I had a similar cross-cultural experience at last week's LinuxWorld here in New York, where I spent a few pleasant hours walking the floor and talking to the enthusiastic attendees about Linux's desktop prospects, the role Mac hardware can play there and the chances of peaceful co-existence between Linux and Mac OS X.

It bore out a lot of what I've been hearing from fans of both
platforms: These are communities that can work and play well together on the desktop.