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Despite IT's enthusiasm, Linux is still for window shoppers [LinuxExpo]

MONTREAL -- As people swarmed around the booths at LinuxExpo held here in April, one couldn't help but feel Linux is still for lookers.

Random interviews with a number of attendees at the three-day event, billed as the country's first all-Linux show, found lots of enthusiasm and curiosity, but few enterprise users of the open source operating system.

Many were like Renault Metivier, a systems analyst with the CIS Group of St. Jerome, Que., which builds applications for the transportation industry on Unix and Windows platforms. Part of the team developing a sales force automation application for a client on Windows CE, he was scouting the potential of Linux for embedded and handheld devices.

"We are considering offering Linux versions (of our applications) to our customers," he said. "I'm glad to find serious, large companies behind Linux because it makes it a viable alternative for mission-critical applications."

As the show opened, market research company IDC of Framingham, Mass. said worldwide Linux server shipments leapt 166 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

While Linux has only six per cent of the entry server market in unit shipments, it will become an important area of growth, wrote an analyst. Compaq Computer Corp. held the number one spot, followed by IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

In a separate survey of 200 users, IDC found Linux servers are over-whelmingly deployed to support Web applications, such as Web hosting, proxy-caching services and e-mail.

Around the show floor, where there was lots of elbow room, there was plenty of evidence that Linux is on the minds, if not the order books, of a lot of developers and some enterprises.

"I think Linux is here to stay," said Robert Silva, a systems developer for Tecsys Inc. of Montreal, which is porting its Unix-based enterprise-level order distribution application in anticipation of demand.

Andras Frankel, a junior systems administrator at Environment Canada's Montreal office, was there to learn more about Linux because the department is replacing 24 Unix workstations with it.

Jean Francois Poirier, a senior developer with PixCom Interactif of Montreal, was there to look into the possibilities of developing its applications for Linux.

"Since Linux is coming out strong, I'm here to see how it can be used as a Web server," said Fernand St. Georges, a consultant at APG Solutions and Technologies Inc. of Quebec City. The company does a lot of work for the provincial government, which is always looking for ways to save money, he said. "We would recommend it if it could reduce costs and it had the same tools as NT or Unix."

The 300 people who filled half of the seats to hear industry leaders caught a subdued Michael Cowpland of Corel Corp. predict that by the end of the year the company will have 18 Linux applications. CorelDraw 9 will be released in July, two months ahead of schedule.

In an interview, Cowpland said he wasn't disappointed with the turn-out, saying the attendees were the "real movers" in Linux.

More upbeat was the effervescent Bob Young, CEO of Red Hat Software. In an interview, however, he acknowledged that IT managers are still looking for Linux apps to solve their problems before they'll adopt the OS.