Now, the decade-old operating system is getting as corporate as button-down shirts and PowerPoint presentations.

One in five servers, computers that handle Internet traffic and corporate networks, ran last year on Linux.

The software is expected to gain market share.

The economic downturn has brutalized dotcoms, and forced many to disappear.

But Linux, closely associated with Internet start-ups like Yahoo! and Amazon.com, is more than just surviving.

It's becoming a player, gaining favour with budget-conscious, old-line companies drawn by its performance improvements and lack of licensing costs.

Tech giants such as IBM, Oracle Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co back the system.

Linux users combined have spent a mere US$80 million on the software - less than 1 per cent of the amount spent on all operating systems for all computers - even though it's widely used, researchers with the International Data Corp (IDC) reported.

At a recent computer industry gathering of Linux users, pony-tailed men in T-shirts mingled with executives in short-sleeved golf shirts emblazoned with corporate logos.

It was a scene Linux geeks would rather have avoided a few years back.

But the software's growth has given them a new standing. Designer-suit-clad billionaire Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive officer, was among those paying homage to Linux.

"Linux has been the province of computer hackers, computer scientists and universities. Now, I'm afraid, in a couple years you will have people here with suits on," said Ellison, one of Silicon Valley's richest and best-dressed executives.

Low cost, high growth, big business

Developers often write "free speech" software - software not controlled by a corporation - using Linux. Thus, Linux paves the way for using low- to no-cost substitutes for expensive programmes such as corporate e-mail managers.

Linux sales after a stagnant 2001 are expected to grow fast as corporations accept they can save money without sacrificing reliability - at least for some tasks.

The change was clear earlier this month in San Francisco at the twice-yearly LinuxWorld, the premier meeting place for those eager to talk software coding strategies.

An exhibit hall once dominated by big booths from obscure Linux distributors instead was filled with mainstream tech names like IBM, HP, Intel Corp and AMD Inc.

In a small booth in the back, one could find Microsoft, the king of the brand-name operating systems.

"Wall Street is going for Linux in a big way," said Ellison, who often compares technology trends to those seen in high-fashion.

Million-dollar server computers from Sun Microsystems Inc once were fashionable for dotcoms with big plans.

But Sun, known for sticking to its own technology, joined the Linux fray earlier this month with a knock-off Linux machine using an Intel chip for under US$3,000.

Chris Grams, a marketing manager at the old-guard Linux company Red Hat Inc, was stunned business types had begun stopping by his booth to kick the tires.

Few interested in buying software had dropped by at past shows.

"It's less shorts, T-shirts and baseball caps and more real IT (information technology) guys," he said.

Free beer vs free speech

Doug Elix, IBM's head of global services, gave a keynote address filled with videotaped testimonials from customers that had the infomercial air of most big-company, trade-show presentations.

IBM's embrace of Linux a few years ago sounded a starter's pistol shot in the big guns' acceptance of the upstart, "open" system.

This year's LinuxWorld seemed to mark a turning point in big business' public embrace of the software.

Elix suggested it is time for the Linux community to change, too. It's time for a shift toward driving "to business value."

But Matt Taggart, an HP employee devoted to Linux, suggests the transition might be difficult.

Like many other open source backers, he volunteers his time to write code to build Debian, a venerable version of Linux.

Taggart is happy to see corporate support growing, but he says not every open source is so accepting of the newcomers at the LinuxWorld gathering.

"A lot of people are bothered by the business focus, and they just don't bother to show," Taggart said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2002)