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aKademy Team Announces International Lineup

Posted by michael on from the free-software-olympics dept.

Telex4 writes "The aKademy Team is proud to announce the schedules for the KDE Community World Summit 2004, code-named 'aKademy', taking place in Ludwigsburg, Germany from August 21st to 29th. Featuring speakers from IBM, Novell, SUSE, Conectiva, Trolltech, HP and many community hackers and activists, it promises to be a highlight of the Free Software calendar. With presentations both for developers and users, tutorials from the experts in their field, and plenty of opportunities to discuss significant issues like usability and Qt4/KDE4, you can't afford to miss it. For more information, you can read the full announcement. Go to the conference web site and register now to avoid disappointment!"

83 comments

  1. Since I can't attend... by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 1

    I can't attend the conference, but I certainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontact.

    --
    bash: rtfm: command not found
    1. Re:Since I can't attend... by xanadu-xtroot.com · · Score: 0, Redundant

      s/conference/konference

      --
      I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
      I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
  2. What, no SCO speakers? by GrueMaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where's the Darl when you need him?

    1. Re:What, no SCO speakers? by AceCaseOR · · Score: 1

      Darl's hiding under his bed muttering, "They're out to get me!"

      --
      Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
    2. Re:What, no SCO speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Ralph Yarro? I guess he's too busy with his roles running Canopy, SCO and Trolltech.

    3. Re:What, no SCO speakers? by FireBook · · Score: 1

      he's probably got a point. Him turning up could lead to a frantic search for some rope and the nearest tree ;o)

      --
      My other OS is also FreeBSD
  3. also for newbies? by toetagger1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is this an event that could potentially be used to bring my friends who I want to convince to switch to Linux, of is this only for hardcore users?

    --
    who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
    1. Re:also for newbies? by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's for anyone who wishes to attend. From the conference website:

      Who is it for?

      The event is of high interest for

      * all active KDE contributors: programmers, artists, documentation writers, translators, promotors and other supporters,
      * most KDE power users,
      * as well the general public interested in Linux and Unix desktop systems.

      All of them will find many very interesting topics covered here. They are all invited to come, attend and participate in our discussions and work.

      --
      bash: rtfm: command not found
    2. Re:also for newbies? by NetNifty · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sounds like it from : "Tutorials and trainings by experienced instructors" and: "Who is it for? The event is of high interest for * all active KDE contributors: programmers, artists, documentation writers, translators, promotors and other supporters, * most KDE power users, * as well the general public interested in Linux and Unix desktop systems."

      --
      Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
    3. Re:also for newbies? by Homology · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Is this an event that could potentially be used to bring my friends who I want to convince to switch to Linux, of is this only for hardcore users?

      KDE runs just fine on *BSD as well. In fact, I'm using KDE on OpenBSD. Just in case you are considering other free alternatives to Linux :-)

  4. Re:bah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    My first first post! I'd like to thank the Academy, and all the little people who made this possible.

    Dumbass... at least make it on-topic and thank the aKademy.

  5. Re:Khrist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    In related news the aKademy Team announced a new range of KDE branded keyboards.

    Unlike regular keyboards with the letter 'C' KDE branded keyboards have the two 'K' keys.

  6. See Also - dot.kde.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Trolltech and the KDE E.v have announced a supplemental agreement to the KDE Free Qt Foundation. Might this fortell some maneuvers behind an upcomping Trolltech corporate purchase or merger? OTOH, perhaps this is only to reassert the agreement given Qt4's reengineered library structure (the new library will have core and utility classes split out from GUI classes), but some of the language could be interpreted as relieving fears of a would-be Trolltech corporate suitor. Stay tuned. It should be a very exciting summer/early fall for KDE and Trolltech.

    1. Re:See Also - dot.kde.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rampant theory time.

      Microsoft will buy out QT 4 and make it the default widget set and begin shipping KDE as the default desktop (with additions for old explorer calls to still work) finally replacing the god awful explorer shell. KHTML will be the defaul HTML renderer (but sadly used inside of IE instead of konqueror).

      Yes I know this is sad,hence my karma protection plan by making this thing start off at 0 ;). But anyway is there any project to get KDE to work on windows without the cygwin/X jumparound I currently work with (I know I can tell exploreer.exe to fuckitself and boot a normal X session and remote login, but then my local apps have.... issues).

  7. Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by DanThe1Man · · Score: 1

    Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people?

    I don't understand why this is not happening. It would pretty much end their "problem" with people changeing to Desktop Linux.

    (playing Devil's Advicate of course, I really hope this doesn't happen)

    1. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how about i punch you in your stupid fucking head?

    2. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      im with you. that fucktard deserves to be thrown in prison with the GNAA.

    3. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people?

      Maybe because you can't spell you fucking retard!

