LAS VEGAS -- Too many midmarket CIOs look at server virtualization as a means of reducing space, power and cooling demands in the data center. As a result, they could be shortchanging their businesses.

Realizing savings from consolidation is largely a onetime event, said Gartner Inc. vice president Tom Bittman, who spoke Tuesday at the Gartner Data Center Conference.

In fact, if organizations are getting into virtualization just to address power and cooling issues, they might be making a mistake.

It seems that Linux is gaining more and more popularity in the battle for the operating system of choice for cheap desktop computers. After the OLPC (one laptop per child) program decided to use Mandriva instead of a light version of Windows for the XO laptops, now Wal-Mart reports it has sold out its gPC stock.

The gPC runs a Google friendly Linux operating system built around Ubuntu Linux. The computer is priced at 199$ and can be used to perform most of the common tasks such as using the office suite or listening to music. Critics, however, have yet to proclaim the gPC as a success yet. Because of its very low price, this incredible sale rate could be only related to the actual price tag the product has, not its actual usefulness.

The first GPL (General Public License) lawsuit ever in the U.S. saw the light of the day. The Software Freedom Law Center was the one to make the official announcement. The complaint was filed by two main developers of the awesome set of Unix utilities called BusyBox. As it appears, the Monsoon Multimedia company redistributed BusyBox without supplying the source code, as specified in the GPL version 2.

A recent study conducted by eBay on its security threat situations pointed out some interesting results. Linux systems have become the command centers of choice for phishing operations and Botnets. Because of its reputation of being a very secure and stable operating system, Linux is often installed on server machines. While Botnet soldier systems can safely join and part the Botnet without concern, the central node must be available as long as possible to control them. Linux servers are therefore a very valuable resource to any electronic criminal.