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Framingham, MASS. — The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo is turning heads nationwide, firmly establishing itself as the premiere event in the Linux community. More than 20,000 attendees and 200 exhibitors turned out for the show’s return to the San Jose Convention Center. A record-setter for the second straight time, the San Jose LinuxWorld Conference & Expo indicates a strong likelihood that this new attendance record will be surpassed at the January 2001, New York show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The Conference & Expo will mark the Linux community’s second visit to the Big Apple.
“From its launch in March, 1999 to the present,” said Charlie Greco, president and CEO, IDG World Expo, “LinuxWorld Conference & Expo is and continues to be the single largest event in the Linux community. The exponential growth of this event has led to the San Jose Convention Center no longer being large enough for the Linux community, and we have decided to move the next West Coast show to San Francisco.”
LinuxWorld highlights included keynote presentations by Michael Dell, president and CEO, Dell Computer Corporation, Ransom Love, president and chief executive officer of Caldera Systems, Inc., and Joel Birnbaum, chief scientist, Hewlett-Packard Company, the “Linux Geek Bowl”, and an executive roundtable discussion hosted by CNNfn anchor, Patricia Sabga.
One of the most highly anticipated announcements came when Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Red Hat Inc., Helix Code, Sun Microsystems Inc. and VA Linux Systems Inc. announced they have joined efforts to form the Gnome Foundation and extend the Gnome graphical user environment for Linux. The Linux industry views the Gnome Foundation as a direct competitor to Microsoft Corporation’s Windows and Office suite.
Helix Code Gnome software simplifies text interface and allows users to navigate Linux with a mouse, similar to Microsoft Corporation’s Windows Software.
Other major industry announcements included the following:
— America Online announced a plan to make its products available to users of the Linux operating system.
— Agenda Computing Inc. displayed a new electronic organizer called the VR3 that uses the Linux operating system.
— NeTraverse announced the October 2000 availability of the 2.0 release of its Win4Lin Desktop that allows Linux users to run Windows applications.
— Hewlett-Packard Company unveiled a number of products and services as part of a multi-OS strategy for HP-UX, 64-bit Windows 2000 and Linux.
— Corel Corporation introduced the second edition of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for Linux.
— Debian announced the release of Debian GNU/Linux (Potato) version 2.2.
IDG World Expo also announced that Debian is the recipient of the $25,000 IDG/Linus Torvalds Community Award. Since its conception in 1999, the award has granted over $100,000 to companies and organizations whose use of the Linux operating system involves a combination of both innovation and usefulness.
The next LinuxWorld Conference & Expo will be held in New York, NY, January 30 – February 2, 2001 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
IDG World Expo ( http://www.idgworldexpo.com ) produces world-class tradeshows, conferences, and events for emerging IT markets around the globe. As the leading IT event management company, IDG World Expo leverages its unsurpassed experience and knowledge of IT-focused events and conferences, enabling technology companies to capture the attention and loyalty of influential buyers.
IDG World Expo’s portfolio of conferences and events includes ASPWorld Conference & Expo, COMNET Conference & Expo, Internet Commerce Expo (ICe), LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Macworld Conference & Expo and Internet Entertainment Expo. IDG World Expo is a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the leading global provider of IT media, research, conferences and expositions.
IDG World Expo is a business unit of IDG, the world’s leading IT media, research and exposition company. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers and 4,000 book titles. IDG offers online users the largest network of technology-specific sites around the world through IDG.net ( http://www.idg.net ), which comprises more than 270 targeted web sites in 70 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 168 computer-related expositions worldwide and provides IT market analysis through 50 offices in 43 countries. Company information is available at http://www.idg.com .
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