Sean, I believe that an open science platform is the kind of killer app you're looking for which will, gradually, convince a fair sized group of people to use linux. First, since is an open enterprise by philosophy (if not in fact). Second, there are a large number of freely available scientific apps Third, a LiveCD kind of platform can introduce a science platform to students and professors at minimal impact and cost (Quantian is an example). Fourth, introducing students to these science apps creates a growing pool of people who learn and learn to need linux to support their skills. It will take time but there has already been some discussion of the concept with RedHat. It would be of interest to them because it opens up the educational market at minimal cost. It also opens up the science conference market at the same minimal cost (distribution of LiveCDs). It is also of interest to developers of these packages because they have the "leverage" of being included in these distributions and a common method of sharing code and research work. Such systems we've termed "Doyen systems" (a doyen is the senior or most experienced person in a group). An effort is underway to build such a science platform using a LiveCD for distribution and a Wiki for the host portion of the system. This won't attract everyone but it has the key aspect of attracting students, similar to the advantage Unix had in its early life. Tim Daly
