Microsoft lures Linux World attendees with pizzas

LINUXWORLD in San Francisco is larger than the old NYC "PC Expo", now C3 Expo in NY was. There's a ton to see, and, as in the Boston show, the dual Opterons are quite impressive. I spent the first day getting a general feel for what's around, not able to look as in much depth at stuff as I hoped to.

Tyan is coming out in a few weeks with an enclosure with dual boards that will house eight dual core Opterons, for a 16 power unit. Quite impressive looking!

Microsoft enticed me away from LinuxWorld with an offer of "free pizza" for lunch. I figured I'd be around for a couple more days of Linux, so I went for the free pizza. I walked the block and a half, and I needed the exercise. That was about the best it got.

I listened to a Microsoftie tell us how wonderful Windows CE embedded is, and how wonderful WindowsXP embedded is. I don't think anybody bought it. Most people didn't even take the free CDs with them.

After those first two minutes, I was ready to go.

The two guys next to me left after 20 minutes with nothing to eat or drink. They were smart.

The presenter joked about how probably most of us thought negatively about security in Microsoft software. Nobody disagreed. In the ensuing discussion, most people agreed that Linux was a far better platform for embedded systems than Windows is. I don't know what any of the Microsoft folks thought, other than the presenter.

Eventually, someone came with a slice of pizza, saying she felt sorry we had been waiting so long. Being in a city renowned for good food, I'm sure she didn't know that the dough wasn't fully baked.

And I'm not implying that Microsoft's software will also prove to be half baked. µ