Linus who?; competition for Gates?

Torvalds, the founder of Linux International who developed the Linux operating system, speaks about the system at the Comdex computer show on Monday  ALSO:    Linux hits the desktop    Ignore the Linux hype, creator urges    For more computing stories RELATED VIDEO CNN's Rick Lockridge reports on the latest gadgets available in the computer world at Comdex Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

April 20, 1999
Web posted at: 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT)

CHICAGO (AP) -- Linus Torvalds could be mistaken for a young Bill Gates.

Both men are about the same height, have sandy brown hair, wear glasses and are fascinated by computers. Both control software running on computer systems around the world.

But unlike Gates, the founder of software giant Microsoft, Torvalds hasn't built a company based on his software. In fact, he gives it away free.

That difference has made Torvalds, 29, a bit of a celebrity at computer trade shows, including Comdex, where he spoke Monday -- 90 minutes after Gates' flashy debut of Windows 2000.

"Please, Linus, will you sign this?" Margaret Hadam, a 20-year-old computer tech from Chicago's Loyola University, asked Torvalds, who developed the Linux operating system when he was a student in the early 1990s.

Yet even Torvalds' biggest fans say they can see similarities between the Finnish programmer and the 42-year-old Microsoft chairman, considered one of the richest men on Earth.

"They're both ruthless," says Hadam. "One is just a little more ruthless than the other."

Linux is used by businesses to run computer networks and Internet sites. Linux can be downloaded for free off the World Wide Web; versions with additional features can be bought for as little as $30.

Ms. Hadam and others praise Linux because its source code -- the programming language that makes Linux run -- is also freely available, allowing programmers to personalize it to suit their needs.

Torvalds said his system is gaining popularity because it gives people what they want. "It didn't get to this point because of the hype," he said.

He said he also wants to provide computer users with an alternative option to Microsoft's Windows, used to run roughly 90 percent of the world's personal computers.

"That is what I want to see -- that there isn't one default choice," Torvalds told the audience, which broke into cheers and hefty applause.

Gates during his demonstration of Microsoft's Windows 2000

A few flights up -- and about 90 minutes earlier -- Gates unveiled Windows 2000, an operating system aimed at businesses. His presentation included techno music and tongue-in-cheek videos of Gates and Microsoft president Steve Ballmer playing everything from "Wayne's World" characters to Irish dancers.

Gates also displayed his sense of humor by showing a clip of last year's embarrassing computer crash during the debut of Windows 98. In it, his assistant, Chris Cappesello, looked unpleasantly surprised when a blue "error" screen popped up for all the world to see.

Cappesello walked onto the stage Monday to the tune of "I Will Survive" and demonstrated Windows 2000 and other new Microsoft products, including a new computer mouse that has no dust-prone moving parts underneath and can operate on most surfaces.

Company officials say test versions of Windows 2000 will be installed at companies nationwide by May with the hope of putting the product on the market by year's end.

Among other things, the improvements include easier ways for company employees to transfer compute documents into laptops to take on the road, Gates said.

Microsoft employees also demonstrated Windows-based computers' ability to receive images and data by infrared light rather than a hard-wire connection -- an option that brought "oohs" from the crowd.

"I'm really impressed," said Ravi Shah, an instructor with the Computer Learning Center in Chicago. "I think all of this is a little over my students' heads -- but they'll learn."

Others weren't so sure.

"Microsoft does a really, really good job of selling," said Mike Ho, a student at Northwestern University who attended Gates' speech. "But a lot of the things from today I've already seen from other companies, like Apple."

Meanwhile, Torvalds says he realizes that Linux -- mainly used at universities and in some high schools at this point -- doesn't have the clout that either Microsoft or Apple have. But he's sure it has potential.

"Get back to me in 2002, and if your mom and pop can't use it, I'll have to look really hard at it," he said.

Copyright 1999   The Associated Press. All rights reserved.