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LinuxTag: 40% Growth Over Last Year
LinuxDesktop.it writes "According to this article on pro-linux.de, LinuxTag 2003 was a success: 19500 visitors, up +40% from last year and the number of journalists covering the event increased twofold -- according to pro-linux thanks to the strong signals that the city of Munich switching 14k PCs to Linux sent through Germany.
Exhibitors seemed quite satisfied too because they did not expect that the trade show generated that many business contacts since many reputed it as a more community event rather than a 'where .com meets .org' event."
What other conferences are worth seeing? I would submit that the motivation behind attending a conference is to 'discover' something, or to forward your exposure on some field that you (personally) feel that you don't understand as much as you should. This is probably the result of media buzz, FUD, rumor, or a combination of all three.
Some (negative) examples toward my thesis:
1. no one goes to a conference about vacuum cleaners or washing machines, because we all understand them.
2. No one goes to MacWorld outside the religeous MacHeads, because that 'need to know' isn't there (other than the pure followers).
3. People go to boat fairs, car shows, and consumer electronics to oogle at the latest and greatest. Business people are no better, but this is the one they can justify the cost of going (because they feel that 'gap' in their understanding, or their PHB feels the gap).
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad more and more people are coming to these things, but I think there are other factors/inferences to be pulled from such a dramatic shift.
davejenkins.com |
... is simply Linux itself. We have moved from the early adopter stage to the mass market stage, and we can expect exponential growth of Linux adoption by business until only the late-adopters are still using old-fashioned stuff.
For once this IT wave won't create an economic bubble: it is more like the waves of standardisation that hit new industries after their initial bubbles. Think railways in the 1850s(?) and standardized track sizes.
The real economic boom will be in products and services that make use of this standard and modernised platform.
If I was investing in IT today, it would be in communications systems that rely on a standard OS across multiple arbitrary systems. Think of 'your work anywhere', but relying on Linux on your PDA, mobile phone, desktop, etc.
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Being in Germany what language would you expect the speeches to be done? French? Dutch? Italian? Or is any other language on your mind?
> seeing Linux on X-box ;-)
;-)
Hey -- this is old news. But I even saw Windows XP
Professional on the X-box!
Well, it was the new NX client
for embedded Linux systems, which worked like
"out of the box" on the X-box.
It allows you to connect to any Linux or Windows
system over the internet, and display that
workstation's screen locally. It can use
RDP/rdesktop (for Windows), or RFB/tightVNC (for
any platform) or the NX server (on Linux). The NX
server is the fastest, allowing even for a full
KDE session running over 9600 Baud modem
connection. X-box "developers" had the schock of
their life when had turned their backs to the toy
for a minute and this was enough to connect to
Rome/Italy and display the WinXP Prof screen from
there fullscreen....
I think, NX was the absolute innovation hightlight
of the show. The excellent CUPS talk was even held
using a remote NX log-in into a Linux/CUPS server
from a WinXP client. Performance was excellent and
not distinguishable from a locally run Linux
session. I have now downloaded NX (the server is
freely available for testing) and I am very
pleased with the results.
I tried to find other more general stats like say the market share of Linux and so on. They are very hard to find for various reasons. But here is one that's as good as any (especially since we win!): Linux vs Microsoft.
-- the only thing we have to fear is really scary things
Just from
"""
19500 visitors, up +40% from last year and the number of journalists covering the event increased twofold.
"""
We conclude there were ~14000 people last year, i.e. 5500 more people turned up.
Imagine if last year there were 8500 members of the public, and 5500 journos. And this year there were 8500 members of the public, and 11000 journos.
Sorry, there's no conclusion; I just wanted to insert some deliberate distortion. I in particularly like the idea of journos outnumbering their readership!
YAW.
Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
I was the first time on the LinuxTag and I absolutely love it
I have realy enjoyed the talks, people, presentations, the atmosphere
I am advertising it to my friend allready for the next year
I can not find a single minus
Iztok (Slovenia)
I also loved the kebab store on the corner of hotel
Not necessarily. If they want to reach a broader community they might want to make, e.g., the speeches more accessible by having them in a language that more people can understand. Considering that Karlsruhe (the place where Linux Tag takes place) is only 15-20 minutes away from France, and a few hours drive away from Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, this might not be a bad idea.
[Sorry for my last post. I happened to press the submit button involuntarily.]
Being a Linux user myself I really like the idea of Linux gaining market share.
But.. Can somebody explain why according to Google's zeitgeist Linux is still at 1% market share? According to Google's statistics, the market share of Linux hasn't change since at least August 2003.
I would expect English, because almost all technical work is done in English anywhere in the world. Linux is in English.
Anyhow, the next time I was in town, I wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows. However, I also installed Mozilla and told them to just use that in the future and said it's really just a different kind of Netscape.
Well, I was home again over Christmas and they were ranting and raving about how great Mozilla is. Apparently, they had had conversations with neighbors and friends about this "Mozilla thing" and how it crashes less, blocks pop-ups easily, etc. Of course, none of these people had heard of it, but their interest was immediately sparked. Maybe they're Mozilla users now even...
The point is that Mozilla is a piece of free software that even my not-so-tech-savy parents can evagelize about, because it's a good product for a wide range of people.
Uhm, one is an operating system, the other a database. Compare MySQL to MSAccess, if you like. Anyhow, I disagree with the substance of your comment: there are many companies that provide Linux trainings, and there are hundreds of books and thousands of web sites providing guides. I suspect the wealth of information is significantly wider and deeper than that available for Windows. I also suspect the same is true for MySQL (for instance) compared to MS Access.
The problem of training and culture is one that affects new products in their early adopter phase. Linux is past this phase. No-one seriously asks for manuals for an OS, any more than you ask for a book with Windows (last time I checked, the book was about 25 pages long of which 24 were the license).
The problem of accreditation is a false one, since the 'accredited' institutions are simply ones that have paid Microsoft for a license. It is a circular argument: the vendor is simply reinforcing their own image. Most businesses choose their suppliers on cost and performance and reputation, not simple credentials. MS do a lot of marketing to push 'accreditation', but it's a sham and stops working as soon as the pressure drops.
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