IDG World Expo, the leading producer of world-class tradeshows and events, today announced finalists for the LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards, to be presented at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo® next week in San Francisco. Judged by a group of respected industry experts managed by LinuxWorld.com, the LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards recognize product and service innovations by LinuxWorld® and NGDC exhibitors. Winners will be announced during a ceremony at the event on Tuesday, August 5^th at 4:00 p.m. at Center Stage located in the North Hall.

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo runs August 4-7, 2008 at the Moscone Center. The LinuxWorld exhibit hall floor opens on Tuesday, August 5, at 10:00 a.m. Exhibit hall passes are free on or before August 3, 2008 – passes cost $50.00 thereafter. Register for free exhibit hall passes at http://www.linuxworldexpo.com.

This year’s LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards are divided into 12 product categories, including a “Best of Show,” that represent major areas of innovation in the Linux and open source community.

Finalists include:

Best Clustering or Grid Solution

• IBM: iDataPlex
• Hyperic: CloudStatus
• DataSynapse: Fabric Server 2.6

Best Virtualization Solution

• Oracle: Oracle VM 2.1.1
• GoGrid: GoGrid
• Pivot 3: Serverless Computing

For more information on the Product Excellence Awards and LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, visit www.linuxworldexpo.com.