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How did this blatant advertisement get past the /. editors? Oh, let me guess - roblimo will be there this year as well.

IAC, this is another LWE-style commercial business conference. There is no technical content worth mentioning, and they treat the FLOSS community like shit. Last time they grudgingly gave us a stall at the outskirts of the expo. Like we were some sort of lower caste, unworthy pieces of scum. Worse was that our LUG accepted it like someone was doing us a favour.

They charge an entrance fee that equals half a month's salary of an average programmer here, talks are largely by vendors selling their goods, and they get in a few big names (they call them "Linux Gurus") for gloss effect.

Linux Asia is a pure money making exercise. Nothing Linux or FLOSS about it. I wouldn't be surprised seeing Steve Ballmer giving a keynote address there this time. Would be very appropriate.

For contrast, check out this event. Check out the speakers and the talks. Now THAT's a FLOSS/hacker conference. And they don't advertise on /.

How did this blatant advertisement get past the /. editors? Oh, let me guess - roblimo will be there this year as well.

IAC, this is another LWE-style commercial business conference. There is no technical content worth mentioning, and they treat the FLOSS community like shit. Last time they grudgingly gave us a stall at the outskirts of the expo. Like we were some sort of lower caste, unworthy pieces of scum. Worse was that our LUG accepted it like someone was doing us a favour.

They charge an entrance fee that equals half a month's salary of an average programmer here, talks are largely by vendors selling their goods, and they get in a few big names (they call them "Linux Gurus") for gloss effect.

Linux Asia is a pure money making exercise. Nothing Linux or FLOSS about it. I wouldn't be surprised seeing Steve Ballmer giving a keynote address there this time. Would be very appropriate.

For contrast, check out this event. Check out the speakers and the talks. Now THAT's a FLOSS/hacker conference. And they don't advertise on /.

How did this blatant advertisement get past the /. editors? Oh, let me guess - roblimo will be there this year as well.

IAC, this is another LWE-style commercial business conference. There is no technical content worth mentioning, and they treat the FLOSS community like shit. Last time they grudgingly gave us a stall at the outskirts of the expo. Like we were some sort of lower caste, unworthy pieces of scum. Worse was that our LUG accepted it like someone was doing us a favour.

They charge an entrance fee that equals half a month's salary of an average programmer here, talks are largely by vendors selling their goods, and they get in a few big names (they call them "Linux Gurus") for gloss effect.

Linux Asia is a pure money making exercise. Nothing Linux or FLOSS about it. I wouldn't be surprised seeing Steve Ballmer giving a keynote address there this time. Would be very appropriate.

For contrast, check out this event. Check out the speakers and the talks. Now THAT's a FLOSS/hacker conference. And they don't advertise on /.

Oh btw, I would puke everytime I read the malayalam translation of "Retry, Cancel, Abort" :)

A quick Google for similar initiatives in India pulls up a huge number of hits, one good example being the Linux Localisation Initiative in Bangalore. The point is that HP have realised that with Linux one can empower people to do for themselves. Kinda like the "don't feed the man, teach him how to fish" story, but that is exactly what Open Source enables us to do. You should see the look in such people's eyes when they realised that they have just solved a problem not just for themselves, but for a whole community of people. Priceless stuff.

LB/2003 apparently was a world record. 96 hours of talks in 3 days! It was on Slashdot yesterday.

I got a chance to meet Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman, both of Ximian and Mono fame. I also met Naba Kumar, author of the Anjuta IDE for Linux, and a few other veterans of the Linux community in India. I didn't get the time and opportunity to meet Rasmus Lerdorf (author of PHP) and Jeremy Zawodny (Yahoo's MySQL guru) though.

In his free time, he enjoys making wide range of technologies interoperate with each other.

Well, transcripts of 96 talks are kind of difficult. The slides will be up as always after the event.

And for free, of course :)

As in beer.

Check the schedules a couple of days after the event.

If you are interested, you can also check out the slides from LB/2002 and LB/2001.

Well, transcripts of 96 talks are kind of difficult. The slides will be up as always after the event.

And for free, of course :)

As in beer.

Check the schedules a couple of days after the event.

