Based on some of the comments around the Net about LinuxWorld.com moving, it seems that the Linux community is fairly annoyed.

I have received several emails requesting my opinion on the matter, and I have given it a lot of thought. The Linux community sometimes forgets that, as the saying goes, business is business. The community is separate from the business side of things, so it really isn't any of our concern what IDG decides to do with LinuxWorld.com. As long as IDG fulfills its legal obligations, it has the right to do whatever it wants. That is not to say that LinuxWorld.com is not a Linux community Website. It is. However, it is run by a for-profit company, so it must adhere to many of the same rules as other businesses.

It's true that the Linux, open source, and free software community has a lot of clout and can influence many things. The eToy.com versus eToys.com lawsuit comes to mind. Apparently, eToys.com had tried to lay claim to eToy.com's trademark, even though eToy.com existed before eToys.com. The lawsuit was bogus and the Linux community knew it. Of course, I am not saying that the Linux community caused eToys.com's fall, but I know that many community members promoted email and phone campaigns against eToys.com. Through such acts, the Linux community has demonstrated a willingness to flex its muscles and be active in the business world. (eToy.com is still in business.)

However, it seems that the one thing the Linux community doesn't have influence over, or perhaps even commitment to, is the profitability of Linux. As the Geek, I offer technical help as much as I can, but this time I offer my thoughts. As I write what is possibly my last Ask the Geek column, I want to ask the community some questions.

I believe that most of the community would agree that the commercial acceptance of Linux is a good thing. I believe that they want to see Linux prosper and grow. They want to see more applications that were once closed source become open source because those applications' creators have found a way to make a living from them. I believe that the Linux community likes the fact that IBM is investing $1 billion in Linux this year. I believe that the Linux community is grateful to VA Linux for providing sites like Linux.com, Slashdot, and SourceForge.

I wonder, however, how committed the community really is to Linux's commercial success. For example, when was the last time you actually purchased a distribution? I have in my possession Stormix, Debian, Kondara, Red Hat (2.1 and every one after 4.2), Mandrake 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2, SuSE 7.1, and a host of others. The only one that I have used the old credit card for is Mandrake, and that was only once.

I wonder how many of us built our Linux machines ourselves instead of calling Penguin Computing or VA Linux for one. I wonder how many of us actually purchased Red Hat or VA stock. Yes, some lost money. However, if you bought VA when it was above 20, I would question your business sense. I own VA stock. I paid 18 for it. I currently have made zero money on VA, but I don't really mind. Is it good business sense? Probably not, but I believe in what VA is trying to accomplish, so I was willing to drop a couple hundred bucks down.

I wonder how many of us have installed Red Hat 6.2 a hundred times on a hundred different machines using only one CD-ROM. I know I have. Freedom from paying for every installation is one of the ideas behind free software, but is it one of the good ideas behind free software?

We feel the lack of monetary support at my company too. I am the Webmaster of the Linux Documentation Project. I currently maintain the Networking, PPP and Consultants HOWTO. My company is the author of the Web HOWTO. We recently had to start asking for donations on our community site (LinuxPorts.com), just to help fund our noncommercial endeavors. It simply isn't profitable to run a community site. At this point, we would be happy if we broke even. No, I am not whining about not making enough money. I am suggesting that the Linux community needs to step up to the plate and start supporting the stampede of elephants it created.

That's right, Red Hat didn't create Red Hat and SuSE didn't create SuSE; the Linux community created them both. If not for the thousands of open source and free software programmers who have dedicated every waking moment to better our beloved Antarctic operating system, the millions of installations that exist today wouldn't be around at all. Those installations exist largely because somewhere deep within the bowels of a datacenter, there are underpaid, underappreciated, overworked geeks who pushed and pushed until supervisors agreed to let them put a Linux box on the network. (OK, sometimes the supervisor didn't even know until after the fact.)

However, despite the personal dedication of millions of geeks to build and extend the software, has enough been done for the various Linux-related projects as a whole? Are open source efforts to build the best software possible enough to get Linux to a state of product viability and general consumer acceptance?

I can't answer the questions I posed. Even though I went on a diatribe about what people should do, I do not purport to have a crystal ball. I am not pretending to know everything, even though it may sound like it. I am just trying to gather my thoughts on all that is happening with the community today. Do you have the answers? Let us know what you think in the forum.

LinuxWorld.com gave me my first real opportunity to express myself within the journalism community. It is to LinuxWorld.com that I owe my ability to write for other community and journalistic sites. It is to LinuxWorld.com that I owe thanks for the many fine people I have met over the last year.