I N  T H E  N E W S


MacWorld NY '99 Through the Eyes of a Yellow Dog
Loveland, CO, 10 September 1999

In the following article, Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft Solutions, developers of Yellow Dog Linux, reflects on the success of Yellow Dog Linux at Macworld NY.

Macworld New York '99 visitors enjoyed something not necessarily expected for those eager only to test FireWire drives, iBooks (or whatever that black wall around Apple's booth would reveal), incredible games and video editing extravaganzas. Also present was an operating system whose time-tested, track-proven, and momentous existence has just this year taken the world by -- a refreshing breeze? Whose success lies not in elaborate, multimillion dollar marketing campaigns, but instead, in its grassroots origins and subsequent rapid, weed-like spread to global fame and unprecedented acceptance.

Yes, "Linux" was there too.

Seen through the eyes of a Yellow Dog, Macworld was as much a surprise to those of us tending the Yellow Dog Linux booth as it was, perhaps, to those who did not expect to see representation of Linux just inside the main entrance to the presentation hall.

With four of us from Terra Soft Solutions and a welcomed fifth from Linuxcare, we found it difficult to keep up with the crowd that was persistent during the three-day show. Yellow Dog Linux enjoyed an enthusiastic and even more appreciated, well-informed and quite knowledgeable attendance.

While the questions ranged from "What are you selling?" and "Are the T-shirts free?" to "What kernel are you using?" and "Does your distribution include a good C compiler?" we found that overall most everyone had heard of Linux and more surprising -- most knew that it was available for the Mac.

What struck me as most encouraging was the level of computer-comfort that Mac users demonstrated through knowledge of their own systems and a willingness to venture into relatively technical territory in order to install Yellow Dog Linux: the addition of a SCSI drive or reformatting, partitioning, and reinstalling Mac OS. No, this isn't rocket science and Macworld is not a science convention, but Linux is probably the closest representative of the scientific community at this otherwise gooey and totally user friendly show. A great many people said, "Yeah, I've heard of this -- I'd like to give it a try. What do I need to do?"

Having sold a set of CDs to approximately 1 out of every 100 attendees (40,000 total) at Macworld, we heard a lot of stories about how Yellow Dog would change the way Mac users play at home or work in the office. Here are just a few examples:
  • One woman stated that she was going to replace NT with YDL for the OS that drove her kiosks at an interactive children's science museum.

  • Several "Ph.D.s" stopped by and shared a similar story. They had always used Macs at home but wanted to have a Mac at their research lab for data analysis or as a lab server -- YDL provided the option.

  • One young man, who was recently hired as a Sys Admin for a law firm, tired of NTs crashes and subsequent reboots, so one night he secretly replaced the NT network server with a Linux box and stated with a smile that his next move was to replace the Intel Linux box with YDL on a new G3.

  • Many people, both young in age and young at heart were impressed to see the games our iMac with YDL offered: "Myth II" and "Civilization: Call to Power" where "Call to Power" was not yet available for the Mac OS.
Fortunately, we were there to witness the best story of them all. Our associate from Linuxcare was handing out Linuxcare lollipops (yes, 'suckers') which contained in the center real insects and on the surface of the candy the words, "We lick Linux bugs." The lollipops were a hit--people loved them! However, one woman grabbed a sucker but did not see the bug in the center. She proceeded to the Microsoft booth and having consumed the vast majority of the candy she removed it from her mouth only to find the bug staring back at her. She screamed so loud that she interrupted the Microsoft presentation. As well put by one of our associates, "If only she had yelled, 'It's got a bug!'"

Finally, since our return from New York we have received less than a dozen support issues from those hundreds of individuals who purchased YDL during the show. We are pleased that Yellow Dog Linux has offered a powerful solution for experienced Linux users and an introduction to a whole new kind of Mac for the rest. Overall, Macworld was a powerful experience and one that we look forward to experiencing again in San Francisco, January 2000.

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