– by Robin Miller –
After LinuxWorld in New York last week, I am wondering if big-time Linux shows are still needed. Wouldn’t companies interested in promoting Linux products and services (including NewsForge owner VA Linux) be better off spending their time and money on more general computer and Internet shows than at events devoted strictly to Linux?Although representatives of IDG, the company behind LinuxWorld, kept telling me the show drew “over 20,000 people,” attendance felt thinner than that to me. There wasn’t the same “hubbub” feel I got from LinuxWorld in San Jose last summer or last winter’s one in New York. This show had more and slicker corporate displays, and more people than ever in corporate uniform shirts manning and womanning those displays, but there was less excitement in the air than I felt at previous shows.

I was not the only one who felt this way. A young Gnome booth person said, “It seems like we’re seeing mostly people wearing ‘exhibitor’ badges come to our booth, not so many who are just here to see the show.”

At the same time, there is growing interest in Linux among “mainstream” computer users. I went to a small, regional computer trade show in Tampa, Florida, a few months ago, and the most popular booth in the place was a tiny thing put together by a local Linux Users Group. Their booth was tiny, lacked professional signage, and generally looked like it was put together in a few hours by a group of volunteer hackers — which it was. All it offered was some people (not dressed in corporate garb) who could answer questions about Linux, and some giveaway install CDs donated by several distro publishers. But that was all it took, at a small-time local computer show, to draw an enthusiastic crowd eager to learn more about Linux.

The show’s promoter has invited the LUG back to his next show, and has asked them if they could contact any of the Linux companies that might want to have paid displays. I think at least one or two of them should have small presences there. (I know this is where I would be putting my efforts if I was a Linux company marketing person.)

I can understand why VA, Red Hat, and other Linux companies need to have major presences at Linux-specific shows; they need to “show the flag” to “the community.” IBM, Dell, Compaq, and other companies just moving into Linux surely feel they must do the same. But I don’t think “the community” is overly impressed with big displays and banners. I think “the community” would be just as impressed with small, humble lounge areas where they could meet casually with the vendors’ engineers and programmers, and “the community” would just as soon spend its time in tech sessions as wandering around a trade show floor dominated by sales and marketing people.

There are plenty of computer industry trade shows with bigger attendance than any Linux show, where hoopla is well-received. Last year at Internet World, Red Hat had a comparatively small, rather hidden booth — and it was jammed with people begging for demo CDs. This was fine Linux evangelism. There are ISPcons and many other expos and conferences attended by potential Linux hardware and software users, all of which could benefit from increased Linux presences — and from which Linux companies could benefit by attending.

Perhaps it’s time to scale the Linux-specific shows back a bit; to turn more of them into developers’ conferences and LUGfest-style meetings, and to send the giant corporate displays with “Linux” in 10-foot letters on them to other shows where Linux is still new and exciting — or at least isn’t being featured in every single booth space.

The funny thing is, I don’t believe the lack of need for giant “Linux only” trade shows means Linux is a failure. Rather, it’s an indication of Linux success. Linux is no longer an “upstart” or “alternative” operating system, but part of the mainstream, and those who are selling Linux products and services should not be afraid to go forth into the mainstream computing world, with their heads high, to compete against the rest of the world head-to-head, instead of confining themselves to a Linux ghetto inhabited primarily by people who already believe in the cause.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

From LinuxGram: “The psychological warfare has started already.

Monday, February 5, Sun is supposed to wade into the web services arena with a reportedly thin and vaporous scheme that it’s code
named Jupiter and refers to generically as Smart Services (CSN No 386, 385).

Microsoft, which already has its own confusing and vaporous web services scheme called .NET, a long-term strategy that it’s organizing
the whole company behind, will be lying in wait in the bushes for Sun to make its appearance armed with cudgels to beat Jupiter to a pulp.

We are after all talking about the future of the Internet here, the next shift in the software business – and, oh yes, right, the future of the two
combatants as well so it looks like it’s going to full-scale war.”

“MandrakeSoft swears it’s not getting out of the Linux distribution business,” reports LinuxGram, “but has decided its future lies in applying open source
methodology to education.

Once again now: Mandrake’s not getting out of the Linux distribution business. CIO John Corey, better known by the handle “Baker,” says
the French company’s just not expecting to earn a living off it any more, which is probably a good idea since things have been mighty thin.

So the company just bought Coursemetric Corporation on undisclosed terms. Coursemetric has nothing at all to do with Linux. It’s a
Berkeley, California web operation that specializes in aggregating input from university students, instructors and administrators and rating
different schools and individual courses.”

“Corel chief Derek Burney was hoping to clinch the anticipated spin-off of Corel’s Linux operation in time to trumpet it this week at
LinuxWorld in New York. Alas, the deal hasn’t come off yet and Burney said Thursday morning that it could be another month in the making.

It has been widely reported that Corel will be spinning the unprofitable unit out into a new company being set up by the New York-based
venture capitalist Linux Global Partners, which has interests in swat of small Linux concerns.

Burney said last week that there has been internal fear that negative market reaction could kill the deal.” From LinuxGram.

Kelly McNeill of OSOpinion writes “When UNIX was developed three decades ago, it became more widespread than anyone expected. A large portion of that success came from the fact that the fundamentals of UNIX were based on computer science research of that time. Everyone says UNIX was great because it was portable, or it was great because of its pipes, etc. However, nearly every significant piece of UNIX had been explored in other OSes or published in research papers prior to its incorporation in UNIX as we know it. Looking at the primary three operating systems today from the perspective of what they do have, each of them looks modern. However, what stands out from these various laundry lists of the technologies these OSes offer is how different the lists are.”

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Submitted by Ray Sanders.

-gnuchris- writes “One of the really nice things about going to LinuxWorld Expo last week was meeting gnu/linux users and developers from around the world. It is a quick reminder of how big this whole gnu/linux thing is, and at the same time, how communal we all are. I was fortunate enough to interview one of the real gems of the international gnu/linux security community, Renato Murilo Langona, of Linux Security Brazil. Linux Security Brazil is a portuguese equivalent to LinuxLock, and Renato is excited to be giving back to the community.

This interview can be found Here“

From FairfaxIT: This is one of those ‘why didn’t they think of it sooner’ ideas: “Juno said that if the computers of all of its active free subscriber base were simultaneously working on a single computational
problem, they would together represent the world’s fastest supercomputer, measured in terms of aggregate instructions per second.”

Servers and workstations are still departing vendors’ shelves at a nice clip, reports CNET.

From FairfaxIT: “AT NEC there is a rather unusual phenomenon in the 3G System design team. During the past 12 months, the number of women
recruited outnumber the men. At ninemsn, there is an equal number of men and women working in its Web development area.

These are technical areas, which is exactly what young women entering universities are avoiding in droves. Women account for
only 20 per cent of enrolments in IT courses nationwide and this is decreasing.

But ask just about any woman working within the IT industry about their level of job satisfaction and you get the feeling they think
they have discovered the world’s best kept secret.”