"James Burgett of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center calls himself a 'tattooed freak' and a recovering drug addict, but CNN is calling him a hero (video) for diverting tons of computers from landfills, installing Ubuntu Linux on them, and giving them out to schools, non-profits, and poor people.

The Linux penguin is finally marching onto more desktops. Some of the biggest names in computing are pushing harder for the Linux open-source operating system as an option for desktop PCs. Analysts say the moves show that Linux and other open-source software products are finally ready to compete on the desktop.