Remembering the Linux Business Expo Fall 1999
by
Abhijeet Chavan
In April 1999, I spent a day at Comdex Spring 1999 in Chicago. At the Chicago Comdex, a collection of booths housing Linux businesses made up the Linux Pavilion within Comdex's main exhibit floor. Just eight months later, at the Fall 1999 Comdex in Las Vegas , Linux businesses had their own event - the Linux Business Expo (LBE). I attended the first two days at Comdex Fall 1999, billed as "the technology event for the new e-conomy" and spent a large part of my time there at the LBE.
On the morning of Monday, November 15th, I arrived at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) where I registered for the Comdex and LBE exhibits. After flipping through two 250-page conference and exhibit guides to Comdex, I studied the 56-page guide to the LBE and discovered that it was being held in the Las Vegas Hilton which is right next to the LVCC. As I walked away from Comdex's main exhibit floor it seemed to me that I was one of the few headed that way; I was going against the heavy traffic of people headed for the main Comdex exhibits. But a Linux user is perfectly happy going against the traffic. After walking across a "skywalk", down an escalator, and across a street I finally arrived at the building where the LBE was being held. If it wasn't for the LBE signs I would have been suspicious that the Comdex organizers were trying to keep the Linux folks hidden away from the crowds attending the main exhibits.
The LBE exhibit floor was several times larger than that of the Linux Pavilion I had seen at Comdex in April 1999. The floor was not yet open to the public but right next to the entrance were rows of computers available to attendees to check email and browse the Web. This bank of computers, called the "Email Garden" was sponsored by VA Linux Systems. I knew that VA Linux Systems sold workstations and servers pre-configured with Linux but my impression was that they were targeting the high-end workstation and server market and not necessarily the casual home user. But here at the Email Garden where each machine had a small card attached to it with specifications and price, I found several models that are probably aimed at the home user.
One of the often-repeated criticisms of Linux is that while it may be a good operating system (OS) for servers, it is not yet suitable for the average user's general computing needs. The Email Garden was a great opportunity to demonstrate what Linux can do as a "desktop" OS by letting LBE attendees try it for themselves. However, I was disappointed with choice and configuration of the graphical desktop environment used for the Email Garden computers. Either KDE or GNOME - two versatile desktop environments available for Linux - set up to mimic a Windows-like look-and-feel, might have been more intuitive for Windows users strolling over to see what Linux was all about. VA Linux Systems had chosen a graphical environment that resembled the AfterStep or WindowMaker "window managers". Windows users trying to use these computers faced an unfamiliar graphical interface. This was not the best way to win customers over from the Windows camp.The desktop environment wasn't configured correctly either. On a couple of computers that I tried to use, I couldn't get Netscape to run by clicking on the Netscape icon. I had to resort to opening a "xterm" window and typing in the command to run Netscape on the command line. In Netscape, the "backspace" and "delete" keys would not work in forms on web pages and I had to use "Control-H" to backspace. To be fair, this was the morning of Day One at LBE so it is possible that VA Linux System had someone iron out the wrinkles later. That morning however, Linux probably lost a few potential users; I found several attendees stare, click around the unfamiliar interface, and then walk away looking confused.
I went away to attend a keynote speech by Bob Young of RedHat Inc. and when I came back to the LBE the exhibition floor had been opened to the public. Corel Corp. was going to launch their own Linux distribution at the LBE that day so I headed to the structure that was Corel's booth. This structure included a small presentation space with a large display and chairs. I was surprised to see that all the chairs were already taken.
The launch began with a well-made commercial that was played on the display. To the beat of a driving soundtrack, images of people involved in activities like sky-diving, bungee-jumping, and skate-boarding faded into each other superimposed with words such as "radical", "powerful" and "open." The camera panned back to reveal a bunch of monitors and the famous Linux mascot, Tux the Penguin, sitting in front of them. The camera zoomed in on Tux's face smiling a contented smile as a slogan was flashed on the screen: "Live Linux, Breathe Freely."
