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ACE2K Shows Folks There Are Doors Out Of Windows
dmsmith writes: "Scheduled for Oct. 20-22 in Melbourne, Australia, is the Alternative Computer Expo 2000 (ACE2K), the computer expo with no Windows. You can read a bit about it here at the Fairfax IT news site. Also you can go to their site www.ace2k.net." Rather than pushing zealotry on behalf of any particular operating system, these guys have a cool idea: provide a forum that proves there are different ways to do anything. Wish there was an American equivalent -- or is there? How about elsewhere?
I don't really know if the technical and practical difference, or the amount of usage and marketshare they get; between Windows and other OS's is so pronounced that they would be called alternatives. Linux is close to equal, or surpasses Windows, in many settings, such as education, ISP, research and science.
I would say that a more accurate name for this show would be Alternative Desktop Computer Expo (but I guess that doesn't acronymize as well), since the Desktop computer is really the only place where Windows could be said to be the only game in town.
A more interesting show would be one on totally different OSs, that is OSs that are totally conceptually seperated from such things as directories, files, applications, documents, stdin\stdout, and all the things that we take for granted on a OS.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Oh, come on! A better headline would have been 'ACE2K Shows Windows The Door' :)
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
than by cutting out a sharply defined microsoft-shaped hole and saying your conference is about everything but this hole. microsoft doesn't put on "anything but linux" or "anything but solaris" shows.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
It's interesting to see, in the very same city where the software engineers were selected by Microsoft, a *nix expo. I wonder if this will lead to a reaction similar to that of combining a strong base and strong acid, or even worse, matter and anti-matter, or time and anti-time. Food for thought for the Trekkies in us.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
This sounds like a brilliant idea. Does anybody know if anything like this is being organised in the UK? We usually get a fair number of computer expos, why not this?
If not, maybe this will spur on people to try something like this. Still, I'd love to be able to pursuade my employer that it is worth paying to send me to Oz for it!
I think that for some applications, using a MS product is the different way to do things. I mean, there are lots of apps that have been traditionally Unix, and you kind of have to hack around to get something equivalent to work in Windows.
And sometimes, Windows does work best. Believe it or not. Don't get me wrong, I like Unix for lots of stuff, but who said one OS has to be a one stop shop for everything we need to do? Rather than pushing the strong points of the OS's, we are no better than MS, a lot of us want to see Linux, or some other OS become a monopoly like Windows is. It isn't like hardware where you have to make a choice, you can run as many OS's as you want.
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I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Why would I go to a computer show where I can't find out the lattest wonderful products from M$?
Now if they had invited Bill Gates to speak, now that would be worth seeing.
There is also going to be the "Geek Night Out" on Oct 20th.
Ok, I'll bite the troll
Having an expo that excludes Windows isn't necessarily anti-Windows zealotry, it's simply pro-alternatives. Would you describe an alternative medicines show as being "anti medical profession zealotry"? Probably not, it's just appealing to a particular market segment. This show wants to attract a niche market, not the wider world of ALL oses. Nothing wrong with that, in the same way as there is nothing wrong with a Windows-only show if that is what you want to go to. Let the public choose.
If windows was there, probably 90% of the displays/exhibitors would be windows-centric. That's fine if you want to find out about the latest windows shit. But I don't use Windows. I use Be & Linux. I have saved myself time and 90% the noise has been filtered out for me already.
Better to stay silent, and let people think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt
Shouldn't this be how any non-Microsoft system should be touted--an alternative way to get things done? It seems that a lot of energy is spent here focusing on Microsoft's foibles rather than Linux/BSD/BeOS/'s strengths. Microsoft is constrained by the public and it's investors (and the government, blah blah blah). Linux (and I'm talking the kernel and the GNU set of tools, not any particular distribution) is not and that's why it can advance so much more quickly.
Rather than tearing something down (which, by the way, gains you no credibility whatsoever), forums such as ACE2K should be brought up as a way to show everyone that anything is possible. If done right, people realize that there are other (sometimes better) ways of doing things. Isn't that what we're all after?
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
GOBACK.
If windows was there, probably 90% of the displays/exhibitors would be windows-centric.
Possibly even more than 90%...
That's fine if you want to find out about the latest windows shit
Or you like seeing loads of stands which are displaying more or less the same thing...