amcpherson's blog

The technology pundit-sphere is in fine form the last two days with the sneak announcement of Google’s Chrome OS, a stripped down operating system that will contain the Linux kernel, a new windowing system developed by Google and the Chrome browser, among other components.

If you run your data center on Linux you have likely heard of BTRfs, the next generation file system that was recently merged into the kernel. If you haven’t heard of it, you should, as it stands to make your life, and all those who handle large amounts of data on Linux, much easier, more reliable and more scalable.

Since we launched the Linux Foundation, I’ve been amazed at the passion and willingness to help of Linux users worldwide. This out-pouring of support especially is evident when Linux seems threatened — by a lawsuit, attack by a company, or a combination of the two.  It’s clear that Linux users do not take Linux for granted. In the last six months, we have thought long and hard how to best harness this passion and provide an outlet for this support.

I am pleased to announce the launch of the new Linux.com, the fruition of many months of hard work from nearly everyone at the Linux Foundation, but especially Dan Lopez and Brian Proffitt. While I’m sure we still have much work to do, I think the site has turned out very well. I’m especially pleased with how we’ve worked with the community through our Ideaforge site to collaboratively develop ideas and content on the site. (Ideaforge users have had access to the site over the last few weeks in a private beta.)

Some months ago, we received a steady stream of reporter questions asking, “With the emergence of Cloud computing, what will happen to Linux?” Somehow they thought it was a zero sum game and that the rise of Cloud meant the extinction of Linux. Clearly the message that Linux *is* the operating system behind virtually all, if not all, commercial cloud computing offerings was not well understood in the market. (Can you guess the one Cloud offering that doesn’t use Linux?)

The journey that begin during last football season with the realization that Microsoft paid Jerry Seinfeld $10 million for his appearance in their ads is almost over. The judging for the We’re Linux video contest has been completed and I’m pleased to announce the finalists.

These videos reflect the best of what was truly a global community effort with videos being submitted from Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East and South America.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about highlighted speakers from the Collaboration Summit. While that post was packed full of good speakers, I wanted to highlight some others I’m just as excited to see. My aim for CollabSummit has always been to show the true breadth of Linux luminaries, spanning the corporate, community and users world. I think this year we’ve captured a good mix.

I write that headline tongue firmly in cheek. Anyone familiar with the Linux community is also aware that Linux users are among the most passionate and opinionated people in the world. Linux was built on participation. This is why along with the news that the Linux Foundation is taking over the stewardship of Linux.com, we also launched an “IdeaForge” to capture insight and ideas from Linux.com users.

The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit is the only conference designed to enhance collaboration between the Linux community, industry, end users and ISVs. Instead of the silo-ed developer conferences or trade shows that fill up the year’s calendar, we gather leaders from each of these communities together to share knowledge, decide the course of action and accelerate the Linux platform.

If you’re in the open source world, you probably don’t need a lot of convincing about the high quality software that results from the open source development model.  Mass collaboration coupled with vociferous peer review makes for better code and products. It just does.  No matter how much of a monopoly might exist today, this collaboration cannot be duplicated within the proprietary software model.