What’s more, the output can be a disk or ISO image as expected, but also a virtual hard drive in one of many different formats (most notably VMWare, Microsoft Virtual Server and XenSource.) A free version is available for projects which are themselves free and available to the community, meaning any FOSS project can already benefit.

Indeed, whether the software application is FOSS or a proprietary commercial application, rPath provide the means to make it self-contained – which will become a far more important distribution mechanism as virtualisation comes into its own. In time, rPath believe, future applications will arrive as fully integrated software appliances that run atop the virtualisation layer be this hardware or software virtualisation.

Canonical and Red Hat
Mention absolutely has to go to Canonical and Red Hat, arguably the two most influential Linux distro providers about. Both are competing daily in head-to-head comparisons with Microsoft Windows PCs.

Canonical has to be applauded for attracting the masses into adopting Linux via various means. One of these is production of what is generally considered the most user-friendly Linux distro about, Ubuntu. And, not least is how Dell now pre-installed Linux on a line of its desktop systems. The brave experiment here has caused a domino effect with Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and other desktop providers now seeking to deliver their own free software desktop. The contribution this makes to the recognition of open source software cannot be underestimated.

Red Hat richly deserves recognition for their leadership in legitimising open source as a viable commercial enterprise. In addition, Red Hat have made strong contributions to the Linux platform, adding real code to the kernel itself, to the GCC compiler and glibc libraries, as well as application work with JBoss and PostgreSQL.

Red Hat also oversee a rigorous and respected Linux certification process, which while not as platform neutral as other offerings is genuinely tough to pass and completion is considered the pinnacle of Linux accreditation. You can read more in our guide to Linux certification offerings and why we say this.

That’s our picks for who is influential in open source now, and who will be tomorrow. However, nevertheless, the big deal of free and open-source software is that it is an army of millions. It is not an arena susceptible to domination by a mere few. And this is its chief strength.