I like to write a Halloween-theme article or blog every year, and this year, there is no shortage of costuming and character portrayal from vendors turning up in places you’d never expect them.

The free operating system vendor? That would be Red Hat or Novell with Linux, right? Oh wait, behind that Azure mask is … it’s Microsoft, looking to give the market an OS available on demand? Well, at least until it comes out with a commercial release of Azure sometime in the second half of next year.

Oh and speaking of Microsoft, here comes someone wearing desktop dominance. Hold on … it’s not Microsoft. It’s Linux, which is using faster boot times and netbooks to inch its way toward mainstream desktop deployment, according to Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin, who has another good post about Linux in emerging models.

Another proprietary software for configuring, monitoring and managing servers would not be so remarkable if it wasn’t intended for Linux. Yet this is the case with Canonical’s Landscape software, which is included with some functionality for free in the latest Ubuntu distribution, but is also a link to paid support from Canonical.

Smartphones sure are getting more fun, and treating users to more tricks, but it’s been downright scary for mobile industry stalwarts such as Motorola, which is looking more to Linux, nor Nokia, which is open sourcing Symbian. This Halloween is marked instead by dueling ads and efforts for smartphones from … Apple with iPhone and Google with Android and G1. These players are certainly stirring some mischief in mobile.

All of this Halloween foolery just goes to show how the lines around what is open source, what is proprietary and who is selling what continue to blur. Happy Halloween.