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Linuxworld Expo Wrapup

Posted by michael on from the no-booth-babes dept.

Robin Miller has posted his third Linuxworld story. Theevilbalrog sent in a link to some LWCE photos. Some other Linuxworld-related stories include this one about open source in government and this one covering some of the many Linux business stories at the expo.

I was at the Expo on Thursday and Friday. Some of my impressions of the conference:

It's getting more business-y and less geeky every year. There are a lot of reasons for that, and it isn't all bad, but it's still vaguely sad to see.

HP and IBM accounted for about half the floor space - seriously. The Expo promoters must have played the two companies off against each other as far as conference participation went, and besides the large areas devoted to these companies, there were other large sections that were intended to represent an average company solving all its problems with Linux - these areas were jointly sponsored by HP, IBM and the other big companies at Linuxworld. It was - quite - as if the entire conference was owned by IBM and HP, but it was pretty close.

There was virtually no BSD presence. I think I saw some NetBSD people - that was it.

The .org pavilion is still going strong - while the rest of the conference is getting more business-oriented (fewer engineers and more salesdrones), the non-profit free and open source software area is still sizable and well-attended.

There were fewer "check out our neat new hardware gadget running Linux" booths and more "buy an expensive rack server running Linux from us" booths.

Linux.conf.au sucked a fair number of the geekiest attendees away from LWCE. Okay, the Australian conference is a lot smaller, but it's still dumb to schedule them simultaneously.

4 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Where's XFree86 4.3.0? by MarcQuadra · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wasn't XFree86 4.3.0 supposed to out at he expo? I know it's close, but could somebody on the 'inside' let us know about where in the release process you are?

    The XFree86 website is intentionally cryptic about such plans to keep people like me from -expecting- it on such-and-such a date.

    Let's hear from people in the know!

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
    1. Re:Where's XFree86 4.3.0? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes they are. There is the RnR (rotate and resize) extentions and performance should be increased in the render extentions. Jim Getty and Keith Packard have done a lot with bringing X to the level of modern multimedia desktops while staying true to it's network transparent roots. 4.3 is supposed to be a huge improvement.

  2. Debian Expo. by termos · · Score: 4, Informative

    This summer there is DebConf coming up in Oslo, Norway for those of you who are interrested. 4-5 days before the conf. there will be a DebCamp, where you can sit outside in your tent, have a hot dog and talk with fellow Debian geeks. More information at:
    here and
    here

    --
    Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
  3. Re:Ask Slashdot Answers? by Roblimo · · Score: 4, Informative
    In the Call for Questions post I said,"Hopefully, I'll have time to type up the answers over the weekend and post them Monday or Tuesday."

    Today is Sunday in the U.S. It is not Monday or Tuesday. I will post those answers Monday or Tuesday.

    (sigh)

    - Robin