This is the final week of preparations before the fourth LinuxWorld Conference and Expo gets underway. At least it is as I write this column; you won't read this until after the expo has begun. As a matter of fact, this column will appear mere hours before I begin my stint at the
LinuxWorld booth. Please stop by and say hello if you get a chance.
The level of activity leading up to this show is like nothing I've experienced. Even though the third LinuxWorld Expo in New York City drew 20,000 people, the buzz leading up to that show never approached the din prior to this one. In NYC, my spiritual advisor/fitness trainer and I had time to go sight-seeing in Central Park and Times Square. This time
around I don't have a spare half hour anywhere on my schedule.
Is it the approach of the 2.4 kernel that has caused the hype? The keynote by Michael Dell? Caldera's acquisition of SCO's Unix offerings and professional services division? Or is it something else entirely? I'm certainly at a loss to explain what is driving the
excitement, but I'm here to tell you that it's real. If you've been disheartened by falling share prices of various Linux firms, don't be. The Expo clearly signals that the
Linux boom continues.
Here is another data point. In NYC, I had a single one-on-one interview. That was with Sun Microsystems. This time I'll meet with Sun again, along with Borland/Inprise, Covalent, MandrakeSoft, AMD, Linuxcare, and Chilliware. That schedule gives me a great
opportunity to hear personally what is happening with some important vendors, but it also makes a deep impact on my calendar. I stopped booking appointments almost two weeks
ago, and not a day has gone by since that I haven't been asked by four, five, or even more vendors to meet with them during the show.
I guess I shouldn't feel special; everyone else I know has been bombarded with requests as well. The Expo has already announced that it's sold all its floor space for this show, and it's scheduling next year's West Coast event in San Francisco -- the show has simply outgrown its original home in San Jose, Calif. When you also recall that this past February's show was held in New York City instead of the planned Washington, D.C., venue due to space considerations, you can see that the world of Linux is expanding almost so quickly that the Expo organizes can barely keep up.
What the Dell is going on here?
Michael Dell, giving the opening-day keynote at LWCE? A recent cover of Linux Magazine asked the appropriate question: what's Dell got to do with it? I couldn't have
put it better myself. Dell the man and Dell the company are the most loyal supporters of Wintel (Windows and Intel) that I'm aware of in the industry. The rest of the world has
started using AMD chips, but not Dell. Last year, Dell blamed supply problems at Intel for slowing sales, but still it wouldn't use AMD. Compaq, IBM, Gateway, and many others have long since given up the notion of Intel only inside their boxes. But not Dell.
Dell still shuns AMD. And when Bill Gates appeared before the Senate Banking Committee a year or two ago, before the antitrust trial began in earnest, who was it
he asked to come to D.C. with him and speak on his behalf? Michael Dell, defender of the Microsoft way.
So in my mind, the big question about this summer's Expo still remains: why is Michael Dell the opening keynote speaker? Is there some top-secret announcement coming? Is Dell Computer going to start loading Linux on all its desktop and laptop machines?
Is it going to announce a major partnership with Red Hat, SuSE, or someone else?
There are a few whispered rumors I've heard on the street here in Austin, Texas. By the time you read this, however, they may no longer have to be whispered. But whispered or
shouted, they are unsubstantiated and shouldn't be given any more credence than that suggests.
First, there really is a Linux movement underway at Dell. Dell is getting very serious about Linux on its servers. Perhaps it is the lure of 2.4 SMP performance,
perhaps it is something else. But there is serious hush-hush work happening today in that arena.
Second, Dell and other manufacturers may be afraid to fully embrace Linux for desktop and laptop use, because of potential legal problems based on software patents. Remember the Halloween documents? (See Resources for a link if you don't.) This rumor, if true, would confirm that Microsoft has begun to use the specter of patents as FUD to stop the Linux tsunami.
If Michael Dell plans to announce expanded availability of Linux across the Dell product line, there are plenty of Linuxless models for him to start with. Looking through
the latest (August 2000) catalog from Dell, Linux is mentioned as on option only
on PowerEdge servers, two Precision Workstation models, and two OptiPlex desktop models. There is no mention at all of the laptops that Dell announced at the NYC Expo would come preloaded with Linux. I'm not saying that you can't get them, I'm just noting that, if you can, it seems you have to know that in advance.
When I checked the Dell Website (see Resources for a link), I found that Linux is almost ignored in the Home and Home Business category. A search for Linux from that page yielded only a single hit, and that to a year-old page of general information about Linux. Dell does not appear to see Linux as a fit for that type of user. From the Small Business page, a similar search returned 23 hits, including links to the Linux laptops, as well as to the aforementioned servers, workstations, and desktops. That's fine, I suppose, but it's not obvious from the main page. You have to dig to find Linux.
All of which leaves me with a great deal of curiosity about why Michael Dell is giving the keynote to begin with, and also what he will have to say.
Free as in water
Ransom Love's keynote on the second day will also draw a lot of attention, especially in the wake of Caldera's announcement that it will purchase SCO's Unix offerings and support services. Caldera will take over SCO's OpenServer and UnixWare products and all
the support for them. In return, SCO will receive cash and a 28 percent holding in Caldera.
The deal takes a load off of SCO's shoulders, as its Unix offerings have suffered with the growth of the Linux and free Unix market. SCO is now free to focus on Tarantella, a product which makes applications from Unix, Linux, or Windows available to users across a network. The deal also gives Caldera products to fit all levels of an enterprise, from the desktop to Unix mainframes.
The unifying theme on both sides of the deal appears to be business on the Internet. Tarantella is clearly and exclusively an Internet play. Caldera, according to Love, is also poised to become the first global provider of operating system platforms,
from thin clients to mainframes, that all share a set of APIs. There will also be shared support and training services for all users of all Caldera's Linux distribution.
Love says that Caldera will offer customers access to the source code that it owns for all its products, but that not all of the code will be licensed under the GPL. Some products will be covered by a BSD-style license, others by other existing licenses. For some products, ownership of the code will stay with Caldera, even though access to the source
code is available. This is a kind of open source situation, though not one that fits the traditional "free as in speech" or "free as in beer" models.
Love spoke of the new model with a new metaphor: free (or not free) as in water. Everyone can get free water, Love noted, but sometimes it makes more sense to buy bottled water.
The question here, of course, is whether this mix of Unix and Linux will produce something hot, like water for chocolate, or something which simply cannot mix, like oil and water.
Booth duty
Of course, one-on-ones and keynotes don't make up the entire scene at LWCE. There will be dozens of sessions going on each day, the exhibition floor will be packed with both
attendees and vendors, and companies will announce new products and services in press meetings daily.
I'm actually looking forward to my booth duty. It's fun to meet and greet the public, at least for an hour or so. I guess it could wear you down if you had to do it all day long. I'm also looking forward to watching Nick Petreley's Geek Bowl, which promises to be a lively and entertaining event.
In addition to seeing Nick, I'll get some face time with the editorial staff at LinuxWorld: Kathy Badertscher, John Pancharian, Rawn Shaw, and a new member of the crew, Barry Harris. We had a super time getting together in New York at the last show.
I also hope to run into folks like Dave Whitinger, founder of Linux Today; Roblimo, editor at Slashdot; Andrew Leonard, the very literate voice of open source at Salon; James Hills, the game reviewer; Evan Leibovitch of the Linux Professional Institute and Ziff-Davis; Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News;
and many others. Truth be told, that's the part of the show I always enjoy most, meeting and spending time with people interested in Linux.
Resources