    4. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Way much trouble to hire these guys.
      Brainwashing (mainly with money) some guys who just got out the university is easier and faster.

      Look at this guy:
      http://www.caustik.com/
      Worked for ms helping them develop the .NET platform/framework and now coding an open source xbox emulator for windows.

    5. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was the funniest reply I've read on slashdot in a long time.

    6. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by bluGill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some of them have a good job. Most people I know are not willing to pick up their family and move to washington when they already have a job that pays enough. Remember, that means the wife (sadly female programmers are rare enough that I don't count them) needs to quit her job too. that means leaving the grand parents, and friends behind.

      If MS had offered me a job 6 months ago when I was looking I would have been forced to re-consider. Now however I'm making enough money. I'll take a new job around home for little more than I'm making, if it is otherwise good. Even around home though I'm making enough that I can afford to tell MS I don't want your job. Course if they offered me a couple million a year I'd work for them, but 3 years latter I'd be retired, and working on KDE again for the fun of it, so MS wouldn't gain anything. (actually they'd loose, right now I don't have the energy to program after work....)

      My experiences are not the same as everyone else, but some of the above applies to most people.

    7. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by JamesKPolk · · Score: 1

      Who says hiring them would stop them? Most of KDE's work was done by people playing around on nights and weekends.

      (That's of course why so many ex-MS customers prefer GNOME -- they prefer something backed by a big corporation -- but that's another matter)

      Microsoft would try some special employment contracts, I'm sure, but it'd take a lot of money to hire up every KDE contributor for enough money to buy their loyalty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just to see new contributors spring up to replace them.

      Buyouts only work for corporate competitors, not communities.

    8. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by 10Ghz · · Score: 1
      That's of course why so many ex-MS customers prefer GNOME -- they prefer something backed by a big corporation


      What "big corporation" would that be? Novell? They support KDE as well! Everybody constantly says how corporations are switching to Gnome, whereas some individual users are the ones using KDE. But I don't see that happening. I see companies switching to Gnome, but I see them switching to KDE as well. I don't think Gnome has that much bigger market-share with corporates than KDE has. Hell, KDE might be the one with a bigger share of the market!
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    9. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by sultanoslack · · Score: 1

      Well, because you see -- to hire someone they have to agree to it. Last I checked there's no provision for hiring people by force. ;-)

      Also, as opposed to the job climate for traditional development positions, believe it or not, core developers of large, well recognized OSS projects don't exactly have a hard time finding employment. When you could work for quite a few companies -- why would one chose to work for their "competitor"?

      Also, in addition to what was said in a later post, MS's development is centered in the US; most KDE developers aren't in the US and aren't going to leave their home countries to work for a company that they don't like anyway.

      I for one would not work for MS. When the company that I work for was in talks with MS about being acquired many of us in the LinuxLab made it clear that we'd be on the way out if the acquisition went through -- fortunately it didn't.

    10. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe they do not _want_ to work for Microsoft.

      Money is not everything, you see.

    11. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by JamesKPolk · · Score: 1

      The big corporation would be Sun. Back in the day, so many slashdot posters were saying KDE is dead because it doesn't have backing of someone like Sun.

      What market, by the way? To my knowledge, KDE and GNOME give everything away. There is no economic transaction involved.

    12. Re:Why isn't Microsoft hireing these people? by 10Ghz · · Score: 1
      The big corporation would be Sun.


      Sun supports their Java desktop (which is based on Gnome). I don't think they offer any official support to regural Gnome. And Gnome doesn't really advertise their desktop as "Now with Sun backing!".

      And besides, looking at Suns Linux-related comments, I'm not sure that is having Sun aboard an asset or a liability.

      What market, by the way?


      Corporate users. In this case it simply refers to number of users. I was not talking about revenues and such. Just because I used word "market" does not mean that I was talking about sales.
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  8. GNOME failed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The horrible failure of GNOME has lead into a Fork. People join their project irc channel in masses on #goneme irc.freenode.net

  9. How long... by DAldredge · · Score: 0, Redundant

    How long till Troll Tech is bought by Novell? I mean Novell just did a 600,000,000 USD debt offering that was oversubscribed...

    1. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it will never happen. Novell buying Trolltech means QT automatically released under BSD. Nor Novell nor Trolltech wants that.

    2. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's wrong. Except Novell would stop the Qt Free Edition releases.

    3. Re:How long... by afd8856 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is it really OK to bad-mouth some very fine open source projects? (in your signature)

      --
      I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
    4. Re:How long... by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 1

      Somehow the prospect of Novell controlling both Ximian and Trolltech looks ... weird. Although maybe less so if they were to do something on the lines of:

      1. buy TT
      2. release QT/X under LGPL instead of GPL to make it more attractive to developers/remove licensing fud.
      3. Extend KDE/QT with full Mono bindings and start promoting them heavily.

