[Sergey Brin and Larry Page were a couple of doctoral students in
computer science at Stanford University when they built their Internet
startup company around Linux. Brin and Page are throwing themselves into
what would appear to be the already overcrowded market for Internet
search engines. Their engine and their company are both called Google
and quite purposefully sit atop Linux rather than some other variant of
Unix or atop Microsoft's Windows NT. So Google is hot. These fresh-faced
kids from Stanford have a good idea that's implemented well. And it is
implemented on Linux, not NT, which worries the heck out of Microsoft.
Ironically, Google was based in Stanford's William Gates building. "The
only time I saw Bill Gates was at the building dedication," said Google
founder Sergey Brin. "Gates was coming down the hall with the department
chairman and he asked 'What operating system do you have running on all
these PCs?' Well of course they were all running Linux, but the chairman
kind of coughed and said the department used many different operating
systems." Google has secured $25 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins
and Sequoia Capital. While that number may seem staggering for a
company's first round, what caused more jaws to drop was the company's
newly named board members: yes, Mr. Doerr, but also Sequoia's Michael
Moritz. The two are from competing venture capital firms, which is
unheard of in the Valley!
Mark Kuharich
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