Linux a picture of health at CeBIT

CeBIT, the world's largest IT trade show, attracted a healthy mix of open source companies and enthusiasts this week, and ZDNet UK was there to get a flavour of the action.

Klaus Knopper attracted a packed crowd on Friday lunchtime when he demonstrated the latest version of his Linux distribution. Knoppix 3.8 contains a full range of open source applications and can be booted directly from a CD.

So many people turned up to Knopper's event that there wasn't a spare seat to be had, and our correspondent on the ground reports that "a mad rush broke out" when Knoppix 3.8 CDs were distributed.

CeBIT was the venue for the launch of SuSE Linux Professional 9.3, which will include support for Xen — allowing users run multiple versions of the operating system simultaneously.