From The Australian LinuxExpo

So I'm at Linux Expo Australia, enjoying the conference. You can hit the link below to read assorted random relevant (and irrelevant) notes from the show floor. No, I haven't seen a kangaroo.

After more than 24 hours of airport/airplane limbo and uncountable time-zone changes, we arrived in Sydney. After 20 hours of sleep, I was almost ready to face the world outside of my hotel room.

The Australian LinuxExpo is held in Darling Harbor in Sydney, which is apparently the epicenter of all Australian tourist activity. The exchange rate is nice tho, so if I wanted to to buy boomerangs or didgeridoos or something, it'd be easy. You can't walk 20 feet without stumbling into a tourist-trap store.

The show itself is fairly typical for a Linux conference. Of course, without a Slashdot booth to hide out in, I'm spending time at either the Debian Booth (hooray! Debian is international!) or at the LinuxCare booth: this sucker is two stories. The ground floor is a little stage where Tridge and others preach their word, and upstairs is a PC graveyard with boxes ranging from iBooks, G4s and Ultra 5s to various laptops, all plugged in to the Net. This is of course where I write this.

Many of the usual suspects are here: SGI, Red Hat, Corel, LinuxCare, Pick, Debian. Absent are VA and Andover (both are represented, although in much smaller numbers than other shows and without the overhead of a booth).

The advantage of not having a booth is that I'm not obligated to spend the whole show trapped in a 20x20 square answering FAQs all day ... instead I get to see talks. Raster did his usual show on Enlightenment, and Rusty did a great job on Netfilter (including revealing that I could use perl to write my own packet filters if I was either clinically insane, or just bored).

I also sat on a panel along with several other much more interesting folks (Tridge, Raster, Terpestra, and hosted by Chris DiBona) on 'Preserving the Linux Community.' Spent a lot of time discussing who is the Linux community (answers ranging from "Anyone who boots Linux" to "Anyone who cares about their operating system and runs Linux.") Eventually the discussion turned to the future of Linux, DeCSS, the MPAA, and what the new corporate influences can do to help. Not a bad panel, although not exactly the busiest of auditoriums.

Maddog gave a good speech last night on his predictions for Linux. Lots of good stuff there, too ... he had some interesting comments about Linux's growth and third world countries. People who are waiting for "Permission" that obviously will never arrive to extend Linux to do what they want it and need it to do. Not so sure about all his talk of "Linux Camps." The average hacker don't look so hot in Swim Trunks ;)

So with the conference portion of the show wrapping up, Raster, Hormes, Rusty and other Aussies are gonna take us to an "Authentic Australian Pub" this evening. I suspect that I won't have a solid memory of the evening: if there is one thing I know for sure it's that these Australians like their lager in great quantities ... I'm not sure if my liver can keep up.

I'll be back in the States next week, after what amounts to my first real vacation since starting Slashdot 2.5 years ago. See ya then.

Comments

Re:work in OZ ?

[jbrw]

I heard (about two years ago) that there was a pretty big loop-hole in getting sponsored work visas.

Turns out you can/could get a recruitment agency to sponsor you. They then contract you out, erm, as a contractor, but technically you're working for the agency, etc., etc.

Seemed to work for a guy I used to work with in the UK, anyway. Also gave him time to have lots of long breaks between contracts and go travelling around Australia.

Not sure if the government has wised up to this yet...

...j

Re:UK Linux Expo?

[Dicky]

Linux Expo 2000 in London 1st/2nd June. I don't know what it's like (I couldn't make it last year), but it's there.

Theme Park London

[acb]

From what I've heard, London has metamorphosed into a sort of Cool Britannia theme park, a themed city owned and operated by multinational corporations, with the main market being tourists looking for that "authentic" London experience, as seen in the latest Working Title comedy.

London is rapidly becoming Disneyland, replete with 97% surveillance camera coverage and conveniently-placed international-standard fast-food franchises; any sort of genuine grass-roots culture is being replaced by themed simulacra. (For example, go to Carnaby Street and witness all the superficial elements of the "swinging sixties" out in force.)

Re:Australian cuisine

[acb]

The best Australian beer I've tried is probably Boag's. It's a small Tasmanian brewery, costs a bit more than the mass-market swill, though has more flavour.

I'm no expert on beer, mind you; though I won't buy the regular stuff these days.

Sydney Travel tips for Rob

[Mithrandir]

Rob, as a former resident (now living in sandgroper territory), I'd like to suggest you get the time to visit a few places around Sydney. I'm sure your aussie hosts will show you the way, but here's my list for foreigners visiting Oz:

• Blue Mountains/Katoomba area. Fantastic scenery and some really nice walks with real history.
• King George IV pub, Picton. Make the finest microbrew stuff and have been doing it for decades, before it became trendy. Try the Dogboulter. I promise that you'll need to use one of the bedrooms there after two or three of these.
• Any boat or ferry trip on the Harbour.
• Royal National Park - Some place like Bundeena on the beach or the quieter Maainbar. If you can ride a motorbike, or opentop car, do the entire trip and stop off at Stanwell tops. Do this on the weekend because you'll get a heap of hang gliders, R/C types and occasionally a _big_ glider.

