Framingham, MA — (press release excerpt) — IDG World Expo announced today that LinuxWorld Conference & Expo/San Francisco 2002 attendance increased by 12 percent over last year, totaling 20,070.

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo took place August 12-15 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Keynote speakers addressing capacity audiences included Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems; Larry Ellison, chairman and CEO, Oracle Corporation; Sergey Brin, co-founder and president, technology, Google, Inc.; and Douglas T. Elix, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Global Services.

IDG World Expo's LinuxWorld attendee demographics show that 35 percent of attendees have IT budgets of $500,000 or more, a number which continues to rise year-over-year.

During LinuxWorld, many of the 150 exhibiting companies rolled out new products, including 3ware, AMD, Borland, Codehost, Cyclades Corporation, HP, LTrix Engineering, Penguin Computing, Red Hat, SlickEdit, Sun Microsystems and Trolltech, among others. Show highlights include:

• Sun Microsystems introduced its entry-level server, the LX50, which will ship with Linux and Solaris 9. In his keynote, McNealy
  intimated that Sun is gearing up to propose an alternative desktop software and hardware platform based on Open Source technology next month.
  
• During his keynote, Ellison announced that Oracle would open its source code to the Linux community for a cluster file system that helps Oracle9i Real Application Clusters (RAC) customers simplify their clustered database systems. Oracle markets RAC as the 'Unbreakable' portion of its software.
  
• Google uses Linux as a key enabler for its business. Brin told the audience that Google deployed its applications on 15,000 computers that handle an index in excess of 3 billion documents and more than 150 million daily searches.
• IBM underscored its longstanding dedication to the Linux community and cited IBM Global Services customers who are increasingly using Linux in large IT deployments. Elix cited the main reasons for increased adoption of Linux in the enterprise as flexibility, cost-effectiveness, attractiveness for next-generation developments and significance in new computing models, including grid computing.
  
• LinuxWorld Conference & Expo/San Francisco featured an international theme throughout the exhibit floor and educational content. The new Linux Around the World series highlighted the progress Open Source technologies are making in regions such as Africa, Asia, India and South America. LinuxWorld also featured a larger-than-ever Rookery, the event's headquarters for new, up-and-coming companies and first-time exhibitors with 28 exhibitors from over 12 countries.
• Several key industry luminaries, like Ximian's Miguel de Icaza, IBM's Daniel Frye, OSDL's Tim Witham, and Bastille Linux's Jay Beale, led discussions in the conference program. In mostly jam-packed sessions, attendees learned the latest security updates, how to build Web services on Linux, kernel advancements, initiatives directed in the government, and updates on projects like Mono, Apache, Beowulf Clusters and the Datacenter. Even Linux creator Linus Torvalds, arriving late to a session, had trouble getting in because the room was too crowded.
• UniForum and IDG World Expo presented the Open Source Product Excellence Awards to exhibitors showcasing the event's most innovative products and services on the show floor. Winning companies included Borland, Codeweavers, Computer Associates, Cylant, eOn, HP, IBM and Trolltech.
  
• The Free Standards Group announced that three leading Linux distributions — MandrakeSoft S.A., Red Hat, and SuSE Linux AG — have become Linux Standard Base (LSB) Certified. LSB Certification verifies adherence to the community and industry developed standard for both Linux distributions and Linux-based applications.

The next LinuxWorld Conference & Expo takes place January 21-24, 2003 at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. LinuxWorld returns to San Francisco August 4-7, 2003.

 
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