Of those responding, the retail industry showed the greatest interest, with 63% planning to increase desktop deployments and 69% considering the same on the server.

The Linux desktop has been trying to find a significant foothold for years without much success, but the economy could be its greatest ally.

"If you think about it, we can deliver a full desktop operating system with everything from an office productivity suite to a Web browser to e-mail and do it for a list price of [US]$50 and you can get it on a , for example," says Steinman. "When you look at the Microsoft cost with all the equivalent software it is a significant chunk of change."

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