The launch continued with a glimpse of "Corel Linux OS" as the product is called and was followed by a Q&A session. I came back later for the first complete public demonstration of this new Linux distribution. The person giving the demo asked for a volunteer from the audience who had never installed any operating system before to come up and install Corel Linux OS. A smart way to focus attention on what Corel thinks will be the strength of this distribution - user-friendliness. A demonstration of the pre-configured desktop that makes it easy to mount floppies and CDROMs, and the very "Windows-like" Network Neighborhood were impressive. From what I had seen, Corel seems to have worked hard to make it easier for those new to Linux. Reviews and sales in the upcoming months will tell us if they were successful.
Appropriately enough, at the heart of the LBE exhibit floor, surrounded by all the business booths, were two Linux community-related booths. Linux Today was webcasting live and they had scheduled interviews with Linux luminaries. Slashdot had set up bean-bags and laptops for browsing the web while a large screen displayed the Slashdot website as part of the Andover.Net booth. Off to one side were a series of smaller, similar looking booths with representatives from projects and organizations such as the Free Software Foundation, Gnome, KDE, The Linux Fund, and Linux.Com. These organizations, representing various aspects of the Linux community, were provided booths that were paid by Linux businesses such as Linux Mall. It is heartening to see that Linux businesses remember why they are in the Linux business in the first place and do their share to support the Linux community.
Anticipating the heavy turnout for Linus Torvalds' 5:30pm keynote that evening, I left the LBE at the Hilton, hurried over to the venue for the keynote - the ballroom at the Venetian Hotel. I thought I was being clever by getting there an hour early to occupy a front-row seat but the Comdex organizers had thought of everything. They sent me down to some sort of parking garage where everyone who wanted to attend Linus' keynote was asked to line up and wait. Counting the number of people who were already there I knew for certain that being in the front seats was out of question for me. The waiting space was filling up fast. Linus is popular!
All Comdex attendees get a credit-card sized badge to wear on their person so that the Comdex staff can see if you are registered to be there or not. When I walked into the LBE that morning, the LBE staff put a round yellow sticker on my badge to show that I had visited the LBE. While waiting in that line for Linus' keynote, I started scanning people's badges to see how many had attended the LBE and was surprised to discover that many did not have that yellow sticker. I spoke to a few people around me. Many of them hadn't used Linux. But here they were, waiting for an hour to hear a keynote by Linus Torvalds.
Finally we were let into the ballroom. The keynote began with a short, rehearsed speech by the President and CEO of ZD Events, Jason Chudnofsky and he introduced Jon "Maddog" Hall, Executive Director of Linux International. In contrast to Mr. Chudnofsky's dark suit, Maddog was wearing a white sweater and had his bag slung across his shoulder. He talked about how he first came across Linux and how it was different because it was "our operating system."
Then Linus came onstage and began his presentation. I am not going to describe his presentation here for a couple of reasons. First, the presentation is available online as streaming video so you can see it for yourself [*]. Second, paraphrasing Linus' keynote would take away something that was central to his keynote speech - Linus' personality. For someone who thinks of himself as only an engineer, Linus has a remarkable stage presence. Braiding together the technical, cultural, and the business aspects of Linux, he presented an appealing and impressive picture of Linux to the business community while still making long-time Linux fans stand up and cheer. He ended his keynote with a Q&A session - a feat of stage presence and command of the audience considering the large number of people in that ballroom. The keynote ended with a standing ovation.
Day Two. I decided that it was time to tear myself away from the LBE and spend some time at the main Comdex exhibits.
It was impossible to miss the large Microsoft area as I walked in through the South Hall entrance for Comdex. I had some questions about Windows 2000 so I stopped by the Windows 2000 booth. The Microsoft booths were designed so that attendees could gather around a monitor that hung above eye-level while the person giving the demonstration sat behind a computer and spoke to the crowd via a headset microphone. This was probably convenient to address a small crowd but was quite irritating, as an audience of one, to have a conversation with someone standing just 3 feet away but whose voice boomed out from a speaker over your head.