There are many other places (like any of the beaches!) but these will give you a real taste of some of the variety offered by the NSW region and get you out of the city. Feel free to email me for more places to see :)

Re:Sydney Travel tips for Rob

[Otto]

>Any boat or ferry trip on the Harbour.

I'll agree there! Last June, when I was in Sydney, we took the ferry over to Manly Beach (just 'cause we liked the name), and it was well worth the trip. Some good pubs over in that area too.

One thing I recommend is going sailing in the harbor. We went out on a sailboat for a few hours, got utterly plastered, and generally had one hell of a good time. Immediately after we got back, we stumbled into the casino across the street and I won $200 AU in 10 minutes on a video poker machine. It was a good time.


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Re:Rumour mongering...

[SmilieZ]

Talk about the biggest Dummy Spit! I heard they had tried to force the organisers into giving them the space for free, in return for launching Win2k there.. Looks like they told them were to go.. Tee hee..
The Expo is open till 9pm for Thursday, so come along..
Oh, and get a "Screw you guys, I'm running Linux" mug :)

Cool....

[Kid Zero]

Vacation in Austraila... and you get to do it on company time. Cool. :)

Hackers heaven ....

[LL]

... is an American salary, an Australian lifestyle, and Asian taxes (15% in HK!)

Guess what hell would be :-). Least the yanks feel too superior, the Brisbanites (where ol' McArthur McArthur had his Pacific headquarters during WW2 which coincidentally I hear has been refurnished and is planning a reopening) had this rather wry observation about the Americans .... "overpaid, oversexed, and over here" :-).

Actually, does anyone notice how Linux is slowly turning into a real profession like medical doctors with salaries and conventions in exotic locations to match. Maybe one day we'll have over-heart virtual surgery on the kernel :-).

LL

Linux Conventions.

[Matt2000]

I still find it kind of odd that Linux people are really getting into the convention thing like every other area of computing. Does Linux, being almost entirely developed by people working seperately and communicating instantaneously still make it seem useful to all get together in some warehouse for a couple days and get free pamphlets?

I do not doubt the social reasons for these things, it's great to meet the people you yell at on Usenet, I just wonder as to what some groups are now touting as the business usefulness of these conferences.

Hotnutz.com - Funny

YOU LUCKY BASTARD!

[SpinyNorman]

Hope you're having a good time!

Re:UK Linux Expo?

[radja]

hmm.. I may just have to visit.. ;)

My brief rundown on the expo

[FunkyChild]

I went on Wednesday at around midday, and was quite pleased to see such a large-ish Linux presence. The tying of Linuxexpo to IT2000 (big Aussie computer show) was a great idea, as I saw quite a few non-linux users wandering in from IT2000 and getting enlightened - "What?! You're just giving me your operating system for free?!?!" :)

Personally, I thought the Compaq presentation was mainly fluff. Filled with buzzwords and little substance beneath the big flashy screens. That rotating Xeon light thing at the Intel stand really got on my nerves too. The Intel display was a bit boring though.. Watching the 1Ghz Athlon over in IT2000, running 3Dmark 99 was very sweet! Playing Q3 on those beefy SGI boxen was damn cool too.

The guys I talked to at SuSE and Turbolinux were generally nice and friendly - I especially liked the giving away of the 1-CD distros. I think you could probably tell the Debian guys apart, even if they didn't have debian stuff everywhere - stereotypical messy geeks?

The free stuff was cool... Donuts, coffee, ice cream, stress balls, and those rackspace.com t-shirts (wearing mine now :P). Hehe... I got some strange looks at uni that afternoon, with that Turbolinux tattoo on my face.

Personally, I thought the Compaq presentation was mainly fluff. Filled with buzzwords and little substance beneath the big flashy screens. That rotating Xeon light thing at the Intel stand really got on my nerves too. The Intel stand was a bit boring though.. Watching the 1Ghz Athlon over in IT2000, running 3Dmark 99, was very sweet! Q3 on those SGI boxen was damn cool too.

The guys I talked to at SuSE and Turbolinux were generally nice and friendly - I especially liked the giving away of the 1-CD distros. I think you could probably tell the Debian guys apart, even if they didn't have debian stuff everywhere - stereotypical messy geeks?

