Geek Wars

Robin Miller has one hell of an ego for a man who lives in a singlewide trailer."I have a book in stores and a contract for another. Do you have any books?" Miller, 50, asked a Weekly Planet reporter. "I have more readers than you do and I probably make five times more than you."

Arrogant though he may be, Miller considers himself a self-parody, a writer purportedly pulling in six figures per year who enjoys the simplicity and anonymity of living in a Bradenton mobile home park.

He's among a unique breed of journalists who drinks hard, swears often, despises politically correct editors and measures his success by the number of powerful people who'd like to see him facedown in a gutter.

Of James M. Naughton, president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think tank that owns the St. Petersburg Times, Miller commented: "I scare him because he knows I'm the future of journalism."

Miller isn't an attractive future, though. With a belly that would rival St. Nick's and an out-of-control gray beard that would have made Jerry Garcia proud, Miller doesn't bother to dress any fancier than jeans and plastic sandals. In fact, he hasn't reported to an office in more than 15 years.

Yet for all his rough edges, Miller seems the perfect icon for the beat he covers: Linux, a free computer operating system touted as an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

A former cabbie and limo driver, Miller followed an unusual career path to his current position as editor-in-chief of NewsForge, a technology news website. One evening in Baltimore, while filling his limo with gas, he saw a young man shot in the head only yards from where he stood. Miller comforted the dying kid, watching as his body twitched and jerked. "Where's the NRA right now?" he thought.

Miller went home and wrote an editorial advocating stricter gun control. He mailed it to the Baltimore Sun, which published it on the opinion-editorial page. A few weeks later, Miller received a check in the mail for $100. "That's when I realized I had the wrong career," he said. "I made 100 bucks in 20 minutes."

Miller schlepped his writing talents to any Baltimore publication willing to cut him a check. When that bored him, he became one of Prodigy's first chat-room moderators at a time when commercial online services didn't offer Web access. Because Prodigy paid Miller based on user activity, he did his best to spark debate in the political chat room.

"I'd just say stuff to piss people off," Miller said, explaining how he quickly became the highest-paid moderator at Prodigy. That gig led to stints writing for various newspapers and magazines about cheap computing.

Today, Miller is best known by his handle, "Roblimo." A man who says his greatest talent is the ability to "translate geek," Miller has become one of the principal journalists — or advocates — for a movement that promises true consumer choice in software.

In opposition to companies that closely guard their software, such as Microsoft and Adobe, the free software movement known as "open source" produces computer programs that are free and without ownership or nationalities. Its most visible product has become Linux, a free operating system created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and symbolized by a penguin known as "Tux."

A computer operating system consists of programs that allocate resources — such as memory and storage space — to software applications and enable hardware devices to function with the system.

Though founded by Torvalds, Linux is in fact the creation of thousands of volunteer programmers and beta testers scattered around the globe. The source code (the written programming text) is freely available online. Unlike the popular Windows operating system, whose source code is closely guarded, Linux can be customized and reviewed, allowing users to be sure that their computer isn't, among other things, open to security threats or sending data without their consent.

Since the Microsoft monopoly trial, which exposed collusion with other technology giants in agreements that carved up the worldwide computer market, Linux has slowly positioned itself as an alternative to Windows. That has made the rebel operating system Microsoft's Public Enemy No. 1.

Guys (and a handful of gals) like Miller help spread the word. In cities around the world, organizations known as Linux users groups, or LUGs, have sprung up to market Linux to governments, businesses and home users alike. They pass out CDs, give presentations and proselytize about the future as if they've found religion and ordained themselves disciples of a penguin god.

Guerilla MarketersBill Preece, a 35-year-old Tampa resident, is one of Linux's local disciples.

He'll admit to loitering in the software section of Best Buy, training a close eye on the shelves with boxes labeled Red Hat, SuSE, Lindows and Xandros. If he sees customers perusing the commercial distributions of Linux, he'll walk over and hand them a business card. The logo on the card shows a palm tree set in front of a funny acronym: SLUG, or Suncoast Linux Users Group, a local organization of computer users who share advice about Linux and tell others about its advantages.

