Byte.com: Big Blue Penguins At LinuxWorld

“Unlike last year’s edition, LWE seemed to be hopping in ways
unlike other computer-industry trade shows held in that venue. I
took along a friend who’s been in the trade show business for more
than a decade, but never to the LWE. I heard her explanation of the
show, and as John Lennon once sang, I fell into a dream.”

“The Dream: a trade show in New York in January with hardly any
sales personnel, their eyes reddened with that look of “if I don’t
make quota this month, I’m doomed;” fewer than three mindless booth
babes — total; no one blocking the aisles with a stack of flyers
held in the left arm making it impossible to pass without grabbing
one. Instead, there were coders, hackers, engineers, their
families, start-ups, and a handful of really large organizations
permeated the landscape.”

“IBM was one of them. In fact, instead of Linus Torvalds on the
stage promoting Linux at the event’s initial keynote, it was none
other than the president and CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano. My initial
reaction, after years of IBM-loathing, was to consider who had let
the fox into the hen house. Getting up on stage for keynotes is
clearly something that Torvalds doesn’t like to do, no matter how
fawning the audience. But presidents of IBM divisions do. Instead,
Linus was milling through the crowds.”

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