The E-Commerce Times posted an interview with Jim Zemlin yesterday. Not surprisingly, he was very optimistic about the future of Linux, but his argument about cloud computing was particularly interesting. As I’ve discussed before here on Linux Loop, the replacement of desktop applications with web applications, sometimes called cloud computing, will put Linux on a level playing field with Windows and other OSs, because users don’t have to learn new applications when they switch operating systems. In short, web applications don’t care what OS you use. Getting back to the interview, Jim Zemlin made an interesting point about the other side of web applications, the server:

“In 2008 we are going to see Linux taking off tremendously in cloud computing. The use of cloud computing will become increasingly important. Running Linux on a virtual machine on a cloud server will be the dominant platform in that arena.“

Linux is already a major player in the server market, and as Jim Zemlin points out, with the rise of cloud computing more and more people will be aware of Linux on the server, which will help to establish Linux on the desktop, too. So, in summary, the rise of cloud computing helps Linux both on the server and on the desktop.