cautious onlookers trying to gauge how Linux and other open-source software could fit into their organizations to converts hoping to expand their use of such technologies.

IDG World Expo has teamed up with open source security gateway provider Untangle and electronics recycler Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) to host an Installfest for Schools at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco next week. Volunteers will refurbish older discarded computers with free and open source software (FOSS) before they are donated to schools in need.

During the LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, I met with Linux Foundation president Jim Zemlin to talk about the future of the open-source Linux operating system and the impact it will have on emerging mobile and embedded technologies.

Of all the announcements to come out of last week's LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, the two most interesting takeaways are Ubuntu's imminent assault on the enterprise space and the fact that the rise of community Linux distros in large organizations is at hand.

Launched in February, the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) came together to help open-source application vendors make their products work better together and gain visibility among enterprise users.

Custom system builders are among the specialists able to embrace open source as a new prospect for success. Linux's emergence as a completely viable open source operating system has attracted many start-ups on a budget, in addition to a growing recognition by proprietary vendors (and their enterprise and SMB clients) of the benefits of open solutions.