There were much more people than on Linux Expo 99. However I must say that the organization was rather poor. Very little of the original planned talks were actually held. I made A gathering like this is important if you want to know what others are up to. At ESRF we are rather alone in having Linux all the way to the desktop.
Most companies have it as servers or backup servers.
Corporations are more attracted for the stability of Linux than for its price. I got in touch with important vendors of Linux service. Having a service contract for ESRF would make life easier for the system administrators. This would be a 3rd level support only. SuSE will soon offer such a service, and I will be informed when that is done.