The offer of pre-installed Linux by mainstream PC makers doesn't mean the open-source operating system is poised to sweep aside Microsoft’s; but while its cost advantages may never be compelling, finance departments must prepare to consider the merits of switching their own operations to Linux – and to hear a stronger case for its company-wide adoption.

Microsoft is spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt among open source users, Linus Torvalds said in an interview published last week.

Linux needs to recognise Microsoft's leadership in some areas to better itself, Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation told delegates at the Linuxworld tradeshow in San Fransisco.

For open source backers who love to bash Microsoft (and other proprietary software companies), this LinuxWorld was not for you. At the conference in San Francisco, key industry figures emphasized the need for respect and cooperation between open source companies and Microsoft because of the reality that customers will be using a mix of open source and closed source software in their organizations.

Microsoft's Sam Ramji slammed the door on virtualizing Microsoft's newest desktop operating systems (XP and Vista) on Linux yesterday. In a speech at LinuxWorld, the director of Microsoft's open-source software lab claimed that "we haven't seen significant demand for Linux applications on the desktop or for desktop virtualization on top of Linux."

For all the hot-headed sparring between the Linux and Windows communities, Sam Ramji, Microsoft’s director of technical platform strategy, talks straightforward about wanting Windows/Linux interoperability and appears sincere. Though, admittedly, he was addressing attendees of the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco.

Microsoft has succeeded in fracturing the Linux and open-source community with the patent indemnity agreements it has entered into with several prominent vendors, Ubuntu leader and Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told eWEEK.

"As a bit of a follow-up to my recent editorial about the different operating systems battling it out, a few readers made comments about Ubuntu and Windows and, essentially, that I was giving Windows a little too much credit. So, I thought I would write another one here specifically to address the issue of Linux actually replacing Windows. Can it?"