Linux Journal: FOSE: A Penguin’s Report from the Capital

“FOSE (pronounce the “E”, please) is a trade show dedicated to
informing government IT professionals. The 24th annual event took
place April 18-20 at the Convention Center in Washington, DC. Tim
Bogart invited me to attend the event–to cover the “Linux
invasion”. Tim is a member of the Northern Virginia Linux User’s
Group (NOVALUG), and played a key role along with Billy Ball in
bringing the first Linux Pavilion to FOSE . He convinced the show
coordinators to award NOVALUG a complimentary booth and that Linux
was worthy of pavilion space. While the pavilion was small compared
to the small cities put together by Microsoft, Apple and IBM, the
fact that Linux was there, it was visible and so many volunteers
donated their time to simply chat Linux, is what really matters.
Linux enjoys high visibility at most tradeshows, but in this case
it was long overdue and gave the feel of the early days, when Linux
wasn’t well represented. The folks from NOVALUG are trying to
change this, quite frankly, because too much money is
involved.”

“As Tim put it, “I know COMDEX is really important to a lot
of people, but FOSE is important to less people, who are
responsible for spending a lot more money.” The federal government,
the largest computer-related customer in the world, spends some $35
billion each year on hardware, software, support and so on.
And, according to numbers from FOSE, “spending by the federal
government on IT security is expected to reach almost $1 billion by
2005.” The question to answer: where does Linux come into play?
Currently, the Federal government is Microsoft’s most lucrative
customer. We all know how much the Fed likes to overspend. Who can
forget the $500 hammer, or how a certain president paid hundreds of
dollars for haircuts while aboard Air Force One? This want/need to
overspend certainly isn’t helping Linux any, as perceptions of
free/open-source software are still negative in many IT minds.
Still, having a Linux Pavilion at FOSE is a start, and hopefully
more and more government IT professionals will begin to pitch Linux
to their bosses.”

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