      That would presumably make efficient use of all their new aquisitions - as it is now, they have this confusing image about the future direction of the SuSe desktop. Plus, it might actually steal the ball from MS with managed desktop apps.

    5. Re:How long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How long till Troll Tech is bought by Novell? I mean Novell just did a 600,000,000 USD debt offering that was oversubscribed...

      And buy SCO's (nevermind Canopy's) shares off them? While Novell and SCO are fighting in court? I really don't see this happening until SCO is history (give it 9 months).

    6. Re:How long... by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      Yes, and if you would check the wording you might find that it is a little tongue in cheek humor. IOW, don't be so fscking sensitive. ;-> ;-> (since some people would not know a joke unless it hit them on the head at a speed approaching 0.99 c) ;-> ;->

    7. Re:How long... by afd8856 · · Score: 1

      Sorry for misinterpreting, but I still don't get the joke. I suppose some people find Perl and Mono just as usefull as I find python, so I don't get it. Would you like to explain?

      --
      I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
    8. Re:How long... by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      It's a jab at those on /. that feel the need to bring up Python and Ruby EVERY time another programming language is mentioned.

  10. HP dropped GNOME 2 years ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get Informed.

  11. You can't afford to miss it. by stoolpigeon · · Score: 1

    No.... What I can't afford is plane tickets to Germany and the time off work, you insensitive clod!

    (Yes I am just jealous-- I would love to go if I could)

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    1. Re:You can't afford to miss it. by Feztaa · · Score: 1

      What I can't afford is plane tickets to Germany and the time off work, you insensitive clod!

      I hear that! Plane tickets to germany (round-trip) costs me something like 80% of my life savings. ;)

  12. Hackfest by farley13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's hoping KDE is actually better after the http://conference2004.kde.org/hackfest.php !

    That sounds like a good lotta fun! I wonder how many of the core dev. will be coding away ?

    --
    I appeal to the wisdom of fellow /.'ers: Milk ISN'T good for you period,
  13. sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i dont see the drunk-hippie gnome developers having a conference. one more step towards total world-domination for the almighty kde!

  14. Re:Kan't Wait by Telex4 · · Score: 1

    I see you work for the KDE press department too ;-)

  15. Looking forward to this.... by reality-bytes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We've been gradually weening a few customers from Exchange etc over the last few months and continued development of Kontact/Kolab/OpenGroupware only helps us.

    We get a real feeling of 'security' with open-souce groupware; we know where we stand and can get support/patches in a hurry if we know which buttons to press. In emergencies, we can even sub-contract developers to make patches for us!

    The only thing that suprises me is that open-source groupware hasn't come further than it has in recent years.

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
    1. Re:Looking forward to this.... by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 1
      We've been gradually weening a few customers from Exchange etc over the last few months and continued development of Kontact/Kolab/OpenGroupware only helps us.

      Do you find a lot of user resistance or strange incompatibilities in the process? Do the "Outlook" users find that OpenGroupware works well enough/as well/better than Exchange for them?

      --
      Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
    2. Re:Looking forward to this.... by reality-bytes · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In terms of Outlook users, we found little by way of user resistance, in some cases it was like we slipped it into the customers drink (the ease with which we migrated people).

      Unfortunately, things are not so easy when it comes to Office and Productivity suites. There are still little quirks of some software that *some* users will not let go of.

      --
      Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
    3. Re:Looking forward to this.... by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      I'm a software developer and my last project was to create OpenGroupware-to-Outlook connector. So I had to become very familiar with OpenGroupware internals.

      Well, OpenGroupware SUCKS. Its web-interface is hard to use and slow - you need to make 3 clicks just to mark job as "Done", contacts management is even worse.

      OpenGroupware server is hard to install and use - there is no good Debian/RPM packages, so you have to read tons of HOWTOs.

      From developer perspective OpenGroupware is a nightmare. XMLRPC interface is poorly documented, unoptimized and not very usable. WebDav interface is even less documented. And now the best one: you can't access all functions of OpenGroupware from these interfaces.

      I don't like to admit it, but Exchange and Outlook are far superior to OpenGroupware.

  16. Need a scripting language for use with KDE? by tcopeland · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Try Ruby with the Korundum bindings - example code is here.

    --
    The Army reading list
    1. Re:Need a scripting language for use with KDE? by pnatural · · Score: 4, Informative

      The ruby bindings have a ways to go yet. The kde-bindings list is full of errors and minor bugs wrt ruby.

      A better binding is PyKDE -- which is now part of KDE CVS, has lots of testing, full featured, etc.

    2. Re:Need a scripting language for use with KDE? by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 1

      Nuts to that - where the heck are the PHP bindings?!?!

