Don't forget the bevy of minor mysteries that were revealed as well. Silicon Graphics, still reeling under the influence of its last reorganization, was in New York presenting its latest restructuring solution to financial analysts who were undoubtably eager to hear how the Big Daddy of high-performance supercomputing will steal a seat on the Linux bandwagon. But it would behoove Linux enthusiasts to remember, at some point between the sixth and seventh standing ovations keynote speaker Linus Torvalds is likely to receive at Linux World, that the point of a party is to please the guests. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, for example, has been kicking and screaming about Microsoft for some time. And while IBM is hardly indentured to the House of Gates, the prospect of IBM having an operating system like the Linux OS at its disposal once again could recall the halcyon, pre-Microsoft days when Big Blue was well among the baddest on the block.
Markets appear to careen about, recklessly and utterly without coherence.
While the direct precursors of consolidation and expansion are endlessly varied, their fundamental antecedents are each other. It might once have been Apple. And they are going to need more than exultations from the in crowd before they feel like they have dancing room of their own.