This year's LinuxWorld Expo will feature exhibitions by former Linux critics Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, as well as from other corporate giants such as IBM, Dell, and Oracle, which shows exactly how far Linux has come from being a grassroots phenomenon to being a working component of many data centers. The Linux Expo began as a developer-focused convention and is now more ""business applications-focused,"" according to OSDN director of special projects Chris DiBona.
Today, Linux is competing with Unix and Microsoft Windows in the network server market, and Linux's lower cost is imbuing the software with a competitive edge. Still, Linux as an operating system represents less than 1 percent of all operating systems used for running servers; Linux revenue was $84 million in 2000, and $80 million in 2001, which are healthy numbers, says International Data (IDC) analyst Dan Kusnetzky, especially since Unix revenues are falling farther.
Although Linux
remains a difficult desktop device for non-technical computer
users, as
freeware it benefits from the support of the open source
community.
However, Linux creator Linus Torvalds has not given a keynote
address at
any Linux trade show in the last two years, as the operating
system is
increasingly moving away from the jeans and T-shirt crowd to one
dominated
by polo shirts and khakis.
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/3847040.htm)