[Leaplist] Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seem to be running scared of GNU/Linux.

["pberry2" at cfl.rr.com]

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seem to be running scared.   They seem to be 
scheduling to speak before any computer club that is not doing Linux or 
BSD, and has promised to fill at least 50 seats.  Both are scheduled to 
speak at the Central Florida Computer Club.  Been there, and the 
audience reminded me of a reunion of World War II veterans.  Hey, I am 
now 60, and a bit of a snooze at times, myself!

I think it funny, actually, to see two kings of proprietary lock-in 
trying to advocate continuation with the status quo.  But, the attendees 
seem to be the status quo, not the young and passionate professionals 
who will forge the future! 

I attended the MarketPro Computer show and sale, today, and there used 
to be over 85 vendors, standing room only, when I attended over a year 
and a half ago.

Today there were 26 vendors, most had used parts, or salvaged Best Buy 
Dynex brand cheap stuff.  Ken, with all the used/slavaged/marked 
down/store returned Best Buy and Comp USA stuff wasn't there.  In 
Tennessee, two new vendors who also had gobs of similar stuff got placed 
next to the front door, and Ken, a long time vendor got the back 
corner.  MarketPro probably will fold, due to such mis-management over 
the past two years.  There were exactly three vendors with  'new' 
computers but all ran XP, and no Vista was seen anywhere!  

Perhaps Microsoft has really found the silver bullet for their final 
suicide. 

Talk is that a local promoter will offer a show with real advertising in 
the local area.  My take is that Linux has hit a huge bunch of people 
who have tried Vista, and are now feeling very much that they have 
truely been mugged by a felon.  If any new show will ever get off the 
ground, it will have to offer Linux because that is where the disparaged 
majority are heading, according to everyone at today's sale.

I counted 22 'customers' from 3 pm to closing.  When I entered the 
vendor next to the door mentioned that none of the people  who left in 
the past hour had anything  in their hands like  a box or bag of  stuff!
I will finally admit that it sure was a waste of a good $5,00 to get in, 
and that I won't bother to even check them a year from now!

I bought 50 cable boots, of different colors.  Only because it was 
cheaper than ordering them on the web, when shipping is added, (oops, 
the admission was about a nickel more than the shipping would have 
been!).   And the vendor wanted a Live CD of Linux.   He was selling the 
Gimp and Open Office 2.1 CDroms he had burned, along with other CDs of 
shareware.

Then, too, five of the vendors mentioned Dell Linux systems and what 
they were going to do as their business, once everyone saw how stable 
that goes.  None of them have a clue.

Also, they each wanted a LiveCD and remembered me from a year and a half 
ago, and that I usually handed out LiveCDroms! 

I hope they 'get it' in time to not get clobbered by the Linux 
competition of the big boys!