SANTA CLARA, Calif. — News good and bad about Linux's progress was discussed last week at "The Future of Linux," an informal panel presented by software consultants Taos Mountain (Santa Clara, Calif.) and the Silicon Valley Linux Users' Group (SVLUG). A packed house of more than 1,000 Linux fans came to shower praise and complaints on some of the software's leading architects, as well as get in touch with Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

Linux, the grass-roots operating system, has captured the hearts of engineers worldwide. Once a hobbyists' toy, Linux has expanded through user support to become a viable OS for technical users and, if the Linux community has its way, is about to hurtle into mainstream businesses and even the consumer environment.

Linux's appeal comes from both its open nature and quasi-ownership by Torvalds. The source code is available free, and all changes must be shared as well, per terms of Linux's license. That's kept the OS in a constant evolution, as tweaks, fixes and add-ons are proposed non-stop across the Internet.

"It's the open-source phenomenon" that attracts engineers, said Ian Kluft, a software engineer and active volunteer in SVLUG. "If people want a change, they can submit the change rather than wait for a vendor."

But to keep Linux from falling into Unix's multi-lingual trap, Torvalds has maintained strict control over its kernel. He decides which suggested changes are added, which speeds the process significantly.

On top of that, many engineers are simply frustrated with the paralytic effects of Microsoft's Windows. For salvation, they're turning to Linux, which is useable on a PC. "I was very reluctant to switch to Windows and a PC," said Terry Riley, who writes Web software out of his home and attended the panel discussion to catch up on Linux. "I went from a Mac to Unix to avoid doing that," he said, adding that he expects to shift to Linux before long.

Part of Linux's charm lies in its availability on PCs, so Linux supporters were naturally anxious to hear from Intel. Panelist Sunil Saxena, a principal engineer with Intel's Unix lab, pledged his company's support for Linux and asked for help from the software's supporters.

The advent of Merced should be a particular boon to Linux, because the OS already handles 64-bit processing on the Alpha chip. Torvalds assured the crowd that Merced support will be a no-brainer. "Anybody who's worried about the Merced—don't. Linux already has all the things it needs to run on Merced," he said, adding that Linux applications could be run immediately on Merced, while other software vendors struggle to ramp up to 64-bit computing.

Intel also wants to work with developers, Saxena said, to help Linux exploit processor features such as MMX, fast system calls and 36-bit physical addressing.

Certainly, Linux has its problems. Several specific issues within the kernel were discussed, and more than a few users were worried that Microsoft's marketing efforts could still bury Linux's chances of breaking into mainstream corporate use. But most of the discussion was aimed at a common goal: expanding Linux's reach.

Linux supporters tend to oppose Microsoft's ubiquity, so as the software's popularity grew, thoughts of displacing Microsoft were inevitable. The Linux philosophy of "world domination"—a joke that Torvalds uses in his signature file—has become a dead-serious slogan for the Linux faithful, whose numbers rank between 5 million and 10 million, a figure that more than doubles every 12 months.

The panelists, most of whom make their living off Linux, said it's clear that Linux, being one of only two OSes whose market share is growing, is headed for the top spot among Unix variations and stands a good chance of bleeding into the consumer market before long. Still, they were realistic about the OS's chances, emphasizing that applications were the key.

The sticky point there is that corporate executives often don't hear about Linux's following. The EDA industry, in particular, is swelling with users who would love Linux tools but whose wishes go unheard by vendors.

"In our field, they don't want to use NT. They want to use Linux," said audience member Mike Page, Webmaster for Exemplar Logic Inc. (Fremont, Calif.). "I know there are designers out there who want to get cheap PCs [to run Linux]. If they could use our tools and our partners' tools, that would be the way they would want to go."

Panelist Larry Augustin, president of Linux workstation vendor VA Research Inc., noted that design engineers' cries for Linux are getting lost somewhere in the chain from their managers to EDA salespeople to EDA executives.

Augustin cited the Linux-vs.-NT panel at the recent Design Automation Conference. "The specific purpose of the panel was to convince Cadence, Synopsys, etc. that their tools should be running on Linux," he said. "Every [audience member] raised their hands and said, 'We want your CAD tools on Linux.' The people from Cadence and Synopsys were floored."

For that reason, Augustin called for engineers to approach software vendors as directly as possible, aiming for the upper corporate ranks with Linux International's help.

In fact, panelist Jeremy Allison, software developer with Samba, pointed out that Linux has already crept into widespread corporate use through servers, where it's invisible to users. For example, Cisco Systems Inc. employees use Linux rampantly without realizing it, as the company uses a Linux-based print server provided by Samba.

For the corporate environment, one advantage is obvious: Linux can be tailored. Any C programmer can be hired to tweak the operating system to fit specialized needs. All it takes is a pledge to make the changes publicly available. But no issue scares off corporate buyers faster than support, panelists agreed. As much as people make fun of Microsoft's tech-support number, they do have one. Linux doesn't.

"Support on Linux is going to be a problem," said panelist Robert Hart, manager of support services for Red Hat Software, which sells Linux applications and its own version of the OS. "People need to know that the applications on Linux are stable and that there really is support," in the form of consulting companies and vendors such as Red Hat.

Meanwhile, mainstream office applications are working their way into Linux. Corel Corp., which had hoped to compete with the Microsoft Office suite, is instead porting WordPerfect and other office applications to Linux. CorelDraw is also being ported, which Allison suggested would open the door to Adobe's Photoshop being ported as well.

"I've seen a lot of good things happening, where companies I considered to be clueless have woken up and said, 'We don't want to be stuck with just one vendor,'" Torvalds said.

It's more difficult to explain why Linux's open source code would appeal to nontechnical home users. But Linux's resistance to crashing might be a selling point, Allison said. And the prospect of being able to look under the hood might be reassuring even if it's never used, Torvalds suggested.

"Most of the public doesn't necessarily need the open-source concept. But most of the public should be really, really relieved it exists," Torvalds said.

Linux does lack a standard GUI, but panelists didn't consider that a weakness. It's an alien concept to consumers, but Linux doesn't care which of several GUIs is run.

In future applications, Intel's Saxena said Linux appears well suited for Web servers and e-commerce applications. Panelists also thought Internet appliances would provide ground for Linux, because, like servers, their software isn't visible to end users.

Does it all add up to world domination? Maybe, but the even-headed Torvalds, as much as he appears to enjoy his prestige, has a more modest goal.

"My ego hopes for world domination in five to 10 years, but the realistic Linus says, 'In five to 10 years, let's hope the world isn't dominated by any player,'" he said.

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