Yes, that's actually the way I remember it around that time. People were just generally excited about hacking on Linux and the community as a whole had a sense

Yes, that's actually the way I remember it around that time. People were just generally excited about hacking on Linux and the community as a whole had a sense of popularity about it that began in the 90s. OTOH, I'm willing to accept the notion that, given all that, the big players still pushed the industry direction.