LInuxWorld: Invasion of the suits – Linux gets serious at London expo

“At least one of the problems with getting Linux into the
corporate world is image. What pinstriped, white-shirted,
blue-tied, well coiffed, city type would get involved with an OS
and related software whose advocates and developers look like a
bunch of bearded, long-haired, jeans and T-shirt clad,
unreconstructed hippies?”

“That stereotyped image of the Linux brigade was epitomized June
1 and 2 at Linux Expo 2000 in London by Alan Cox, one of the Linux
world’s gods. As the first speaker, he appeared for all the world
as if he’d stepped out of a ’60s time warp….”

“The conference may have had an overwhelming IBM feel and look
but, as IBM European marketing manager Adam Jollans explains, looks
can be deceiving. “As far as IBM not being the long-haired,
bearded, anarchist, hippie stereotype you’d think of being involved
in Linux, they’re there,” he says. “They’re just hidden inside the
development labs. And they’re the people who actually, in the
backroom, have done the work like developing Linux for the System
390, developing the first version of Db2 for Linux without their
bosses knowing and then suddenly we’ve picked up on them.”

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