Linux evangelists are keeping the faith, even when it comes to the elusive Holy Grail of the open-source operating system: taking a significant chunk of the desktop market.

The news has not been good since this time last year. Companies seeking to make a profit from desktop applications have closed or spun off their Linux operations, and big-name backer Dell Computer Corp. cancelled an offer for Linux-enabled desktop and laptop machines. But attendees here at the Frankfurt Linux World Conference and Expo refuse to give up. Ask a random sample, and you'll find about half say they use Linux on their own home or office machines, and would recommend it to others. These people are, of course, the hard core -- can Linux for the desktop still catch on in the wider world? Absolutely, said Linux consultant Peter Ganten. Bruce Perens, a longtime Linux developer currently on staff at Hewlett-Packard Co. as the company's senior open source and Linux strategist, said the pieces are only just falling into place for Linux to compete successfully in the desktop market. Thanks to products like Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Open Office, an open source version of its desktop software suite StarOffice; Ximian Inc.'s e-mail management software Evolution; and the open-source Web browser Mozilla, the average home or office user has just about everything he or she could need for desktop use, Perens said. Many Linux advocates point to the operating system's better security record than its archrival, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. But a Microsoft executive rejected the accusation. Last year, Microsoft issued 100 security bulletins for its entire product line, whereas there were 137 security bulletins for Red Hat Inc.'s Linux code base alone, said Microsoft executive Norman Heydenreich.