      (Okay, yes, I AM joking. Well, mostly.)

      --
      Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
    3. Re:Need a scripting language for use with KDE? by e_xworm · · Score: 1

      why not? besides there are gtk bindings are there not?

      --
      X~
    4. Re:Need a scripting language for use with KDE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The kde-bindings list is full of errors and minor bugs wrt ruby."

      That's because we're sorting the bugs out for the KDE 3.3 release! It isn't true that 'PyKDE' is a better binding either - they are both very good. Choose PyKDE if you prefer python or Korundum if you prefer ruby.

      I've translated a lot of the PyKDE examples to Korundum so you can compare the same code. For instance, compare:

      kdebindings/python/pykde/examples/uisampler.py

      with:

      kdebindings/korundum/rubylib/examples/uisampler. rb

      Or see korundum/rubylib/templates for the various python application templates translate to ruby.

      What surprised me was that how similar python and ruby are compared with the same code in C++. I wrote a conversion script in ruby which pretty much auto-translated most of the code - it didn't take any time at all.

      -- Richard Dale

  17. Re:Khrist by tktk · · Score: 1

    I'm amazed that Google hasn't done a KDE language interface.

  18. cheerleaders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    boothbabes. hot ones. want me to switch, let's see the kde kutie korps. let's see 'em.

    might as well have a GOOD reason to do things, I always say.....

  19. Sorry Typo: Sinke I kan't attend the Konferenke... by fprog · · Score: 0

    I kan't attend the konferenke, but I kertainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontakt.

  20. You mean SKO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    eom

  21. KDE such a hog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What I want to know is when are those guys going to pull their heads out of their ... and fix the bloody KDE memory footprint.

    1. Re:KDE such a hog by philci52 · · Score: 1

      They are fixing this (http://dot.kde.org/1061880936/):

      "The increased startup performance will be reached through reduced number of symbols, less read/write data and fewer static initiliazers. Fewer mallocs, faster and more optimised tool classes and reduced memory consumption will improve the runtime performance enabling Qt 4 to run on embedded devices that are slower and have less memory than today's desktop computers too.

      To back up these statements Matthias gave some numbers about Qt Designer which was ported to Qt 4 with only the necessary changes to make it compile: The libqt size decreased by 5%, Designer num relocs went down by 30%, mallocs use by 51%, and memory use by 15%. The measured Designer startup time went down by 18%. "

  22. "Millions of lines of kode" (n/t) by RPoet · · Score: 1

    no text here.

    --
    "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
  23. Re:Kan't Wait by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 1

    Kant isn't going anywhere soon ... he's been dead for quite a while now. you should be able to catch up with him at your leisure ^_^

  24. Software Freedom Day by HenrikOxUK · · Score: 1

    Through incredible luck (as opposed to planning) the last weekend of aKademy coincides with the first annual Software Freedom Day on August 28th, so the KDE people are throwing a big party! Anyone know if they plan to hand out Knoppix discs in the Stuttgart area as well?

    1. Re:Software Freedom Day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Rumours have it that Knoppix-3.6 will be dubbed "aKademy Edition", and will contain... So at least expect a newly released Knoppix-3.6 ISO image on the download servers for the time of aKademy!
    2. Re:Software Freedom Day by HenrikOxUK · · Score: 1

      So at least expect a newly released Knoppix-3.6 ISO image on the download servers for the time of aKademy! Sounds cool! We're working on our own Knoppix version now for SFD, but that will be based on v3.4. I doubt we'll have time to make a 3.6 version :-(

  25. More info on the KDE Wiki by PhilRod · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a lot more information about what will be going on at the KDE wiki at http://wiki.kde.org. There are plenty of opportunities to contribute, too - even if you're not a programmer or 'power user'. Take a look, for example at KDE Community World Summit under "Coding Marathon" for a list of teams that will be present.

    As an example, I'm on the documentation team, and we've got plenty planned. Check out KDE Documentation @ aKademy for more details.

    OK, that's enough advertising for one comment...

    PhilRod

    --
    KDE Documentation Team: http://i18n.kde.org/doc
  26. All aKademy schedules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

    DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
    http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

    Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
    http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

    CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
    http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

    AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
    http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

    UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
    http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

    UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
    http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

  27. Knoppix-3.6 "aKademy Edition" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Rumours have it that Knoppix-3.6 will be dubbed "aKademy Edition", and will contain... So at least expect a newly released Knoppix-3.6 ISO image on the download servers for the time of aKademy!
  28. Re:Kan't Wait by JabberWokky · · Score: 1
    Amusingly, the text editor for KDE 2 (which eventually became Kate) was originally named Kant, after the philosopher. It was changed when several English speakers pointed out the objectionable pronunciation. Bunch o' kants, they were.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien