Re: For anyone that doesn't already know

[Adam Williams <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 From          : klug>klug-request
 To            : adam
 Subject       : Re: For anyone that doesn't already know
 Date          : 12/10/99 08:43


>> VA Linux Systems, a company that among other things, sells servers
>>bundled with Linux made their initial public offering today on Wall
>>Street.  They made a new record!  On the first day of trading, their stock
>>opened at $30 a share, and jumped 690 percent to close at 239 1/4.
>>This was the most an IPO has ever gained in the history of our country.
>>IMO this is extremely good press for Linux, and the entire open source
>>community.  Along with companies like VA Linux and RedHat, Linux is
>>really starting to show the world that it's ready for the mainstream, and
>>won't go away.  It's a great time to be in KLUG fokes.
>This is actually a little scary... Their stock value has NO BASIS IN REALITY!

You must live a very paranoid existance,  very few stock prices have any
basis in reality.  In fact, the economy as a whole has no real basis,
civilization exists on faith, faith that nothing will be drastically diffrent
tommorrow than it is today.  And since the vast majority don't really want
things to change, they don't, and the rich stay rich, etc... (for the most
part).

>_239_?!  C'mon!  Where do they get this stuff?!

Hype.  Linux is the "next great thing",  and this drives up the stock price,
which convinces analysts and reporters that Linux is the "next great thing"
and it continues until something else captures their fancy.

>I wonder what IPO's were like just before the Great Depression...

Small.  But my Grand Father became a millionaire DURING the great depression,
because everyone paniced about the banks, and he quietly bought up thier
"worthless" shares as they dumped them.  How much is that stock worth today?
A lot less than worthless.   Perception is everything.