Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest PC manufacturer, has announced it will start selling Linux-based PCs from $AU600 in Australia.

Yoper claims to be a high-performance Linux distribution optimized for newer processors. It incorporates components from other distros, but its packages have been built from scratch to provide enhanced performance. I tested a beta of Yoper 3.0 on my desktop a year ago and was so impressed that when 3.0 was released this month, I installed it on my new Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv6105 notebook.

I would have liked to have been able to tell you in great detail exactly what desktops and laptops will soon be coming from Hewlett-Packard equipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

For years, device and peripheral builders could get away with ignoring the Linux desktop market. It was too small to matter, they would say. Things have changed.

There’s no denying that the widespread growth of Linux was due in part to the raw enthusiasm of advocates meeting together under the broad banner of a “LUG” – a Linux User Group. LUG members were pioneers and cowboys, early adopters and passionate hobbyists. Today, the LUG is different. With the rise of commercial backing, the ease of distro installation, and the omniscience of Google do LUGs still have any role to play in the Linux world?

When you, Joe or Mary user, buy a computer at Best Buy or Computer Village or order a computer from Dell or Gateway, you get a computer with a system already installed. Do you think they had any trouble installing that system on that computer?

Hewlett-Packard released version 4 of its Linux Common Operating Environment (LinuxCOE) software this month. LinuxCOE is a front end to a set of Perl scripts that helps administrators by building customized install images for various Linux distributions.

In recent technological history, Linux has evolved from water cooler techie chatter to a rock-solid solution for the business enterprise. The same software that was once dismissed as rogue is now being adopted and promoted by industry leaders such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and Intel.

"If you try to sell a machine that can copy itself you have a problem: you'll only sell one," says Dr Bowyer. "So we're giving the entire design and all the software away free like Linux and Firefox."