The Microsoft area also had a "Freedom To Innovate Network" booth with forms that you could fill out and sign to support Microsoft's point of view regarding the anti-trust lawsuit. According to Microsoft's website the Freedom to Innovate Network is a "non-partisan, grassroots network of citizens and businesses who have a stake in the success of Microsoft and the high-tech industry." I resisted the urge to stop and debate the exact meaning of the words "non-partisan" and "grassroots."
Windows NT Magazine was handing out free copies of their magazine. I was surprised to find that they have decided to change their name to "Windows 2000 Magazine" to keep up with Microsoft's new name for future versions of what is now called Windows NT. I realized it was a cheeky question but I couldn't resist asking it: "What are you going to do when Microsoft releases the next version of their OS called, say, Windows 2004?"
Moving beyond the Microsoft area I reached a vantage point that offered a spectacular view of the rest of the exhibit floor. It really brought home the point that Comdex, unlike the LBE in its current form and size, is too big to wander around. If you know what you are interested in, you can look up the 250-page Exhibits Guide, trace a route on a map of the floor, and try to navigate to the booth that interests you. But you have to be careful. Barkers lining the aisles and handing out standard freebies like evaluation CDs and t-shirts were not enough to attract attention to the different products. Many exhibitors had gone to extreme lengths and employed various gimmicks to be noticed which appears to be some sort of Comdex tradition. The Xerox booth was like a movie set for a sweeping Hollywood epic, complete with fake soaring Greek columns and representatives dressed in robes. A game show of some sort was in progress and people had lined up to participate. At another booth, an actor, dressed and acting like the Kramer character from the TV show "Seinfeld", was giving a presentation.
I was interested in digital cameras so I stopped by the Olympus booth. They had set up a small concert arena with chairs for attendees facing a stage. The seats were all taken and a thick crowd had gathered. Men and women in flashy costumes were dancing on the stage and singing the latest Ricky Martin hit. It was a couple of minutes before I realized that the lyrics had been changed - they were singing the praises of the new Olympus digital camera. The only words I could catch were "Olympus" and "digital." The rest of the information was lost in the noise of the entertainment.
Finally, it was time to leave Comdex but I decided to make one final visit to the LBE. I had noticed that Linux Mall was selling CDs of different distributions for $3.00 each and there were a couple of distributions that I wanted to try out. Linux Mall was one of those businesses that had sponsored booths for projects and organizations like Gnome, KDE, FSF, and others, so I felt I should purchase something from them.
The LBE was more crowded than the day before. The atmosphere was refreshingly different from Comdex. The Vegas-style shows and over-animated actors were missing. Maybe this will change next year as more Linux-related businesses show up at the next LBE and battle for our attention.
At the center of the floor, the Slashdot crew, lounging on bean bags, were making fun of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by coming up with crazy patent ideas while tossing plastic boomerangs to a group of people that had gathered around. The audience -some in business suits -looked partly amused and partly mystified as they tried to digest this curious mixture of thoughtful discussion and irreverent attitude.
A small crowd was buzzing around the Linux Mall tables and I had to wait my turn. As I waited I couldn't help noticing a man in a dark grey suit trying to decide which CD to buy.
"Do I need all of these?" the man asked, pointing to CDs of different distribitions.
"No, each one of these is a different distribution." replied the Linux Mall representative. " You only need one . . . unless you want to try all of them."
"What is a distribution?"
"Distributions are different flavors of Linux . . ."
I wondered how many people had asked that question already and how many would during the course of the LBE. The picture of this man in the dark grey suit - clearly a "corporate" type -buying a Linux CD reminded me of something that Jon "Maddog" Hall had said while introducing Linus Torvalds at Linus' keynote. Maddog said he had found an old slide from a Linux presentation he had prepared 5 years ago. The slide had only three words:
"Linux is inevitable."
* Streaming video of keynote speech by Linus
Torvalds:
http://daily.zdevents.com/comdex/fall99/webcast/
(Scroll down
halfway down the page for a link to the video)
Published December 14, 1999