IBM & Push For Linux @ Desktop

IBM, an early supporter of Linux is extending efforts to popularize Linux beyond the OS level. Moves include the release to the open-source community of Cloudscape database code, supporting the ongoing development of the Eclipse project and Gluecode, that sells support and services built around the Apache Geronimo application server. So far, Linux adoption on PCs has been a non factor, in part because of the lack of third-party applications.IBM wants to break the Jinx – at the LinuxWorld conference. IBM launched WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition, designed to provide enterprise search middleware for powering intranets, extranets, and corporate public Web sites. Just as Linux's standing within companies has risen from being relegated mostly to running Web proxy connections and file/print functions to in some cases becoming a primary operating system for mission-critical applications, IBM’s Mills believes that Linux can make progress on the desktop. It's a dynamic that's been promised for years by companies that offer applications running in desktop Linux environments, but IT managers haven't been the least convinced and are, despite a sometimes love/hate relationship with Windows, are loath to give it up. Desktop Linux advocates say Linux's time has come for people who use their PCs to perform very specific functions like call-center workers. Linux on the desktop is happening, but mostly in transactional spaces, such as in retail environments where companies use the operating system to run point-of-sale devices, Call centers etc. Desktop Linux is lacking primarily in the area of third-party applications that companies use to perform functions specific to their business, as opposed to core desktop applications used to create documents, do instant-messaging, or run E-mail.
I strongly beleive that the best demonstration of opensource success would be to measure & monitor a combination of trends such as,how much gigabytes of opensource software resides in your desktop, or how many no. of opensource applications that one runs as a proportion of total no.of applications accessed, how may clockcycles are consumed by processors in running opensource applications. Mobile/Handheld environment can also provide the best possible reference for Opensource.