R0045/2026-03-29/Q004
Query: At the OSCON 2004 conference, there was a panel discussion about open source in industry where panelists from Sun, Microsoft, and possibly the Linux Foundation argued Linux couldn't succeed in the commercial world, and an audience member (W. Phillip Moore from Morgan Stanley) challenged them. Was this incident documented? Look for Doc Searls coverage in Linux Journal and any other press coverage of the exchange.
BLUF: The OSCON 2004 incident was documented, though not precisely as described in the query. Doc Searls covered Phil Moore's remarks in his "Linux for Suits" column in the November 2004 issue of Linux Journal (article #7730), titled "We're Going to Be a 90% Linux Shop." Moore spoke at a breakout session titled "Commercial OSS Business" at OSCON, not as an audience challenger to a hostile panel. Moore, Executive Director in Morgan Stanley's UNIX Engineering team, predicted the firm would be "a 90% Linux shop" by 2006-2007 and described the exponential growth of open source at Morgan Stanley. He also expressed concern about speaking publicly due to the SCO litigation environment.
Answer: H3 (Documented but differs from the query's framing) · Confidence: High
Summary
| Entity |
Description |
| Query Definition |
Question as received, clarified, ambiguities, sub-questions |
| Assessment |
Full analytical product |
| ACH Matrix |
Evidence × hypotheses diagnosticity analysis |
| Self-Audit |
ROBIS-adapted 4-domain process audit |
Hypotheses
| ID |
Statement |
Status |
| H1 |
The incident was documented as described — panel challenge from audience |
Eliminated |
| H2 |
The incident was not documented and cannot be verified |
Eliminated |
| H3 |
The incident was documented but differs from the query's description |
Supported |
Key Finding: Doc Searls Article
| Field |
Detail |
| Title |
"We're Going to Be a 90% Linux Shop" |
| Publication |
Linux Journal, November 2004 (article #7730) |
| Author |
Doc Searls ("Linux for Suits" column) |
| Subject |
Phil Moore, Executive Director, UNIX Engineering, Morgan Stanley |
| Venue |
OSCON 2004, "Commercial OSS Business" breakout session |
| Key quote |
"by 2006 or 2007, we're going to be a 90% Linux shop" |
| Additional context |
Moore noted Morgan Stanley was primarily Solaris-based but "rapidly moving to Linux"; expressed concern about speaking publicly due to SCO litigation |
Searches
| ID |
Target |
Type |
Outcome |
| S01 |
OSCON 2004 Morgan Stanley panel |
WebSearch |
1 selected, 9 rejected |
| S02 |
Doc Searls Linux for Suits article |
WebSearch |
1 selected, 9 rejected |
Sources
| Source |
Description |
Reliability |
Relevance |
Evidence |
| SRC01 |
Linux Journal article #7730 (via LJ website and ACM) |
High |
High |
2 extracts |
Revisit Triggers
- Access to Internet Archive copies of OSCON 2004 program schedule
- Location of video recordings from OSCON 2004 sessions