The free stuff was cool... Donuts, coffee, ice cream, stress balls, and those rackspace.com t-shirts (wearing mine now :P). Hehe... I got some strange looks at uni that afternoon, with that Turbolinux tattoo on my face. Those guys in the penguin suits were a pain though (but I still put my name in the draw for the Turbolinux scooter! :P)

Anyway, I had a great time, and I hope it continues to grow exponentially. Looking forward to next year!

UK Linux Expo?

[Kamran]

Anyone know if there is a UK Linux expo or anything like it?
If so please post details.

Thanks

Re Aussie Beer

[tpv]

You're not from Victoria are you? Real people don't drink VB. It tastes like crap too. There are three really bad beers in Australia - Fosters, XXXX, VB. (in that order). For a real beer, try Coopers. (Or Full Sail if it's your thing) However Hahn is quite good, and Tooheys will do in a pinch. (A New beats VB any day)

Fairy Penguins

[M@T]

Rob, on the off chance you have the time and inclination, head down to Phillip Island in Victoria to see the inspiration for Tux... its worth the trip...

As an added bonus, you'll get to see some of the real Australia in the people of Cowes and its surrounding countryside.

Further, if you let the rangers down there know you're coming and I'm sure they'll roll out the red carpet. They surely won't have forgotten the huge influx of support and donations received from slashdotters when we had a massive oil spill a few months back.

Tell the newspapers (partic. The Age) you're heading down there and you'd have a nice PR story for Linux to go with it.

just a thought ;)

M@T

When Will there be a Westralian Linuxcon?

[andrewmuck]

Sydney is just like the US for the real Oz experience you need to see Perth.
I think Linux get togethers are good as its an OS that gets used in many diverse ways and it always insightfull to see what others are up to.

cya, Andrew...

Re:When Will there be a Westralian Linuxcon?

[torpor]

No kidding. I'm originally from Perth (live in Los Angeles now) and when I went back to Australia a few years ago (96), I stopped by Sydney to recover from jet lag before heading home to see the folks. I'd lived in Sydney for a year before I came to the US, and was horrified to find out just *how* American Sydney had become.

It could practically be excused for a typical US city - in fact, its annexation into America, while certainly not officially sanctioned by the US/Australian governments, has effectively taken place on an economic/corporate scale.

Subway Sandwich shops everywhere, Starbucks, all the standard US pickin's for a commercial franchises.

And, horror of horrors, it would appear that Sydney-ites have permitted the development of that depraved icon of American commercial culture, the strip mall!

So, if you're an American looking for an Australian vacation, don't go to Sydney expecting to see much in the way of Australian culture. Go to Darwin or Perth - no, better yet. Stay the hell away from Perth, go to Brisbane. You'll love it so much, you'll want to stay there - which is why you shouldn't go to Perth!

Statistics and information for the caring!

[cybermike]

Just thought I'd throw some stats about the show as people were asking above - great to see guys like Rob coming over to Sydney (even if it is a holiday) to support us. (Maybe I'll even grab him when he walks past next time 'n say "G'day").

Last year at IT2000 (the parent show of LinuxExpo) there were 36m^2 (from 3 stands) for Linux, this year there is an entire sub-show (sp?) called LinuxExpo that has over 800m^2 (from 30 stands). That's not a bad increase in one year IMHO.

The unfortunate thing is noone seems to be selling anything? (Apart from Everything Linux) We've had lots of frustrated customers trying to BUY our sample CD's from LinuxCentral because Mandrake / Corel etc. stalls aren't actually selling product - just large fake boxes? What gives distributors?

Saw Raster talking on Enlightenment (great to see UNSW alumni doing so well), Rasmus on PHP and more - all good! Would have loved to have seen Rob give a talk on building web communities or somesuch. But probably not under the guise of the 'Linux' show - next time.

Other interesting things of note

• Quake 3 running on stinking big SGI machines (always fun to watch - but get a network boys!)
  
• Intel stand - big signs saying "Intel supports RedHat, Mandrake, Corel Linux, etc etc" - shouldn't that be the OTHER way around AndyG?!
  
• TurboLinux ice creams and tattoo's - a perpetual supply throughout the day to exhibitors, mucho gratias
  
• The plethora of American accents - maybe not interesting, or even different - a taste of things to come during the Olympics?
  
• IBM? Hello Lou Gerstner?! IBM have a small (3x3 metre) stand in the far corner, not their usual huge whopping glowing bright red 'e-everywhere' - and IBM is fully behind Linux now?
  
• The great guys at the australia.internet.com stand - ok, slightly biased.

Did I miss anything?

If you're wanting to come along but are to cheap to pay $20 to get in, give me a call 0413 310 107 tomorrow or Friday and we'll scoot out with a free pass for ya (if you don't already have one). Only catch being you have to come visit our booth - australia.internet.com - right in front of the door - below the LinuxCare guru lounge - can't miss it.

Any other show reports from attendees? Exhibitors?