I am inclined to believe Mary Jo that Red Hat will factor heavily this year and following more than any other player into the growing market for server consolidation using virtual machine technology.
Keep in mind that every copy of the Linux kernel now includes Kernel Virtual Machine for free.
KVM is a Type 1 hypervisor and has performance characteristics as good as or better than VMware ESX.
Couple that to Red Hat's open sourcing SPICE and you can readily see they have positioned themselves to meet the demand for server consolidation, particularly in a recession when the pressure is on IT to find any way possible to curb or even better 'reduce' software and capital equipment expenditure.
One only need watch the video benchmarks here that compare Citrix ICA, RDP, and SPICE to get a feel for the level of competition coming from open source for Virtual Machine/Thin Client software.
That said, 2010 will be another GREAT year for Red Hat.
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