Has LinuxWorld peaked?

Every time there's a LinuxWorld, there is a certain need to define what it's all about. One year it was about integration. One year about the desktop. One year about virtualization. This year, it's about virtualization.
Yes, again.
Like a rerun of your favorite TV show, virtualization has made the scene at LinuxWorld Boston 2006 this week, as vendor after vendor made big announcements on that which is virtual.
XenSource was the clear winner in this arena, with Novell, Red Hat, and Virtual Iron all announcing integration of the Xen paravirtualization platform in their upcoming releases. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 will have it first, followed later this year by Red Hat and Virtual Iron. Needless to say, the folks at XenSource are feeling pretty good.
So, too, is the crew of SWsoft, which won the popular vote of the show for Virtuozzo in the Product Excellence awards. VMware also announced that it is sharing its core virtual machine format and specification license free. Heck, even Microsoft got into the act, announcing it will be give away Virtual Server 2005. Whenever it ships, of course.
It wasn't all about virtualization, though. Cool things are happening in the messaging arena, with Scalix and OpenXchange server generating some show buzz.
The show itself was really slow this year, with much lower energy and attendance. Open Source guru Bruce Perens groused in this annual State of the Open Source press conference that this meant that clearly the decision by show organizers to shift the show from New York to Boston was a bad idea. We might go one step further: We are wondering if two LinuxWorlds in the United States are a good idea. period. And it's not just us.
One thing we noticed on the show floor this year was the distinct lack of certain vendors. Namely, IBM and HP, who usually have some sort of show floor presence at LinuxWorld.
Not this time. Oh, they're here. Each company has had some sort of customer fete, and IBM has its usual reserved meeting rooms to meet with press, customers, and the like. But no mega-giant booths dominating the ground and airspace here at the BCEC.
But here's what is really odd about this. We knew beforehand HP wasn't coming to the floor. It had cited expense as the major reason. According to the person we spoke with, a company like HP can plunk up to $2 million down on a show trip — that's booth materials, floor space, marketing, travel, and lodging. We can relate to the need to save that kind of money.
IBM's lack of floor presence may be related to this — after all, $2 million isn't exactly pocket change. But we were surprised to hear a source from IBM confirm a rumor we'd heard. Apparently, it was his understanding that IBM and HP has entered a gentlemens' agreement regarding floor attendance, or lack thereof.
Was this a savings pull-out? Or are HP and IBM wondering what we are all starting to wonder: What's the real draw of LinuxWorld? It's clearly no longer a developer/community show. One executive told us he thinks it should be a show for the customers. He might have a point. The question is, can IDG create the kind of energy and program to attract those Linux customers in?