Larry Ellison, the charismatic chairman and CEO of Oracle Corporation, the $11 billion world leader in databases and enterprise software, has a dream. And the open software on which he is banking heavily to make his dream a reality is called Lindows. Speaking at the Oracle Appsworld here, the 58-year old Ellison, dressed in his customary light grey suit and black rollneck, said he hoped that Oracle would soon be able to run its desktop applications on Lindows, a software that combines Linux and Windows without violating any trademark or copyright. The Lindows concept was dreamed up by MP3.com entrepreneur Michael Robertson.

The shrewd Ellison was however quick to sense the skepticism among the audience about the concept to make a cheap open software that runs both Linux and Windows code, but that looks and runs like Windows. "Lindows may not succeed, but it's at least possible. Even if Lindows comes close to success, the product could beget the massive transition that Microsoft perpetually fears," Ellison said. Quite clearly, the master salesman once again managed to take a jibe at his favourite whipping boy - Microsoft.