And you thought the Net was a big draw

Start-ups are all in the same business: selling promises to venture capitalists. And what a business it is. In the second quarter of this year, VCs spent $2.13 billiondollars on 227 start-ups in the Bay Area alone. That's nearly double the money spent in the same period one year earlier. Most of the recipients were in the "Internet space." And at least two were Linux-related. One was VA Linux Systems, which received $25 million. The other was Google, which received another $25 million.*

But if the sum of ink being spilled on a subject is a good harbinger of investments to come, look for Linux to be a prime attractor of VC money real soon. Right now the only thing holding the VC's back is the very same question that kept them from investing in those Internet companies a few years back: "If it's free and nobody owns it, how can you make money at it?"

We're sure you can think of something.

*Source: San Jose Mercury News, Wednesday, August 11, 1999.