didja know Compaq helped Linux out? look for Compaq maybe near the Linux booth at Comdex..interesting..........
"Red Hat Software Inc., a closely held company that sells a packaged version of the otherwise-free Linux along with technical support, will be one of several Linux-based companies at the show. Red Hat got investments from Compaq Computer Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp. and Intel Corp."
entire article here:
Comdex Tech Show Features 'Goliath' Gates vs Linux's 'David'
Chicago, April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates will open the Comdex computer trade show Monday in Chicago in what some call a ''David vs. Goliath'' confrontation between Gates's ubiquitous Windows computer operating system and the upstart Linux software that's gaining converts.
The Comdex/Spring, Windows World show is expected to draw about 80,000 people and 500 companies and exhibitors to the lakefront's McCormick Place convention center. Special pavilions will address the Year 2000 computer problem, Microsoft's new Windows 2000 operating system, Linux software, as well as products in mobile computing and wireless telecommunications.
The high point of the four-day show may be the first two hours, when Gates unveils the final test version of Windows 2000 before an audience of about 4,000. Later that morning, the developer of Linux, Linus Torvalds, will hold court with his growing legion of believers.
''This is a David and Goliath story, a battle of the operating systems,'' said Bob Bierman, general manager for the show.
Linux, developed in 1991 by Torvalds, then a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland, is considered a more stable version of the older Unix computer operating systems. It has 10 million users and accounted for more than 17 percent of all computer server operating system shipments last year, according to researcher International Data Corp.
Threat
In an internal memo in November, Microsoft described Linux, the fastest growing operating system last year, as posing a ''significant'' revenue threat to its Windows NT system, which runs high-speed corporate computers.
Bierman said there are no plans for Gates and Torvalds to meet. But ''Oh man, with all the noise and the buzz about Linux, that would be something,'' he said.
Monday evening, Richard Belluzzo, chairman and chief executive of Silicon Graphics Inc., will talk about the need for complicated technology to be easier to use.
Rick Roscitt, executive vice president of AT&T Corp., is set to speak Tuesday morning about electronic commerce. Wednesday morning, William Melton, chairman and chief executive of CyberCash Inc., will discuss money on the Internet.
Windows 2000, formerly known as Windows NT, is Microsoft's most ambitious move into the corporate networking market, where is will compete with Novell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, said it will ship the final product in the second half of this year.
Religious Fervor
Jim Ewel, director of marketing for Windows 2000 server, said Gates not only will talk about the new software, but also demonstrate hand-held computing devices that use a slimmed-down version of Windows.
At last Spring's Comdex, Gate's made headlines when, while demonstrating a test version of Windows 98, the program crashed.
As for Linux, Ewel said, ''There is a certain religious fervor among its followers, but it has a long way to go before it can provide the degree of user friendliness that people expect.''
***Red Hat Software Inc., a closely held company that sells a packaged version of the otherwise-free Linux along with technical support, will be one of several Linux-based companies at the show. Red Hat got investments from Compaq Computer Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp. and Intel Corp.***
''We appreciate the David and Goliath comparison, but it's too soon to compare Microsoft to David, even though they have less developers,'' said Paul McNamara, vice president of business development at Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat.
Tens of thousands of computer programmers worldwide have downloaded the free Linux software and its underlying source-code and have debugged and tweaked it over the years.
Microsoft, for the most part, has kept a tight grip on its source code, but it may be rethinking that strategy to battle Linux and mollify federal prosecutors, to preempt penalties that could be sought if it loses its landmark antitrust trial.
''Microsoft is looking at Linux as a serious threat to its Windows NT software,'' said Thomas Hensel, an Everen Securities analyst in Chicago, who rates Microsoft a ''buy.''
Comdex runs though Thursday and is the second largest such show behind the Las Vegas Comdex held in the fall. Comdex is sponsored by Ziff-Davis Inc., which publishes computer-related magazines and is a unit of Tokyo-based Softbank Corp.
Apr/18/1999 10:03
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