If you are interested, you can also check out the slides from LB/2002 and LB/2001.

Well, transcripts of 96 talks are kind of difficult. The slides will be up as always after the event.

And for free, of course :)

As in beer.

Check the schedules a couple of days after the event.

If you are interested, you can also check out the slides from LB/2002 and LB/2001.

Micro soft ;-)

Micro soft ;-)

Interestingly, Harald Welte (creator of IPTables) will be giving a talk at Linux/Bangalore 2003, among 100s of others.

Not long ago, the guys from encore gave a talk at our local lug on the simputer and from what i could gleam, they now seem to be moving towards customizing the simputer for special sectors like Manufacturing cos., etc., instead of relying too much on it's original purpose to fund themselves. You can find slides from the talks here.

Here is a more practical story on Linux in India

Puleeeze!

That story is based on a reporter attending a vendor event that as specifically run as a hype-builder for the aforesaid PC product. The reporter clearly has no clue what is really happenning in India - maybe she should try attending a real OpenSource event - the next one comes along this December.

Events like the one reported on are really no representation of the real state of Linux/OpenSource in India. The organisers are essentially riding the wave, but are *completely* out of touch with the realities of OpenSource in India. I know - I was at a meeting of that organising committee where I was told "it is time something is done to promote OSS in India" - this was less than a month after LB/2002 that had thousands of participants, was sponsored by the very same people (HP and IBM) and was totally endorsed by the Indian Government!

If you want to know more about Linux and OpenSource in India, then events like the one described in that article (and the article itself) are certainly not good resources.

Here is a more practical story on Linux in India

Puleeeze!

That story is based on a reporter attending a vendor event that as specifically run as a hype-builder for the aforesaid PC product. The reporter clearly has no clue what is really happenning in India - maybe she should try attending a real OpenSource event - the next one comes along this December.

Events like the one reported on are really no representation of the real state of Linux/OpenSource in India. The organisers are essentially riding the wave, but are *completely* out of touch with the realities of OpenSource in India. I know - I was at a meeting of that organising committee where I was told "it is time something is done to promote OSS in India" - this was less than a month after LB/2002 that had thousands of participants, was sponsored by the very same people (HP and IBM) and was totally endorsed by the Indian Government!

If you want to know more about Linux and OpenSource in India, then events like the one described in that article (and the article itself) are certainly not good resources.

Here is a more practical story on Linux in India

Puleeeze!

That story is based on a reporter attending a vendor event that as specifically run as a hype-builder for the aforesaid PC product. The reporter clearly has no clue what is really happenning in India - maybe she should try attending a real OpenSource event - the next one comes along this December.

Events like the one reported on are really no representation of the real state of Linux/OpenSource in India. The organisers are essentially riding the wave, but are *completely* out of touch with the realities of OpenSource in India. I know - I was at a meeting of that organising committee where I was told "it is time something is done to promote OSS in India" - this was less than a month after LB/2002 that had thousands of participants, was sponsored by the very same people (HP and IBM) and was totally endorsed by the Indian Government!

If you want to know more about Linux and OpenSource in India, then events like the one described in that article (and the article itself) are certainly not good resources.

Some people from Microsoft gave a talk on Shared Source Implementation of .NET in Linux Bangalore 2002, a conference abt linux related technologies held in bangalore. You need to appreciate their balls. The presentation is in star office format.

While on the subject of India and FLOSS, check out the site for Linux Bangalore/2002 the second conference in the series. Here's stuff on last year's event, Linux Bangalore/2001 .

-- start quote --
Linux Bangalore/2002 is a three day conference on understanding and using Linux technologies. This conference aims to cover a large number of areas that include Core Linux technologies, Open Source, Embedded Systems and other allied technologies.
-- end quote --

The motto of the conference is "Technology for a free world". And yes, HP and IBM are sponsoring this event together, no less.

While on the subject of India and FLOSS, check out the site for Linux Bangalore/2002 the second conference in the series. Here's stuff on last year's event, Linux Bangalore/2001 .

