An open-source competitor to Microsoft Project and discussion of the GPL3 are among the expected highlights of LinuxWorld, which kicks off today in San Francisco.

Projity plans to show off OpenProj, an open-source project management program that can read Microsoft Project files and works on Windows, Mac and Linux. The company hopes that the project may find a role in the OpenOffice suite, the open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, according to reports.

Some watchers also expect Palm to announce more details about its Foleo instant-on notebook, due to be released later this summer. Peripherals and software developer kits are likely.

In systems management, GroundWork said it would host a meeting of peers to discuss how makers of open-source management tools can best work together to challenge established leaders such as IBM, HP, CA and BMC on the one hand and in-house tools on the other. A new report by analyst 451 Group suggests that “a new middle ground is rapidly growing”.

As usual, rumours are also swirling. One report suggests that HP will announce Linux-based desktops at the show.

LinuxWorld is certain to host plenty of discussion about GPL3, the new version of the General Public Licence released on 29 June.

Experts watching the adoption numbers say GPL3 has not been the damp squib that some commentators had predicted.

According to figures provided by Palamida, a company that inspects code to reduce risk exposure for companies buying or running open-source software, 259 projects had fully adopted version three as of 27 July, up from 199 the previous week. Additionally, about 2,990 programs are now licensed as “GPL v2 or LGPL v2.1 or later”.

“The notion that GPL3 is dead on arrival is false,” said Theresa Bui-Friday, vice-president of marketing at Palamida. “There’s quite a bit of adoption, though not huge.”

Bui-Friday believes that many companies will move to the new licence but only at a timely juncture. “It’s very rare that a software project will go through the trouble and expense of cutting a new version just for a new licence. Typically, what we’ve heard is that the next version they cut they will go [with GPL3],” she said.

Others, including virtualisation software developer XenSource, will wait for the endorsement of Linus Torvalds, who has expressed concern over some elements of GPL3 but left the door open to adoption.

“The GPL is a fantastic resource for everybody involved,” said Simon Crosby, chief technology officer at XenSource. “We get 250 world-class developers and pay nothing for them. It allows us to build a better engine but not a car.”

Linux servers now account for about 12.7 percent by value of the total server market, according to IDC, and sales continue to grow in double figures.