With a Microsoft e-mail worm hitting US-based e-mail servers just in time for LinuxWorld, Linux desktop initiatives are on everyone's mind and featured in the largest of the booths at this week's LinuxWorld.

Novell is showing off Ximian applications, including Evolution, and Sun has something called the Sun Java Desktop System, which is refreshingly not too heavy on the Java. GNOME, StarOffice and Mozilla take center stage there.

EmperorLinux probably had the easiest booth to set up; they're the company that specializes in putting custom Linux loads on high-end laptops from Dell, IBM, Sony and others. The new Sony only looks as big as a 1U server. With the hardware easily brought up, EmperorLinux representatives are free to answer questions about the latest in FireWire, USB and wireless network support.

If you're planning a laptop purchase and want a future-proof machine with compatible wireless hardware, check with Josh Litherland, whose business card reads R&D/SysAdmin/Support. Watch for a review of their Raven product, the IBM X31, in an upcoming issue of Linux Journal. Linux Journal's own Doc Searls recently picked up a different IBM ThinkPad with an EmperorLinux load, and you'll be hearing more from Doc about his mobile Linux experiences in future Web articles.

Cyclades will be introducing a new network monitoring device, the Cyclades-nQuirer, based on the open-source ntop software. In addition, Cyclades has new horizontal and vertical rackmount Intelligent Power Distribution Units (IPDUs)--power strips with serial port control--up to 20 outlets and 30 amps. With them you can daisy-chain multiple IPDUs to one serial port. The Cyclades booth will also feature a live conference call with 2.4 kernel maintainer Marcelo Tosatti.

PogoLinux will be showing a 4-way Opteron box, and we expect that other 4-way Opterons will be the stars of the exhibit hall's White Box Land, that area between the pricey front-row booths and the .org area. Schwag hog alert: Pogo has Fedora CDs to give away.

NYLUG, the New York Linux Users Group, will have its monthly meeting during the show at the IBM building in Manhattan, in the Linux Center of Competence. Expect a lot of out-of-town visitors to this politically active and corporately well-connected group's meeting.

Even Linux Journal has a booth, with a surprise subscription deal. See you at LinuxWorld.