#LinuxCon: The Right Side of History

From the ‘Collaboration Works’ files:

Vancouver. LinuxCon 2011 officially kicked off this AM as the celebration of the 20th anniversay of Linux begins.

One of the first things that attendees will see at the show is the 20th Anniversary of Linux showcase loaded with all kinds of Linux memorabilia and a timeline of history. The items range from a book about TurboLinux (remember them?) to an iconic Red Hat (donated by Red Hat, who else?).

What the real message of the historical wall, the event and Linux itself is all about is the lesson of collaborative development. Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation noted that the lesson of Linux is that Linux is on the right side of history.

It’s a story of collaborative development.

It’s not about one man (though Linus is one heck of a man), it’s the story of a community working together. Linux runs HPC and the most powerful supercomputers in the world, it runs much of the Internet with core DNS and networking servers. Linux is the backbone for the cloud and it’s the basis for Android as well as more embedded devices that I can name.

A world without Linux is the world of the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ which Zemlin joked about during his keynote presentation. A world without Linux would be a world in Black and White, stocks would cease to trade, trains would stop running, movie special effects would be terrible and you couldn’t find anything on the internet.

You would have not friends (facebook runs on Linux). Zemlin noted that without Linux, it would be a very different world.

Happy 20th Birthday Linux. It has been a great ride so far and we can hardly wait for the next 20 years.