After the Pegasos of course, the big story at SoCal was Novell and IBM. :-D "IBM will support SuSE and what will be left of Redhat," said the leading IBM rep at the Show. In the meanwhile, the Novell booth brought a air of credibility to what was the largest show other than CES that we have participated. Novell has assembled a complete Linux stack. People want it. Novell is providing it. If anyone is missing the "Linux is coming to a Desktop Near You" story, they should even avoid WrongPla.net, much less ANN.

The time is NOW.

If you are a Developer and you have something to offer get on the bandwagon of your choice (or both). The Linux Desktop *is* the Trojan Horse for this Community. Don't miss the boat! And, BTW, let us be bold enough to suggest that IBM will very likely be selling the Pegasos one day (or something like it) as a thin client in a total system package. Why the Dell not?! IBM sells services. When they sell an enterprise network to a corporate customer they often continue to “own” the entire system. The customer contracts for the entire package. IBM insures that everything is working and that the latest and greatest is there running as it should. Why should IBM continue to sell a PC when they begin to promote a Linux desktop? First, they throw out Windows (replaced with Linux) and then the Intel-based CPU/PC can be replaced with a PowerPC based system that runs on an IBM CPU. All IBM is doing is connecting the dots from client desktop to enterprise network and ultimately to the "GRID" that IBM now extols (the Matrix is coming!).

And, while we are at it beyond the "Matrix" -- not only are the major game consoles moving to the PowerPC, it is also the CPU found in the most advance DTV receivers (satellite or terrestrial). The latest one from Disney is called MovieBeam. Imagine a Super TiVo (PowerPC too BTW) using an expanded version of AmiNetRV (radio and video) and all integrated into a MPlayer-like UI that would do to a TV set what MP3 did to music. Now, that is really any show any time. TV signals digital or analogue can be integrated, but the Internet is the foundation of the future in this arena in our opinion. While we are at it since that MP3 player will not play high fidelity sound why not use that 24/7 broadband Internet connection to get that home stereo equipment back in the game too!

Final note: Pegasos II sales have passed the 1500 unit mark. These are the combined sales based on Reseller, Internet, and institutional/corporate orders. Congratulations to Thomas Knäbel and Gerald Carda. Your years of hard work and dedication are paying off and thanks to you we have the fundamental ingredient required to march forward to our future.

R&B :-)

P.S. This week "will be IBM week." ;-)