“Anyone who had doubts about Linux being for real should have
stopped by the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo this week in San
Jose.
The Linux operating system, an open-source free alternative to
proprietary server software such as Unix (from Sun [SUNW], H-P
[HWP], IBM [IBM] and others) and Microsoft (MSFT) Windows NT, has
become a credible market player. Now it even has a trade show to
prove it.
A survey of the conference brochure shows some wealthy sponsors,
as does the show floor, where Compaq (CPQ), Oracle (ORCL), IBM,
Sun, Caldera, Sybase (SYBS) and Hewlett-Packard all rented sizable
turf space for their booths.”
“Attendance at the keynote session on Tuesday, headlined by
Linus Torvalds, the original programmer responsible for the
operating system’s core, or ‘kernel,’ apparently beat all IDG
conference records — including the recent Macworld Expo keynote
delivered by Apple’s (AAPL) charismatic cult leader, ‘interim’ CEO
Steve Jobs.”