“Next week, the long-haired, birkenstock-wearing geeks will be
discussing the future and doing deals with computer industry giants
like International Business Machines Corp. and Intel Corp., at the
first major trade show for Linux called LinuxWorld, at the San Jose
Convention Center.”
“In the past few months, momentum has been building as major
computer makers such as International Business Machines Corp.,
Hewlett-Packard Co., Silicon Graphics Inc. and Dell Computer Corp.
have all said they will offer Linux and support it, as an option to
their customers.”
“The group may have not gotten their refunds but they made their
point. It is nearly impossible to buy a personal computer with an
operating system other than Windows. Microsoft said that the users
must ask the PC makers for a refund, but PC makers ask for the
entire system back.”
“Still, this is the very fringe group. Linux may be making some
headway in the computing rooms of corporate users, but it is
definitely not in the mainstream yet. A group of linked personal
computers at a San Francisco Internet cafe called CoffeeNet may run
Linux, but typically, the only desktop applications for Linux are
e-mail and Web browsing.”