Linux leaders plot counterattack on Microsoft

This is the first conference of the Linux Foundation, an umbrella advocacy group formed early in 2007 to unite two predecessors, Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group.

There are as many as 360 rival flavours of Linux, known as distributions, according to Distrowatch.com. This factionalism fuels rapid innovation but splits the energies of developers.

"There really is a sense in many projects that there is an 'us' and a 'them'," said Mark Shuttlesworth, founder of Ubuntu, a free, desktop version of Linux that competes with Windows. "There are the folks who are inside a project and those who are outside a project."

The Linux Foundation boasts 70 corporate and non-profit backers, including Intel (INTC.O), Oracle (ORCL.O), IBM (IBM.N), Cisco (CSCO.O), Motorola (MOT.N), Nokia (NOK1V.HE), NTT (9432.T), Dell (DELL.O), Red Hat (RHT.N) and Sun SUNW.O, along with major customers like ADP ADP.N, Bank of America (BAC.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

Linux used to be worked on by professionals doing the work on their own time, said Jason Wacha, an expert on licensing Linux and attorney for MontaVista, a maker of Linux software for mobile and consumer electronics devices.

"Ultimately, I think (Linux) is being pushed by commercial forces ... Now a lot of people are being paid to do Linux as professionals," he said of how many top open-source developers now work for big-name companies like Google, HP and Oracle.