Comdex Mid-Week Quickies

We're rolling around the middle of the week for Comdex, and thought maybe people would like to hear some of the news. Linus was awarded person of the year by PC Magazine. Here at the Andover.net booth we've been doing Install Races - 4 PM everyday. The winner for the week gets a Herman Miller Aeron Chair. Rob and I went to the Spencer Katt party on Monday night (Thanks Tim!) and had a good time - but the Post had a funny write-up about it. We had a good time there, unlike the Caldera party that we were locked out of and had to come back later after walking three miles. Grrr - we get that as well as listening to their audience scream "E-Business" to try to get t-shirts. Which is giving everyone migraines in a two hundred mile radius. Starlady has done some general Comdex write-ups, as well as Linux Biz Expo specific stuff. Apparently, Global Media won best Linux product of show for their "streaming product". One of the funniest parts of the show was the kid who mooned Bill Gates - Gates is just out of the picture. Oh, and on another note, CowboyNeal loves his Cyberlegs.

Comments

Some thoughts

[jd]

Hey! Why did Linus win the award? I mean, other than being a genuinely nice guy, a dedicated computer programmer, the mastermind behind one of the best (& most original) Operating Systems ever written, a key person at Transmeta, a major driving force behind the Open Source movement, and an international celebrity through his work.

Any brilliant-minded, emotionally-stable, obsessive with a streak of genius a parsec wide could do as well.

Seriously, though, Comdex is proving a landmard convention. There is a shift in attitude away from the corporate and towards the open, as demonstrated by the difference in reaction between Bill Gates' speech and Linus Torvalds'.

Once the dust has settled, and the history books are written in the mid to late 21st century, that may well be one of the most significant moments in the closing decade of the 20th century. It's a change from attitudes that have prevailed since the dawn of civilisation, that might (be it in the form of brute strength, or hard cash) makes right.

Of course, you could accuse me (probably correctly) for over-exagerating and being moronically pretentious. Go right ahead! I'm content to believe that this Comdex is as big a turning point as the British Peasent's Revolt, or the spreading of literacy from the priesthood to the commoner.