“First, a trade show like LWE is about as close the classic
1930’s science fiction vision of the future as anything we humans
have created. Everything is larger and brighter than it has to be,
and it all has an undeniable sameness and an unmistakable, almost
creepy Star-Trek-esque “this close to perfect” quality–the
décor, the people, the food in the press lounge, the hotel
room, everything. The people not only dress according to their part
in our little play (corporate types in the logoed polo shirts and
khakis, hackers and most of the attendees in T-shirts and jeans),
but they largely stick to the same unwritten set of speaking
points. I heard so many companies say nearly identical things over
the last three days that I almost wondered a few times if I had
accidentally scheduled two appointments with the same person
without either of us realizing it.”
“And then there were the rumors. If every one I heard was true,
there would be almost no companies left for next August’s LWE, as
they all would have folded, left the Linux business, or bought each
other out. There are always rumors at shows, of course, but this
LWE was a new high in rumor-to-exhibitor ratio, at least in my
experience.”
…”Which leads me to a confession of sorts: I’ve long been one
of those people who thought the “traditional Linux community” and
the “corporate set” would never really get along. I knew there
would be exceptions here and there, those little pockets of
civility and enlightened self interest that seemingly proved they
could get along, but I’ve always had a nagging suspicion that about
the best we could hope for was that each camp would do their own
thing without trying to inflict bodily harm on anyone from the
other side. I’m delighted to say that I now have a much cheerier
view of the situation, and I think we should all be optimistic
about what the future has in store now that we’ve turned a very
difficult perceptual corner.”
…”In fact, I honestly believe that a decade from now the
conventional wisdom will say that it was around mid- to late-’00
and the time of the infamous “dot com crash” that the entire
computer industry changed forever, since that was when the open
source community and the corporate world not only figured out they
could work together and better accomplish their respective goals,
but equally important, they decided they wanted to do so.”