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"We get people advocating in many ways, but it's generally person-to-person marketing," Preece said of his local Linux group.

In some cases, you could call it guerilla marketing. At a recent computer show at Clearwater's Harborview Center, Preece and fellow SLUG members set up a booth and started handing out CDs of Linux distributions. The problem? The show's main event was a sneak preview of Microsoft's Office XP.

Confronting the Linux foot soldiers, Microsoft marketing representatives told them to leave, according to Preece. "What law says we can't be here like you guys are?" Preece asked them.

After Preece and his fellow Linux disciples put up a fuss that involved the center's management, Microsoft's flacks left them alone. "Ninety percent of the people who went there for the Office XP thing ended up hanging around with us," Preece said.

Such marketing stunts have fueled what has become an uneasy relationship between Microsoft and Linux users. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has even gone as far as to call Linux "a cancer" that will destroy intellectual property rights.

"There seems to be quite a bit of hostility," said Preece.

SLUG offers few subtleties about its opinions of the software giant, however. The group's "mascot" is a slug named Sylvester, who in marketing material grins mightily as he brushes off salt falling from a shaker adorned with a Windows logo.

When Preece discovered Linux in the mid-'90s, he initially planned merely to tinker around with it, as he has always done with new software and gadgets. After a while, he began to see Linux and other free software as alternatives to Microsoft products, which he considered expensive and buggy. Linux was, by contrast, free and stable.

In 1998, Preece read a newsgroup message posted by Paul M. Foster in an attempt to find fellow Linux users in the Tampa Bay area. On a rainy evening that year, 13 Linux enthusiasts, including Preece, gathered at a Clearwater Chili's for the first meeting of the Suncoast Linux Users Group, which is now one of the largest Linux advocacy groups in the Southeast.

The group holds meetings in libraries, offices and even private homes in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties. SLUG meetings generally have about 20 to 50 attendees, mostly male, ranging in experience from newbies to über-geeks and in age from teenagers to retirees. The group's e-mail discussion list, or listserv, distributes dozens of messages per day, with topics ranging from industry news to nuts-and-bolts advice.

"I see a lot more people interested in Linux these days," said Preece, now SLUG's treasurer.

Because the commercial concerns that distribute Linux are small compared to other software companies — Red Hat's fiscal year 2001 revenue was $78.9-million, compared to Adobe's $1.2-billion — Linux users groups have become the primary marketing force behind open-source software.

"The LUGs do a lot of the low-level outreach work," said Eric S. Raymond, whose essays about open-source programming have made him one of the most recognizable people in the free software community.

Linux users groups aren't so much out to badmouth Microsoft as they are intent on educating consumers about how the company has been able to control wallets and manipulate prices through market dominance.

Expensive Office upgrades, for instance, are required about every two years because Microsoft does not make older versions compatible with newer versions, requiring governments, businesses and individuals to dole out cash if they want to ensure compatibility with colleagues, clients and friends.

Open-source software — which has become about 90 percent compatible with Microsoft files, thanks to reverse engineering — offers free alternatives to most commercial software packages available today. "Why would you want to go spend almost $500 on an office package when you can download a free one that works just as well?" Preece said. "Microsoft is realizing that more and more people are warming to open source because they're saying, 'If this can save us a lot of money, why aren't we using it?'"

Software PoliceLinux and other open-source software could save large organizations thousands, if not millions, of dollars every year — not to mention ease the annual wallet pinch for individual users.

Commercial software produced by such corporate behemoths as Microsoft and Adobe requires licenses for each computer on which the program is installed. Although a large corporation may have only a few Windows CDs, it must pay a licensing fee for each of its, say, 2,000 employee workstations running Windows.

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That amounts to a lot of cash, and software companies have employed draconian methods to guarantee the checks keep rolling in.

In 1988, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple Computer, Network Associates and other software companies joined forces to create the Business Software Alliance. Its mission: root out software piracy and prosecute offenders.

The BSA operates a toll-free tip line where callers can anonymously rat on companies that use unlicensed commercial software. When BSA receives a tip, it notifies the suspected company and asks to examine its computers. If the company refuses, BSA files a lawsuit and requests a court order.

"After being granted a court order, we provide an unannounced audit accompanied by U.S. Marshals," said Debbi Bauman, a spokesperson for the alliance.

If the anti-piracy alliance finds a company's licenses missing or out of date, BSA hits it with fines starting at around $85,000 and orders the purchase of all necessary licenses. In the last six years, BSA has collected more than $40-million in fines. Florida is one of the top 10 states for software piracy, according to the alliance.

Anonymous tips from disgruntled employees prompt most investigations. "Just because they're disgruntled employees doesn't mean they don't have good information," Bauman said.

Linux advocates cite BSA's heavy-handed actions as a reason to embrace open-source software, which can be installed on an unlimited number of computers without penalty.

Among the software alliance's more recent victims was Ernie Ball, a California maker of guitar strings. A disgruntled ex-employee, whose job was to ensure Ernie Ball was Microsoft-compliant, turned the company in to the alliance in 2000.

A BSA audit found that 8 percent of the company's software was not licensed — a percentage low enough to indicate that Ernie Ball's noncompliance was an oversight, not widespread piracy. Even so, BSA forced Ernie Ball to pay $90,000 to settle the matter.

That's when Ernie Ball did what many open-source advocates hope other companies and individuals will do after a BSA investigation: give Bill Gates the heave-ho. Over the course of a year, Ernie Ball removed Microsoft products from its computers and migrated to Linux and other free software.

"It's great to see a company like that willing to stand up and switch," said SLUG's Preece.

The city of Largo, in Pinellas County, made a similar switch that will save city taxpayers thousands of dollars per year. In 2001, Largo converted its central server and workstations from Unix to Linux, except for a single Windows machine used for PowerPoint presentations. The server hosts 425 thin-client workstations that use a point-and-click interface similar to the Windows or Mac interface.

According to Harold Schomaker, the city's information technology manager, Linux hasn't required his department to train city employees any more than it would have to for Microsoft Windows.

"The actual desktop works quite similar to a Microsoft desktop," said Schomaker. "What you're having to train people on is the actual applications loaded on the network."

Largo currently uses Corel's WordPerfect office suite, but the city plans to switch to the free OpenOffice.org, an open-source competitor to Microsoft Office. Licensing and maintaining Microsoft Office would cost the city about $1.5-million over six years, compared to about $100,000 with OpenOffice.org.

Government agencies are one of Microsoft's most loyal and lucrative customers. Largo's use of open source saves the city money on both software licenses and computer hardware. Desktop computers have about a 10-year life span on Linux before they become obsolete, compared to about a three-year life span on Windows.

"Depending on how you look at it, [the savings] could be anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 per year," said Schomaker. "... It's hard to put it at a fixed dollar amount."

That savings has captured the interest of other government officials tired of sending an annual check to Redmond, Wash. "We're getting inquiries at the rate of about two a week from various governments — city, local, national and international," Schomaker said.

Currently, China, Panama, Peru and Germany are exploring ways to employ open-source software. In July, the Norwegian government chose not to renew a contract with Microsoft and instead decided to explore open-source options such as Linux.

Miller thinks the people who should ultimately care about public-sector use of open-source products are individual taxpayers. But software isn't a political issue you're likely to see raised in the media along with health care and education.

"We haven't hit the day, quite yet, when newspaper and TV reporters routinely ask political candidates, 'If you are as serious as you claim about cutting government expenses, why are you using Windows instead of Linux?'" Miller wrote in a NewsForge article about Largo. "But that day will come, and it may come sooner than many of us expect if the current recession keeps going and tax revenues start declining instead of growing."

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Taking Linux HomeThe Linux Counter Project pegs the number of Linux users at 18-million worldwide. Many of those came to the operating system when it was merely downloadable source code. Others found it through commercial distributions from such companies as North Carolina's Red Hat and Germany's SuSE.

Despite being originally created by elitist hackers, many of whom now cringe at the thought that you can buy computers running Linux at Wal-Mart, the operating system has crept into our lives in subtle ways.

"Linux infiltrates organizations starting with the hands-on technical people, and then those people rise through the ranks and take Linux with them," said Miller.

Computer animators designed Shrek on Linux workstations and about one-third of the websites you visit come to you courtesy of a Linux server — including the White House's.

Linux's next market frontier, however, includes the computer in your home, which is why Linux users groups such as SLUG have begun to push the operating system as an alternative for home users.

They have a long way to go. In 2000, Windows accounted for 92 percent of operating systems shipped for desktop use, compared to 1.5 percent for Linux. In response to Windows' familiarity, startup companies such as Lycoris, Lindows and Xandros are selling Linux distributions that, in many ways, emulate the Microsoft Windows user experience.

While purists consider these dumbed-down versions of Linux, others see the new Windows-like Linux distributions as a step toward increasing the use and visibility of the free operating system.

"I think any product that introduces people to Linux and raises awareness is a good thing," said SLUG President Paul M. Foster.

Yet he isn't so sure these new companies with easier-to-use Linux will be successful. Foster warns that, despite efforts to suit Linux for mass consumption, the operating system isn't yet immediately accessible or intuitive for novices. "Linux has made some progress on the desktop, but it's still not for everyone," said Foster. "I wouldn't give Linux to my grandmother. It isn't ready for her yet."

Foster's colleague, Bill Preece, is more hopeful about Linux's current opportunities on the desktop. The more people who use Linux, the more intuitive the operating system will become for all users, he said.

"We just need to get commercials going, like the Dell guy: 'Hey, dude, do you want to get this computer for an even cheaper price? This is running Linux and you get your upgrades free,'" Preece said, as if reading from a script.

Keeping Linux users groups together and committed to a common goal isn't always easy. Microsoft's strategy has been to let big egos and personal agendas dismantle the groups from the inside. Earlier this month, several SLUG members formed a splinter group, the Florida Linux Users Group, or FLALUG. News of the group caused tempers to flare on SLUG's listserv.

Tom "Smitty" Smith, one of FLALUG's founders, downplays concerns of division within the local Linux community. "I envision FLALUG as an independent LUG more or less in the orbit of SLUG," he said. "We supplement and complement each other."

Linux's future will continue to depend on the ability of local users groups to market the operating system to corporations as well Grandma and Grandpa. Thus far, their street-level marketing campaigns seem successful.

Since he started writing about and advocating for Linux five years ago, Miller has seen his NewsForge readership increase from "absolutely zero" to its current estimate of more than 3-million readers worldwide, he said.

Linux not only saves users money, but also frees them from a company apparently willing to abandon its customers. That should be why governments, companies and individuals give Linux some consideration, Miller said.

"During the Microsoft antitrust trial's penalty phase, Steve Ballmer said that if the penalties were too harsh, Microsoft would withdraw Windows from the market," Miller said. "Who wants to deal with a company that will stop supporting their software?"

That's the message SLUG is attempting to deliver to homes and boardrooms in the Tampa Bay area. But considering Microsoft's worldwide power and formidable marketing machine, can a bunch of ragtag volunteers passing out CDs really put the pinch on one of the world's corporate giants?

"I just think about the underlying economics," said essayist and programmer Eric S. Raymond. "It's easy for Microsoft to fight better and it's easy for Microsoft to fight cheaper. Fighting something that is both better and cheaper is difficult."

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For more information on the Suncoast Linux Users Group, visit www.suncoastlug.org. For the Florida Linux Users Group, visit www.flalug.org.

Contact Staff Writer Trevor Aaronson at 813-248-8888, ext. 134, or trevor.aaronson@weeklyplanet.com.