Wrap-up of LinuxWorld

Having finally flown back home, recovered from the gain/loss of sleep, time zones, and of course, the obligatory luggage being lost, we're trying to wrap-up the latest installment of LinuxWorld. If you are interested in some commentary and stories coming out of LWCE, click below. The big issue of LWCE was something that didn't occur even in the same state as the show. The Red Hat IPO, complete with lotsa confusion and news went up, and showed that, yes, Wall Street is interested in Linux.

One of the more interesting commentaries brought up the newest Linux Spokesperson-Casper Weinberger. Yes, the former Secretary of Defense is an Open Source guy. Strange. It also brings up the living penguins that were on the show floor. I dunno-it still seems to me that live animals on a show floor has to be tantamount of animal abuse, under some sort of law.

A number of good interviews came out of the show - one with RMS where he talks about the whole GNU/Linux thing, Communism. The interview is done in the inimitable Stallman style, so...be warned. *grin* In a parellel vein, ESR talked with ZD, foretelling amongst other things, the downfall of Microsoft and FUD issues. MSNBC did a nice story on Gnome, giving it some of the props needed. The KDE folks were also at the shows, with some nice displays at their screen in the booth.

We spent almost every waking moment in the .Org pavilion, a scary sort of place with furniture with no back support, and lots of people wandering through. Included amongst these people was no less then three documentary film crews. I think two+ is a sign that a movement has reached commericial mainstream. So, uh, congrats to....someone.

Some great picture shots came in - thanks, as always, to Marc Merlins' wrap-up complete with some good shots. Marc's, as always, is incredible comprehensive. Read it. If you want some shots of .Org pavilion, the Slashdot party (Woo-hoo! Good beer! *grin* ), check out Joey Hess' page. HUGE # of pictures, and still more going up.

The show was fun. Lotsa people who we don't get to see, except at the conventions. The commericial element was stronger then at the last show, but I think it was evident that the companies attending understood that they at least needed to give a nod to the feelings of the Community. This being the 2nd round of a show this size, I think the initial glamour of "Woo! Big Show!" is wearing off, and people are getting to work at these. It makes things a little less glamourous, but what the attendees/exhibitors of the show did see is that Linux is something to be taken seriously. Every major media outlet had people there, warndering the floor, and media like CNN ran pieces about it during the show. With the first IPO under its' belt, the establishment of several major shows, and major vendors established on the scene, I think Linux continued success looks good.

Comments

congrats to...

[Erich]

I think two+ is a sign that a movement has reached commericial mainstream. So, uh, congrats to....someone.

The congrats goes to us. Every one of us who has written a patch, reported a bug, advocated using linux in the right place. Every one of us who has written up some documentation or helped a friend do an install. Every one of us who answers newsgroup posts or ask slashdot posts.

Many of us have put effort into Linux (and free software in general), and we are seeing people take notice. We have built it, now they are coming. And as corporations start to use our software, they will need their own itch scratched, and Free Software will continue to grow and become stronger and more flexible.

The other day my friend showed me a really nifty piece of software called podfuk. It basically (so far as I can tell) combines vfs libraries from Midnight Commander and the CODA filesystem... so you can cd into tar files or ftp sites, and the actual work is done in userspace. It's a very, very elegant hack, and I think it is exemplary of the quality and flexibility of the software that we have. I don't even want to think of how you could do that on an NT or Mac machine.

So, give yourself a pat on the back. We've come a long way. And we are getting the fame that we crave.

Now, get back to work. We still have lots to do.

All this stuff is great but...

[RiotNrrd]

I think that Rob and the gang have done an incredible job keeping us up to date on what's been happening at the various trade shows. For someone who can't be there, it is a real blessing. However, I cannot help but point out one piece of news that you guys seemed to have left out this year. The coverage was great, but there's one important thing that has been on the minds of geeks everywhere - which RedHat employee got to sleep with Mae Ling Mack this year?

Re:Wish I could've been there...

[Evelyn Mitchell]

There are rumors of an Expo in Colorado next year.

One Recommendation Though

[cybrthng]

My biggest recommendation is. KEEP SOMEONE in the office :) It was pretty dissapointing to only have 1-2 new articles a day, the server crash and images not show up for almost a week.

I know being "Slashdot" is fun, but like any business you have to have someone around to run the darn thing. Remotely Working works for reading emails and stuff, but you can't expect a server to run by itself or to be able to fix problems remotely.

other then that, congrats on the expo! wish i could have been there to see it, but alas. i was working

Re:Hypocrisy from ESR

[IntlHarvester]

ZDNN: So when will you consider that you've 'won'?

Well, when Linux's server market share goes over fifty per cent -- or when Microsoft's stock price crashes, whichever comes first. And again let me interpret that: I'm not saying that Microsoft's stock price crashing is the goal, but when it does, the resistance to doing things right goes away.

We're not taking seats away from Unix, and we're not particularly interested in taking seats away from Unix. Most of the surveys show we're taking seats away from NT -- and I believe Novell has taken a big hit. But we're not killing Solaris. That's OK -- we don't want to kill Solaris.

Since when does Microsoft's stock price have anything to do with the technical goals of Linux? Does RedHat's fat stock increase "resistance" to commercial Unix?

Also, "We're not taking seats away from Unix" !?
The hell you're not. How ESR belives that a free unix is not going to take seats away from $$Unix is beyond me.

"We don't want to kill Solaris" - I thought that creating an Open Source clone of Solaris was pretty much the primary design goal of Linux.



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Taking the /. crew to task

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, at least one media outlet (CNN?) complained about the behaviour of the Slashdotters, who appeared to be more engrossed in a Nerf shootout than in their interview. Sorry, guys, when you're on the exhibit floor, you are representatives of the developer/OSS/free software community whether you like it or not. There is a difference between childlike mirth and childlike rudeness and inattentiveness. By all means, cultivate the former, but save the latter for the after-party.

My little bit o' /. fame

[John Whorfin]

Rob shot me with a nerf dart!

Ok, I think it was a nerf dart...

...that's really all I have to say...

...I need a life.

Re:Linux and Solaris

[IntlHarvester]

Well, Linux might not be competitive with Sun/Solaris server systems yet, but it Linux on commodity x86 systems certainly competes favorably with Sun's (and HP, IBM, etc.) traditional Unix workstation business. SGI has figured this out, which is why they're moving away from Irix/MIPS workstations and towards Linux/x86.

In fact, I would guess that most real Linux desktop deployments (aka real work, and not futzing with HTTP/MP3/IRC) are at the expense of a commercial Unix vendor, and not at the expense of Windows NT.
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