RPT-INTERVIEW-Linux set for more handsets in 2008-Torvalds

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By Sami Torma

HELSINKI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Linux computer operating system, which so far has had little success in use for cellphones, is set to become more widely available in handsets next year, helped by Google's (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) mobile push, said Linux's creator Linus Torvalds.

Linux is the most popular type of free, or so-called open source, software which is available to the public to be used, revised and shared. Linux suppliers earn money selling improvements and technical services, and Linux competes directly with the Windows software of Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which charges for software and opposes freely sharing its code.

Torvalds, a Finn who created the original Linux in the early 1990s and put the code up on the Internet for others to enhance, still oversees the development of the operating system, which is now the world's biggest grassroots software phenomenon.

Britain's Symbian, of which Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) owns almost 50 percent, is the market leader in mobile device operating systems, followed by Microsoft's handset system Windows Mobile.

But last month Web search leader Google said it would offer a software platform, built on Linux, to make the Internet work as smoothly on mobile phones as it does on computers.

"I haven't been personally involved but it certainly looks like 2008 may be, thanks to the Google Alliance, one of the years you will find more widely available phones with Linux," Torvalds told Reuters in an interview on Friday.