Linux Journal has published an extensive report by Doc Searls from the floor of January's enormous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Entitled “Hunting Penguins in the Desert,” the article discusses Linux's relatively low profile in corporate marketing literature at the show.

Searls says that of more than 2,300 exhibitors, just eleven companies promoted their use of Linux.

Why the lack of embedded Linux hype at CES? Searls offers the following explanation:

Sure, they have Linux in their stuff. It was like, Why even bring it up? You'd think I was asking if their gear came with power cords or Ethernet jacks.

So, it's clear that Linux is fast becoming a pure infrastructural commodity — like the air we breathe. Why promote what's best taken for granted? Thus, take Linux's decreasing visibility as the inverse of its ubiquity.

Searls goes on to describe the booths and presentations from companies using Linux but not promoting it, as well as those from companies in the “Gang of Eleven” that do promote Linux.

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