[iforgotpassword]

As VMware is getting considerably more expensive it's reasonable to assume some CEOs are aware of that. It would be enough if one or two of them for one reason for another googled "cheap virtualization" or talked to some "tech guy" and somehow "Linux is cheap/free and can do virtualization" is what stuck with them. Then they talk to their friends at the golf club and after a while the topic reaches critical mass in those circles and spreads across those companies, probably not without playing "Chinese whispers" along the way.

[spoonjim]

There are close to 0 Fortune 500 CEOs who would be DIRECTLY reaching out to Linux virtualization companies. There could easily be a CEO who convenes a meeting with the CIO and COO to "Find 10% savings on operational software costs" but the idea that they are directly reaching out to vendors is one of those "tell me you've never worked with a Fortune 500 C-suite without telling me that you've never worked with a Fortune 500 C-suite" memes.

[iforgotpassword]

Nowhere in my post did I suggest CEOs reaching out to "Linux virtualization companies" themselves. Even the linked reddit post doesn't. It's talking about CEOs ordering someone/some team from their company to contact a tech consulting company to figure out whether switching to Linux based virtualization would be feasible.

CEOs hearing about some stuff and immediately jumping on it and ordering someone to look into it is quite common.

[bluGill]

That depends on the company. Some companies spend a lot more on tech than others. CEOs tend to be aware of where the high costs are, so if your company spends a lot on Tech, I could see the CEO knowing at least something about it.