CHICAGO -- A last-minute room change left some unable to squeeze into the
standing-room-only space, but Linux creator Linus Torvalds' show still
managed to go on.
Torvalds keynoted the Linux Global Summit at Comdex/Spring here a half hour
after Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates opened the show in a much larger
auditorium. While Gates, like Torvalds, addressed an overflow crowd, the two
presentations couldn't have been more different in style and substance.
Torvalds, who kept the sweltering crowd attentive by entertaining audience
questions and concerns throughout his hour-long presentation, seemed more
like the Gates of years ago than did Gates himself.
Greeted by a standing ovation, Torvalds calmed users' concerns about
potential splintering of "the little OS that could." Torvalds also managed
to throw in a few Microsoft slams, keeping the Linux faithful happy. When
the lights temporarily went out, Torvalds wondered aloud, "What's going on
in this place? The whole show floor is controlled by Microsoft."
No blue screen this year
Gates' keynote proceeded comparatively smoothly. Gates opened by showing a
video of last year's Spring Comdex address, which was plagued by a blue
screen in the midst of a Windows 98 USB (Universal Serial Bus) demo. This
year, a demo of a demo of a beta release of Windows 2000's Plug and Play USB
support went on without a hitch.
Gates also introduced a new Titanium mouse, called the IntelliPoint Explorer
mouse, which the company plans to ship in September. The latest Microsoft
mouse replaces the open case full of moving parts with a closed case design
using an integrated optical sensor, eliminating the need for a mousepad. He
also showed a forthcoming Natural keyboard under development at Microsoft
that will include two USB ports as part of its design.
Gates spent most of his keynote reiterating the company's vision for its
various Windows platforms, including Embedded Windows, Windows CE, Windows
98 and Windows 2000. He officially announced Microsoft's Corporate Preview
Program for Windows 2000 Beta 3, which is due to begin shipping to OEMs and
testers next week.
Calling Windows 2000 "the biggest investment we ever made in a single piece
of software," Gates said Beta 3 will be supported by more than 20 OEMs,
100,000 channel partners, thousands of ISVs and independent hardware
vendors, 140,000 developers and more than 500,000 customers.
Insuring that the 'splinter heals'
Torvalds' keynote was a bit less predictable, even though he focused
primarily on Linux's history and its well-established challenges. Like the
Gates of old, Torvalds sparred with his audience and played up his image as
a developer's developer.
When asked about his views on Java, Torvalds noted that he no longer is
really excited about Java. At first, "I bought into the hype," he
acknowledged. "But now I'm fairly down on it because of the way Sun
[Microsystems Inc. ] mishandled it," resulting in the current fragmentation
of Java implementations from Sun, IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Torvalds deflected concerns about the potential for similar fragmentation in
the Linux space, noting that the copyright/license for Linux requires anyone
who modifies the source code to make changes available to others under the
same license.
"This insures that the splinter 'heals'," he quipped.
Torvalds added that the Internet development paradigm under which Linux has
evolved has made it less likely to splinter, as well. Different programmers
are working on different pieces of the OS. Linux has been ported to a
variety of form factors, from the Palm Pilot to supercomputers, Torvalds
said. Some developers, like Torvalds, are working on the kernel; others are
more focused on user-space issues. He did acknowledge that more work needs
to be done to make Linux a "serious mom and pop contender on the desktop,"
but that, too, is possible in two to three more years, Torvalds predicted.
A team working under non-disclosure is working on porting Linux to Intel
Corp.'s forthcoming Merced, Torvalds said, so that a Merced-optimized
version of Linux will be available the day the chip ships.
"Merced is really just more of the same," Torvalds was quick to add. "Linux
has been 64-bit for a long time. It can run on Alpha or UltraSPARC today.
The main interesting parts are things like the compiler technology and
that's something that Intel is driving."
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