Linux/Windows/Solaris: Who Owns the OS Future?

The headline act, if you will, was announced this morning for the third annual Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, and it promises to be an interesting show: the Foundation's Jim Zemlin, Microsoft's Sam Ramji, and Sun's Ian Murdock, each giving their predictions on the future of operating system they represent - and, I expect, the others' as well. Jim will moderate the exchange, which will be held on the first day (May 8) of this year's Summit, which will be held in San Francisco. As with previous Collaboration Summits, there is no fee to attend, but attendance is by confirmation only, as the size is limited to a few hundred to maximize the interactivity of this annual gathering of the elite of the Linux clan.

While the OS debate provides the most provocative portion of the program, the rest will provide a great deal of substance - and, who knows, perhaps a few surprises as well.

Operating system faceoffs are fun, but many regard the highlight of the Collaboration Summit to be annual Kernel developer panel presentation, followed by a lengthy audience Q&A. This year’s panel will focus on what’s coming next to the Kernel, and will be moderated by LWN.net editor-in-chief Jon Corbet. Panelists will include the community’s leading maintainers: Greg Kroah-Hartmann, Andrew Morton, Keith Packard and Ted Ts’o.

Counterpointing (keeping honest?) the OS presenters will be IDC Program Vice President, Systems Software, Al Gillan, who share his firm’s operating system forecast numbers, and also make some predictions about the impact of the economic downturn on the operating system market. Perhaps next year will do a look back and see who came closest to hitting the nail on the head in the year to come.

Another part of the program that will be worth catching will be a presentation by (host sponsor) Intel on the future of mobile Linux in general, and on the part that it expects its own Moblin mobile Linux operating system to play in particular. It calls its part of the program a "Moblin State of the Union" message and demo. Imad Sousou, Director of the Open Source Technology Center, Software and Services Group will do the honors on behalf of Intel.

There is, of course, more. You can find the full agenda here, and the press release issued today includes further program announcements and details.  You can find the release here, and I’ve also pasted in in at the end of this blog entry.  It looks like as of this morning, the Collaboration Summit is fully subscribed, so if you’re not already on the roster, better request an invitation earlier next year.  But if you were fast off the mark, I’ll look forward to seeing you in San Francisco.

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Linux Foundation, Microsoft and Sun Debate Future of Operating Systems at Annual Collaboration Summit


Monday, March 9th, 2009

Linux Foundation, Microsoft and Sun Debate the Future of Operating Systems at Annual Collaboration Summit

For the first time, market adversaries meet at the same table to discuss the path forward; leading market research firm to present Linux growth projections

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2009 – The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced newly confirmed keynotes and panelists for its Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. The Summit, now in its third year, takes place April 8 – 10, 2009 at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

For the first time, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems will sit down at one table to debate the future of the respective operating systems. Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin will moderate the discussion, which will include Sam Ramji, Director of Platform Strategy, from Microsoft, and Ian Murdock, Vice President of Developer and Community Marketing at Sun.

Other agenda highlights at this year’s Summit include:

• IDC Program Vice President, Systems Software, Al Gillen, will share new findings on operating system forecasts and talk about the impact of the economic downturn on the operating system market.

• Edward Screven, Chief Corporate Architect at Oracle, has been confirmed to deliver the opening day keynote. Screven will talk about the company’s unique business model that has Linux at its core.

• Host sponsor Intel will talk about the future of mobile Linux in its Moblin State of the Union keynote and demonstration, presented by Imad Sousou, Director of the Open Source Technology Center, Software and Services Group.

• A panel on community contributions and participation will be presented with speakers that include Jono Bacon, community manager at Ubuntu; James Bottomley, kernel developer at Novell; Joe Brockmeier, community manager, openSUSE; Dan Frye, vice president, open systems development, IBM Systems and Technology Group; and Karsten Wade, Fedora Project.

• An annual favorite, the Linux kernel panel will focus on what’s coming next. It will be moderated by LWN.net editor-in-chief Jon Corbet, and panelists will include the community’s leading maintainers Greg Kroah-Hartmann, Andrew Morton, Keith Packard and Ted Ts’o.

Sponsored by Intel Corporation and returning to San Francisco in 2009, the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit is an exclusive, invitation-only gathering of the brightest minds in Linux, including core kernel developers, distribution maintainers, ISVs, end users, system vendors and other community organizations. It is the only conference designed to accelerate collaboration and encourage solutions by bringing together a true cross-section of leaders to meet face-to-face to tackle and solve the most pressing issues facing Linux today.

The Annual Collaboration Summit will be co-located with the CELF Embedded Linux Conference and the Linux Storage and Filesystem Workshop. For more information on the Linux Foundation’s Annual Collaboration Summit, please visit: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, The Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

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Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.