Linus Torvalds launched Linux as a student project nearly 13 years ago, but by the late 1990s it attracted support from the computing industry. Now Linux is a staple of the information technology diet and a component of computing company strategies to get an edge over their competitors.

At the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, some of those strategies will be on display. Among server sellers, IBM will tout its efforts to build a new ecosystem of programmers and software packages on its Power processors. Hewlett-Packard will boast of its efforts to use Linux to woo customers from rival Sun Microsystems. And Sun will use Linux to showcase its new software and storage directions.

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