Linuxworld Expo Wrapup

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.

Comments

A Trend With Expos

[webdevcoder]

It is more of a trend with Expos to get commericalized rather than development. On the other hand, the conventions have remained relatively similar as places to develop ideas ...

How dare!

[(rypto*]

The Backrub Booth! This was the BEST part of the whole show! For $15 I got an amazing backrub by a woman named Ebony

Ebony!! Fucker thats my wife!!

Recap ...

[SuperDuG]

Well lets recap the previous year of linux. Things have stopped being appealing just because they _use_ linux. The only thing I can even think to remember is actually going on more than a year old and that's the zarus. I think people are stating to find that the linux hype is over and it's time for real world examples, that happens to be with IBM. HP/Compaq/Digital/Whatever is a loose cannon. Who knows where they stand on anything (ref: iPaq and Jornada, ref: tru64 and linux).

No presence from BSD??? Well no shit, guess what, BSD isn't another linux distro, they are in fact their own operating systems, that they only thing they have in common with linux is some of the same software runs on both systems. BSD does not "sellout" and doesn't have a buncha weirdo zealots running around claiming it is going to replace windows.

As far as expo's go, they're a good thing, but they only help to get the word out, not much more. Most everything covered at the expo was already known facts that were resaid to the public.

Where's XFree86 4.3.0?

[MarcQuadra]

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!

Re:Where's XFree86 4.3.0?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Sheesh, barf me

[Reality Master 101]

We don't need mansions or yachts to feel good about ourselves. Maybe one reason we don't need money as much as some people is that we save a bunch by using Free and/or Open Source software...

On the other hand, I don't need a vow of poverty to feel good about myself. Man, overcompensating a little about your apparently humble existence? Nothing wrong with that, of course, but throwing your "less rich than thou" attitude in people's faces is just as bad as throwing financial success in people's face.

Just for the record, the amount of money you earn -- either a huge amount or a small amount -- is absolutely no direct measurement of one's character. Apparently Miller believes it is.

Re:Sheesh, barf me

[Roblimo]

You could have read the whole paragraph instead of getting into a high dudgeon over what you perceived as a slight toward people who make too much or too little money. I don't choose my friends by their income levels.

I'm just tired of the idjit "You must be getting paid off by Microsoft!!!" accusations we get every time we so much as mention that company's name. It has been especially fierce lately because of their presence at LinuxWorld and the fact that we (gasp!) have dared to write about it.

My point (which you apparently didn't notice as it flew over your head) was not to play holy over income or lack thereof, but to slam in the idea that no, we are not only not paid by Microsoft to write about them, but that we don't have enough financial need to be susceptible to bribery if they offered, which they haven't.

Not that I expect you to believe any of this, since this is exactly what you'd expect a paid Microsoft flog to say, isn't it?

Whoops! Gotta go! I had more to say, but Chairman Bill is paging me. Maybe he wants to pay me $20,000 to write an article about how Microsoft's SQL server is so much more secure than PostGres.

(The preceding paragraph is a JOKE. I say this in case any Slashdot readers forgot to wear their aluminum foil deflector beanies today and have had their senses of humor deactivated by CIA mind control rays.)

- Robin

Re:Sheesh, barf me

[Reality Master 101]

Not that I expect you to believe any of this, since this is exactly what you'd expect a paid Microsoft flog to say, isn't it?

What the hell? I didn't say anything about Microsoft. Look, you started with (reasonably) trying to state that you aren't paid by Microsoft. OK, fine, point accepted. But then you went off on this tangent about somehow that making a low enough amount of money somehow shields you from taking money from Microsoft (seems like the opposite would be true to me, but moving on...). My point is that the amount of money you make has nothing to do with your ethics, and bringing that into the discussion to prove something proves nothing. Ethics is the question, not income.

I'm just tired of the idjit "You must be getting paid off by Microsoft!!!" accusations we get every time we so much as mention that company's name.

Everyone who matters with an ounce of sense knows that it's absurd that you would be getting paid by Microsoft. They are saying that basically to troll. In any case, ethics can only be proved by past actions, so personally I wouldn't waste time trying to "prove" it.

Anyway, I accept that perhaps I misinterpreted what you wrote, but I think my point is valid.

OpenSource in the White House?

[Big Mark]

open source in government

All we need now is for Blair and Bush to suddenly become GPL zealots. They'll GPL their war plans, accuse Saddam of violating the terms of it, declare war on him and destroy him!

And then it will turn out that they were accidentally released under the BSD licence, they'll get sued for acting wrongly!

-Mark

Re:Pictures??? LAME!!!

[stefanlasiewski]

If a vendor is reduced to using boothbabes, it's because they have no confidence in their own product.

Debian Expo.

[termos]

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

Re:Ask Slashdot Answers?

[Roblimo]

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

Way to endorse MS

[bogie]

Morons gave MS an award. This now validates MS as company that plays nice with OpenSource and Linux. This of course is false as we all know MS is doing its best to destroy linux and every linux company. Someone there pointed out how MS is distributing GPL software with their kit. This fact means jack no matter how ironic it is. What does mean jack is that MS will with its billion dollar marketing budget will turn this award to their advantage in their quest to ruin linux.

I see the trend here lately is to bash people who bash MS. Well maybe sometimes that's called for. Let's not forget the facts though, Microsoft is literally trying to wipe linux from the face of the earth.(I'd like to see someone argue with that fact) This award will only help them in that endevor, thus I think my calling them morons is in this case justified.

BTW incase anyone notices, I posted something similar at the newsforge site but it might not show up , so I reposted here.