The State of Linux International
[This article was contributed by Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]
Linux International (LI) has been an extremely important organization in the growth of Linux. But LI has been kind of quiet as of late. Its website hasn't been updated in a while, and the last press release put out by the organization on their home page is dated March 1, 2002. We caught up with LI president Jon "maddog" Hall recently and asked him where things stood. He assured us that LI is still working to promote Linux:
The BusinessWeek articles Hall referred to have generated a lot of discussion for Linux. But they don't reflect LI's influence. Hall says that's the way that he wants it:
He does admit, however, that the modesty can backfire when trying to justify LI dues to member companies and potential members. Dues for corporate sponsors are $10,000, and dues for member companies are $2,500 annually. Hall says that it can be difficult to convince companies to fund LI, even though some can spend much more than that on their individual marketing efforts.
Another function of LI that doesn't get discussed much is the stewardship of the Linux trademark. For the most part, that's been spun off to the Linux Mark Institute (LMI), a non-profit that controls the Linux trademark and grants use of the trademark to commercial entities for a fee. Hall says the fee is necessary to build a "warchest" to deal with legal issues instead of taking the money from LI's budget. Unless there's a "sticky situation" with a trademark, says Hall, the process is more or less automatic. Hall also mentioned that LI/LMI have stepped in when people have tried to trademark Linux in other countries and attempt to "hold it for ransom."
Hall did note that LI is undergoing some changes, particularly in terms of membership. "The industry has changed...used to be lots and lots of small companies, but the small companies have gone away and Linux has become not a "Linux-only" product, but a "Linux-also" product." Because of this, he says, companies like IBM and HP wonder what LI can do for them when they can afford to put money into Linux advertising that is branded with their company name instead of promoting Linux alone.
So is LI still relevant, if these companies are putting big bucks into marketing Linux? Hall says yes, because it can do things that IBM and HP cannot. For example, Hall mentioned that he wants to focus on providing materials for Linux User Groups to use to promote Linux. Because LI is vendor-neutral, Hall says that it will have much more success working with community groups to promote Linux on behalf of its member companies than those companies would directly:
Jeremy White, CEO of CodeWeavers and an LI supporter, says that he believes that LI was and continues to be important. White says that the case studies on LI's site have been useful for him, and also says that Hall's role as a Linux promoter is very important. "The most important thing they do is having Jon fly around and evangelize Linux. That's important to me. Linux, at least on the desktop, is very much in the adoption phase...I need the whole market to grow."
Hall says that there is still a lot of work to do in promoting Linux: