Annual Linux Showcase Free Registration

po8 writes "The 2001 Annual Linux Showcase (ALS) is offering free registration until October 15, to try to increase attendance. If you're in the Oakland, CA area, perfect! If not, plane tickets are really cheap right now." In the past, this has been the Altanta Linux Showcase, which was always one of my favorite shows to attend. If you can make it, definitely check out - run with USENIX, it tends to be a more programmer/developer oriented show, rather then marketing.

Been to things like this

[mutt lynch]

I've been to a few of these things. For the most part they are kind of interesting but I'm not as hard core as most of the attendees. Casual Linux users would be lost. I kinda like the free swag though.

Re:Been to things like this

[dattaway]

I consider myself a casual Linux user and found the ALS to be a wonderful event. The day was packed with tutorials from morning till evening. Decisions, decisions, there were so many to choose from at one time. Our group split up to attend the tutorials of our interests and shared notes and pictures during breaks. Everyone has a digital camera to capture the celebreties demonstrating the latest in code wizardry. Don't expect to learn everything as the energy level is high. Don't be alarmed by the smoke from the keyboards, but just sit back and enjoy the show. You can learn a lot just by watching. They gave us a nice book of the papers presented at last years ALS that is an outstanding reference for many of the hottest development areas that year.

The evening continued the busy schedule with large feasts, complimented with a sampling of fine brews, with a wide variety of entertainment, and really didn't stop unless sleep conquered the senses.

Atlanta was great. It was just several hours drive away from where I was at. California should even be more intense. But I'm thousands of miles away. I'd give anything to attend, but my last dime is being spent buying a house this week. Hopefully, those who do attend will document the work and fun on the net for me to enjoy.

I really enjoy the ALS and strongly recommend attending. Those who put on the ALS and made the events so enjoyable are heroes for donating so much of their time and money making it happen. It was not a marketing show, but by enthusiasts for people who hopefully like the same.

Why not Atlanta?

[trentfoley]

In the past, this has been the Altanta Linux Showcase

I think I'd prefer to fly to Atlanta where the CDC is. That way, I wouldn't have to wait for my swabs to be overnighted for the anthrax test. Just kidding. I'd really love to go, but I'd miss my youngest's birthday.

it was only a matter of time...

[spacefem]

We know that many of you have been impacted by the economic downturn...

Yes! Or there are those of us who never were (financially) well-sponsored enough to get into things like this, it's nice to see us fitting in with the crowd.

ALS?

[Faux_Pseudo]

As a person who has found themself recently single I would love to go to a place with lots of cleanly shaved Linux useing females.
/burn karma

Linux needs more flashy conferences

[aliebrah]

I just took a look at the website and it looks to be a very technical conference, rather than one of the high publicity big flashy conferences that I'm used to seeing advertised.

I think that if Linux is to be more widely accepted by people then it needs to have conferences that appeal less to technies and sysadmins and more to executives who can go to these seminars and be wowed in the same way that they are wowed by Windows at Microsoft conferences.

While I know this is meant to be a technical meet, I'm just saying that in general Linux needs more things like WinHEC (by Microsoft) to get the kind of support that it needs to really go mainstream. I wonder if all the large Linux OEMs could work together on something like this to show that Linux is a viable alternative for corporate platforms.

Re:Linux needs more flashy conferences

[dangermouse]

No. Damn hell ass NO!

And I speak as one who has worked booths at ALS, LWCE, and the LBE.

Linuxworld Conference and Expo (mostly Expo) and COMDEX's Linux Business Expo are more than enough shiny/marketroid/free-crap for Linux.

What Linux needs is more conferences like ALS. Or better yet, more frequent ALSes (yes, I know what the 'A' stands for.. it didn't stand for that until recently, y'know). ALS is an excellent conference put on by great people with a real grasp of the diversity and depth of the Linux field. It's the only one of the three big Linux events I felt was worthwhile from a technical standpoint.

It's also the only one where I genuinely enjoyed sitting in a booth, because the people who came by to talk were typically clueful or at least there to become so, and not just looking for whatever shiny bauble I might or might not have stashed under the table.

Re:Linux needs more flashy conferences

[taniwha]

geez - learn a little history - Usenix has been putting on techy for almost 20 years now - asking them to change now is a little late :-) Many years ago 'Uniforum' was formed for this very reason (the Unix-world marketting-droids felt Usenix didn't cater to their need for glitz and suits)

Re:Linux needs more flashy conferences

[aliebrah]

I was thinking in more general terms (as I said in my post). Of course some techy conferences are needed, but I was thinking more in terms of having marketing conferences in addition.

Is it totally free?

[Gaccm]

k, just call me a n00b or something, but is it totally free as in i lose $0, or is the cost of registering $0, but each day still has multi houndred dollar costs?

if someone replies to this, then include the above statement, so people will understand since i shouldn't be modded up.

Re:Is it totally free?

[place4linux]

From what I can see looking at http://www.linuxshowcase.org/fees.html if you want to attend the "Technical Sessions" they're free. but the tutorials cost lots of $$$$$.

Hope that help.s

Re:Is it totally free?

[keithp]

While the ALS tutorials aren't free, the XFree86 workshops are -- you can spend half a day learning about Gtk+ or KDE programming or even the finer details of XFree86 configuration.

Re:Is it totally free?

[Graymalkin]

The O'Reilly conference was the same way, walking the floor and getting in doesn't cost you any money but if you wanted to attend the workshops you had to shell out beaucoup bucks. That is the concept behind shows like this. Companies or groups spend cash to attend the convention, they are there to show off something they hopefully intend to sell. The tutorials however are put on by professionals who need to be lured to said convention. In the past barbequed ribs were plenty but soon the advent of a monetary system lowered the apparent value of a rack of ribs. Back in the 50's it was found that people could be lured with these green coloured pieces of paper but there was a problem, the convention goers paid nothing to attend the show itself in most cases and thus the professionals could not be lured with green paper that wasn't there. Then an individual by the name of J.D. Bandersnatchenstein came up with the idea of charging convention goers for attendance of tutorial sessions put on by professionals. It worked well because the professionals could be lured with green paper and there was a mound of green paper to attract them with.

Too many Left Coast conferences

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the problem with attendance is the fact that they moved yet another conference to the Left Coast.

Instead of trying cram another tech event into California, why not try and fill the void that needs filling, namely a worthwhile Linux conference in the Southeast.

Re:Too many Left Coast conferences

[shredds]

Instead of trying cram another tech event into California, why not try and fill the void that needs filling, namely a worthwhile Linux conference in the Southeast.
Hmmm...
Why California? I don't know.
Its not like every major technology corporation/interested party doesn't have an office there.
Its not like the birthplace of the modern computing industry wasn't there either. (Everyone always says Northern California, but I am convinced it was Kalamazoo, Michigan).
Besides that, the weather is so terribile. It makes me shudder to think of it.
All in favor of relocating to Dothan, Alabama say "AY". That will totally boost attendance. I mean the last big thing that hit there was the National Peanut Festival.

Re:Too many Left Coast conferences

[Anonymous Coward]

Florida anyone? Virginia? Texas?

Poo.

Re:I Love New York

[Desus]

Even better, send this conference to NYC. We need the dollars right now, shops are closing left and right.
Because of the attacks we've lost countless number of vistor, not to mention trade shows and
the traffic that they bring [zdnet.com]
I'm not trying to be greedy (the whole country is in a slump right now) but an injection like this could seriously help out the local economy (and my favorite computer store that is being forced to close due to lack of business).

Every little bit helps.

Hijacked

[thales]

Why would I want to attend a show that Usenix hijacked from Atlanta?

Re:Hijacked

[jmu1]

I mean, it was the only technical conference in this reigon... Last year after it was announced that Usnix was moving the conference, I emailed Mr. Andregg(Who was chairman of the conference). His reply was that to keep the conference alive, it must be moved. I did appreciate getting any response at all, but I just wanted to shove it down his throat. He said that attendance had gone down that year on both sides of the fence(booths and attendants). Well, it couldn't have been because everyone was trying to make money and the cost of going to one of those expos isn't that cheap(mainly for the demonstrators). If they felt they had to move it, fine, but they could have kept it within traveling distance... not everyone can afford to take several days off and a damn plane ticket. The moving of the ATLANTA Linux Showcase to Cali-fornicate-ya was the most betrayed I have felt in a long time. I have done everything that I could to be an evagelist, and this is how I am repaid! I will use Linux until something better comes along that you don't have to sell your soul for.

I hope it's a different feel than LWE...

[EvilStein]

..otherwise it's just lame to have LWE in August and then ALS 2 months later...and right across the bay.

Great, another Oakland vs San Francisco contest. Did Mayor Jerry Brown cook this one up as well?

Come visit the Annual Linux Showcase! .....Please?

[Bowie J. Poag]

I can see the headlines on the brochures now:

"Come meet all the sharks and carpetbaggers, reminisce about the good ol' days when it was still fun, and learn about the new and exciting ways they make money off your work!"

No thanks. I think i'll pass on this one.

Atlanta

[tstock]

I would love to go, as I have for the past 2 years, but the move to the west coast makes it impossible.

Why do we need more shows in California and less in the rest of the country is my question... Seems to me Atlanta was pretty well located for the east coast, which has few opportunities like this.

Oakland? Eek.

[dynweb]

Eep. I dunno about you guys, but you'd have to pay me to go to Oakland... some scary stuff going on there...

Free registration worth losing your freedom for?

[Anonymous Coward]

I totally agree with AC on this:

-snip-
From: Alan Cox
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Resignation from ALS, Skylarov affair...
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:31:02 +0100 (BST)
Cc: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

I hereby tender my resignation to the Usenix ALS committee.

With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not
safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. While he was
undoubtedly chosen for political reasons as a Russian is a good example for
the US public the risk extends arbitarily further.

Usenix by its choice of a US location is encouraging other programmers, many
from eastern european states hated by the US government to take the same
risks. That is something I cannot morally be part of. Who will be the next
conference speaker slammed into a US jail for years for committing no crime?
Are usenix prepared to take the chance it will be their speakers ?

Until the DMCA mess is resolved I would urge all non US citizens to boycott
conferences in the USA and all US conference bodies to hold their
conferences elsehere.

I appreciate that this problem is not of Usenix making, but it must be addressed

Alan Cox
-snip-

And the USofA is now even more of a big brother state that when this was written :-(

Re:Free registration worth losing your freedom for

[rossz]

I hereby tender my resignation to the Usenix ALS committee.

That makes as much sense as denouncing Amnesty International because they work in countries that torture people.

Re:Cheap plane tickets? Wonder why...

[acoopersmith]

Well, there is an Amtrak station not too far away in Oakland, and Amtrak does offer a lot more leg & laptop room than any airline.

Bring it back

[lophophore]

Atlanta needs ALS. The first three ALS shows seemed very successful to me. (Plus I got to meet CmdrTaco there.) The number of people who showed up demonstrated that the audience is either already in Atlanta or are willing to come here.

ALS used to held right around the Networld+Interop show.

Now it seems that all the Linux shows are in either NY/Boston or SF Bay area.

Bring back the Atlanta Linux Showcase.

Stupid move - Oakland

[ebradway]

ALS - when it was the ATLANTA Linux Showcase - was a techie's dream. A small show with lots of Birds of a Feather sessions and immediate access to the folks actually doing things. I attended the past three years. Last year I got to go to the OpenSource Conference in Monterey but found ALS more enjoyable.

But I won't travel to Oakland for ALS. There are too many other shows competing. In Atlanta they were the only show around and the quality showed. Atlanta is also a day-trip for me whereas Oakland requires effort.