-- start quote --
Linux Bangalore/2002 is a three day conference on understanding and using Linux technologies. This conference aims to cover a large number of areas that include Core Linux technologies, Open Source, Embedded Systems and other allied technologies.
-- end quote --

The motto of the conference is "Technology for a free world". And yes, HP and IBM are sponsoring this event together, no less.

The linux groups in India are all small and pretty restricted in terms of their activities.

Wo-AH! the "small" Linux User group *I* belong to (http://linux-bangalore.org) would take major offence at that statement, as would those in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Cochin, Trivandrum, Chennai, Calcutta, Pune, Indore, etc. etc. etc., that represent thousands and thousands of Linux/OpenSource users in India, and each of these LUGs results in more and more Linux/OSS adoption in its area.

Any of the LUGs I have mentioned above are far more than simple "tech" groups. Very few LUGs across the world are as active (and more importantly - successful) as the ones in India, because unlike in the rest of the world, they actually have a "pretty fertile field to sow their crops in" (to spin an outrageously corny phrase based on India's agricultural heritage).

If you doubt that, head here - http://linux-bangalore.org/2002 - and watch what is happening. Watch as this event develops, gains momentum over the next few weeks, gets support from industry giants and LUGs.

Did you *really* think that Bill Gates is in Bangalore tomorrow morning because it is "business as usual"?

The linux groups in India are all small and pretty restricted in terms of their activities.

Wo-AH! the "small" Linux User group *I* belong to (http://linux-bangalore.org) would take major offence at that statement, as would those in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Cochin, Trivandrum, Chennai, Calcutta, Pune, Indore, etc. etc. etc., that represent thousands and thousands of Linux/OpenSource users in India, and each of these LUGs results in more and more Linux/OSS adoption in its area.

Any of the LUGs I have mentioned above are far more than simple "tech" groups. Very few LUGs across the world are as active (and more importantly - successful) as the ones in India, because unlike in the rest of the world, they actually have a "pretty fertile field to sow their crops in" (to spin an outrageously corny phrase based on India's agricultural heritage).

If you doubt that, head here - http://linux-bangalore.org/2002 - and watch what is happening. Watch as this event develops, gains momentum over the next few weeks, gets support from industry giants and LUGs.

Did you *really* think that Bill Gates is in Bangalore tomorrow morning because it is "business as usual"?

IT.COM is a technology business expo, and while it has some Linux content, it is largely representative in nature.

If you want to see the true might of Linux, check out Linux Bangalore/2002, India's biggest annual Linux event, held in December.

At the Bangalore LUG, we have a simple system:

First of all, sponsored or not, members attending are expected to contribute something. We typically announce what the cost of the meet will be, and divvy it up over the expected number of attendees (typically 80-100), which sets the amount each person is expected to pay (ranges between Rs.66-Rs.100, with US$1=Rs.48).

We then scout for sponsors (which we usually get) and dump the sponsorship money into the pool, and reduce "gate fees" for members. If the sponsorship amount is less than the cost of the meet, members make up the difference.

However, even if the sponsorship covers the cost of the meet completely, we collect a minimal amount (usually Rs.25) from members. This minimum is never announced - members arrive mentally prepared to pay the full amount.

This is for two reasons: to stock up for lean times (next meet may not be sponsored, which happens occassionally) and to act as a "filter", so that the sponsor does not have to pay for people who aren't really interested in Linux/OpenSource, but who would come simply because there is free grub to be had.

It should be noted that we typically meet in upclass hotels, and place great emphasis on good food, airconditioning and facilities such as data projectors, screens, amplification and other stuff. This does cost a bit, but thanks to this system we have successfully pulled this off since 1998.

As an aside - we have been accused of "violating the spirit of Linux and OpenSource" by charging people for attending, or driving up the cost by using upclass venues.

I think that is a dumb attitude. The BLUG delivers a lot of value to its members in terms of technical talks, events and other stuff, and it isn't that we are taking candy from kids - the typical cover charge is far lower than what a student would spend on two beers and a meal (around Rs.120-150) at Bangalore's favourite watering hole - the Windsor Pub.

Since most of our members are IT professionals (hey, we are the *BANGALORE* LUG ;), the charge is *way* below the financial threshold of pain for anyone even casually interested in the meeting content, which is always well planned and delivered.