tlug: The View from the LINUX Community

["Stephen P. Casmar" <scasmar@example.com>]

--------------------------------------------------------
tlug note from "Stephen P. Casmar" <scasmar@example.com>
--------------------------------------------------------
UniForum '97 - 
                            The View from the LINUX Community

                            By Mark Bolzern, President, Work Group Solutions

                                  Reprinted from "WGS News", April 3, 1997
issue

                

                    UniForum Attendance overall was down but the Registered
& Paid
                    Tutorial Attendance as high as it has ever been. The
show attendance
                    being down was not surprising since the dates coincided
with CeBIT in
                    Europe, stealing the international audience, and
Internet World in Los
                    Angeles, stealing the people that are not aware of the
connection between
                    Unix, UniForum and the Internet. I think it is very
important for the
                    UniForum show to make a marketing issue out of the fact
that the
                    technology shown here is where the Internet came from
in the first place,
                    so that if people wish to understand the Internet,
UniForum is the best
                    show to attend. Perhaps even use "Internet" as part of
the name.

                    The absent traffic could have come to see us. But
despite this, it turned
                    out to be quite a decent show, with people coming at us
at just the right
                    rate. The Linux Pavilion did what it was supposed to
do, and drew people
                    through the other booths and show areas. They came to
us in droves at
                    times, and we were usually the busiest area on the
UniForum Show Floor.
                    Once again, although not as dominant as as at Usenix
(Newsletter #4
                    http://www.LinuxMall.com/announce.html) Linux was the
undisputed star
                    of the show. Linux was seen as "Where it is at". This
is the goal of Linux
                    International (http://www.LI.org) and also of the
LinuxMall
                    (http://www.LinuxMall.com) in setting up the Linux
Pavilion: to make the
                    industry see Linux for what it really is.

                    The Linux related companies that had booths were: Aspen
Systems &
                    Digital, InfoMagic, Linux Hardware Solutions, Linux
International, Linux
                    Journal (SSC) Linux Mall (WGS), Red Hat and SSC.

                    People from those companies along with some helpers
from Yggdrasil
                    staffed the LI booth, since neither I nor anyone else
had time to organize a
                    volunteer effort this time. Linux Related companies, VA
Research, Walnut
                    Creek, and O'Reilly were at UniForum, but chose not to
be a part of the
                    Linux Pavilion.

                    UniForum '97 Show Results, Linux = Windows NT X 3+
                    The result? Analysts from DataPro, IDC, and several
magazines made
                    statements like "Wow, we had no idea" and then
proceeded to decide that
                    they needed not just mentions of Linux, but full
reports and sections on it
                    in their studies. An analyst from IDC later stated to
me that they are now
                    including Linux Server and Linux Client as separate
items on their
                    surveys. I was also later told that initial response
would tend to support
                    the 6 Million Linux installations figure reported in
Newsletter #4. If true, it
                    means Linux already has more than 3 times the installed
user base that
                    Windows NT has. This includes a large and extremely
important group,
                    the college students who will be our next generation of
IS managers.

                    Linus Torvalds Receives Lifetime Achievement Award 
                    Linus received the UniForum "Lifetime Achievement
Award" presented
                    by Doug Michels, co-founder of SCO. Doug said that many
people
                    expected him to turn down the opportunity to present
the award, or to say
                    little when he did. He said that these people had him
all wrong, that this
                    was a special opportunity. Doug said he has been amazed
at the success
                    that Linux has had. Linux has rekindled the spirit and
energy that first got
                    him excited about Unix 20 years ago. The work of Linus
and the greater
                    Linux community has brought back a source base for real
experimentation
                    and innovation, something the computer industry badly
needs again. Doug
                    is proud of the selfless and true commitment that Linus
and the Linux
                    community have towards improvement of computing. Linus
has brought
                    the fun back in an otherwise static industry. He said
that he thinks Linux is
                    just what the world needs now.

                    Linus accepted the award by saying it belonged as much
to the hundreds
                    of other people that had contributed to Linux as it did
to him. He has the
                    honor of being the spider at the center of the
worldwide net that is creating
                    Linux. Linus also said that some of the Linux community
were in the
                    audience, and he thanked everyone involved for the
opportunity to accept
                    this award on their behalf.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent by: Steve Casmar   
E-Mail:  casmar@example.com   or   spcasmar@example.com
               scasmar@example.com    or   74014.431@example.com
	   casmar@example.com   or   steve@example.com
Home Pages: http://www.twics.com/~casmar/home.html
                   http://web.syr.edu/~spcasmar
PHONE:         (81) 423-62-1934         Snail: AIO Residence 102
CELLULAR:   (81) 30-499-1525         3-40-12 Momijigaoka
FAX:             (81) 423-65-0969         Fuchu-shi, Tokyo 183 Japan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
		PGP KeyID: EFA263BD
Fingerprint: DE C6 02 F7 9E BE F7 BF  DA D8 B0 CD FD 5E 2C 46
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
a word from the sponsor will appear below
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The TLUG mailing list is proudly sponsored by TWICS - Japan's First
Public-Access Internet System.  Now offering 20,000 yen/year flat
rate Internet access with no time charges.  Full line of corporate
Internet and intranet products are available.   info@example.com
Tel: 03-3351-5977   Fax: 03-3353-6096