The Next Silicon Valley?

"An unlikely army of hacker hippies, geek visionaries, idealistic teachers and corporate giants is making Portland ground zero of a digital revolution." The GNU/Linux computer operating system is starting to worry Microsoft to the north, and could mean big things for Portland. "Portland's open-source rep is already attracting jobs. PolyServe, a company selling software that runs on Linux, moved its 60-person headquarters from California to Beaverton in early 2003 because key programmers it worked with were already here...'Portland has an extremely high talent level,' says [one business owner]. 'The cost of doing business is low compared to Silicon Valley or Seattle. So you have the advantage of a great pool to hire from, and in the West Coast time zone, you're close to the other tech meccas.'"