Report from LinuxWorld Japan

October 6th, 1999

The second annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo for Japan took place last
week on the outskirts of Tokyo.  It was an impressive show, although
nothing like the one in San Jose.  For starters, 90% of the attendees
were in suits, and none of them smelled bad.  Although this may sound
good at first, any true Linux geek would miss that earthy, robust aroma.

Linuxcare had a huge presence there to gear up for our Tokyo office.  We
also announced that our 24x7 tech support is now available in Japanese. 
As is to be expected, TurboLinux and Laser 5 were all over the place as
well.  Other impressive exhibitors include NEC, Fujitsu, and Sumitomo. 
Indeed, the big guys in Japan seem to really "get Linux."  

Everyone we spoke to shared our excitement about the Linuxcare Japan
office.  The now famous bootable recovery disk was a hit -- even Larry
Augustin of VA Linux Systems confessed to have used it to switch from
Red Hat over to Debian.  The "LNX" stickers went over well, while
"Linuxgruven" was somehow lost in the translation.

Last Wednesday Tim O'Reilly gave an interesting presentation to the
Tokyo Association of Computer Professionals at an Irish pub in town. 
Larry Augustin also gave a great speech on the Open Source model and
business.  As is often the case, not all of the jokes translated over to
Japanese -- this could be excused, but what about the individuals in the
VA booth wearing super short black pvc mini-skirts?

I was surprised at the growing popularity of Linux in Japan, although
all the suits took away some of the sense of community.  It could be
said that in Japan trends flow from the top down, while in the West they
come from the ground up.  If this is the case with Linux in Japan, we
can expect to see great things in the future.  

****************

Matthew Cunningham, Linuxcare