Fifteen years after the introduction of the Linux kernel, next week's LinuxWorld conference will focus not on whether to use open source software - the market has answered that question - but on how to deploy, secure and manage the technology as part of a business IT operation.

Virtualization, grid computing and service-oriented architecture, for example, are key areas for conference sessions and keynote addresses. Managing open source in heterogeneous environments will be an important issue, as will desktop Linux and mobile Linux, the latter an area that has been gaining steam.

Show organizer IDG World Expo, a sister company of Network World, says it expects about 11,000 people to attend the conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco next Monday through Thursday - about the same number that showed up last year. Some 175 exhibitors are expected, though there is one notable absence: Red Hat.

Red Hat has decided that "other methods of communication and engagement, including seminars, Red Hat Summit and other focused events" are more beneficial in reaching customers and the Linux community, according to a Red Hat spokeswoman.

One new twist for the conference is LinuxWorld's first Healthcare Day, an event sponsored by the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) that aims to tap into a growing interest in open source among IT executives at healthcare organizations. And an invitation-only CIO Summit connecting CIOs with peers who have deployed open source successfully reflects the movement of Linux away from its geek roots and into the realm of business-focused IT executives.

"Our first version of Linux came in about four or five years ago and came in under the radar, in the guise of being a test box," says Curtis Edge, CIO at Boston newspaper The Christian Science Monitor, which is revamping its Web sites with open source software.

"Not having Linux was limiting the products we could buy," he says. "It's important now to have the discussion that asks what's good and bad about [open source], not just talk about it being great. I have no issue with weighing a proprietary application and an open source application. You want to give open source a fair shake."

Edge will join Guru Vasudeva, associate vice president and chief architect at Nationwide, and Michael Gallagher, global manager of enterprise architecture at ABN Amro, on the CIO Summit panel on Tuesday. Vasudeva also will deliver a keynote address Wednesday, detailing his company's use of virtualization and Linux to create a simpler data center environment that is expected to result in more than $15 million in savings during the next three years.