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Linux Software

Review Of LinuxWorld 2004 127

Posted by timothy from the Y2***-is-the-year-of-desktop-linux dept.
jamienk writes "I went to the LinuxWorld convention at the Javits Center in NYC again this year. This is where the post-post-industrial corporate complex flexes for us consumers and infrastructure staff to see. And the smell of Corps was thick in the air. So was the nerdy, curious, driven, hacker odor. Guess which vibe won?"
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Review Of LinuxWorld 2004 More

Review Of LinuxWorld 2004

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  • Been there, done that (Score:4, Interesting)

    by a XOR b XOR a XOR b ( 744728 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:25PM (#8077359)
    I know all these journalism sites have to write stories about the supposedly big announcements and "new" technologies that come out at linux world, but to be honest there's exactly one reason I go year after year: Hanging out with the people there. It forges relationships that can be carried on well past the end of the convention. I'm glad all that desktop stuff was demoed, and I know it's important for the future of linux, but the best thing by far was making connections with like-minded geeks.
    • Really? I know the reason I go. One word: schwag.

      Let's see...free marshmallow sandwitches from Computer Associates (wtf?), a free T-Shirt from PogoLinux (don't think I'll wear that one anywhere except maybe to the gym), a Google pen, a HP water bottle, a Microsoft mini-radio (again, wtf?), a couple of BSD stickers, a few free CD's from Sun (Java Desktop System live-eval), and, if my luck holds out, maybe I'll win that Porsche from RedHat! :P

      I'm just bummed I didn't win one of the CA Tux scarves. Woulda

    • but the best thing by far was making connections with like-minded geeks

      That, and hooking up with all the hot Linux groupies? Um, no.

  • comments on the crowd (Score:3, Funny)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:30PM (#8077388) Journal

    from article:
    They look like Nerds, but somehow lack the fear, the self-consciousness, and the "loser" qualities so often attributed to their kind.

    I'm not sure if that's a compliment, or not!

  • What does linux world have in common (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A guy in the FSF booth was saying ->What does Linux World have in common with a computer chip? -- each year it gets smaller!

  • Corps? (Score:5, Funny)

    by zonix ( 592337 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:36PM (#8077413) Journal
    And the smell of Corps was thick in the air.

    Am I the only one who read that as corpses at first? :-)

    z

  • ummm (Score:1, Insightful)

    by zippo01 ( 688802 )
    I can't afford to fly to a Linux Convention, i think they should do a live feed over the net so i can see all the nerds, and venders trying to sell to them.

  • great swag though (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:39PM (#8077430)
    I walked out with a RH Enterprise 3.0 WS distro (thanks, RedHat), a SuSE SLES 8 developer edition, a SuSE 8 full distro (thanks SuSE), plus Fedora CDs for cow-orkers, 7 t shirts and a blanket. The Oracle / Linux installfest on wednesday night was fun: free food, free beer and free (proprietary and free) software (this I already pay for as an oracle customer, but it was still a nice gesture).
    Too bad that 10g db wasn't ready for prime time.

    I think I'll make the trip up to Boston next year.

    the Pogo Linux servers looked pretty sweet.

    I missed the BSD babes of previous years.

    Pd
    • "plus Fedora CDs for cow-orkers"

      That's not a very complimentary way to refer to your colleagues.
      • Indeed. Here in the upstate NY/southern Vermont border region we have sensitivity to these matters and refer to them with respect as "Bovine-American Hominid Production Partners."

        KFG
    • a SuSE 8 full distro (thanks SuSE)

      Seems a lot of people think highly of SuSE.

      I'd like to try their distro sometime. A shame they refuse (or can't due to licensing conflicts) to make their goods more readily available via ISO disc images.
      • I didn't like SUSE that much. They had weird utilities. I was a lot more comfortable with Slackware and Debian, which felt a lot more Linuxy, if that makes any sense. Red Hat used to be okay, but they got really weird and corporate a couple of years ago. Then their O/S distro got really slick and effective, and just as I started to like it, they killed off the home version with some weirdo "Fedora" move. Feh. Back to Slack and Debian! ;)

    • Yes, lots of freebies. I came away with Xandros 2.0 Deluxe (Crossover Office license included), a lot of SuSE stuff (including the stuffed Gecko toy), many free CDs, and a Red Hat emblazoned with the word "Proof" (whatever that means). All this was free, but the best show item I had to pay for: Eric Raymond was tucked away on the sidelines to promote his book "The Art of Unix Programming" -- I picked up a copy and got him to sign it. Really cool show!
    • I'm new here and don't know if this is appropriate in this location. If not please forgive me and give me some direction. I'm trying to learn the name of a small company that is a supplier to Redhat that is prospering (on Redhat's coattails). I read about them in an article several months ago and failed to jot down the name. I'd appreicate any help - thanx in advance.

  • Wasn't SCO there? (Score:5, Funny)

    by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:42PM (#8077449) Journal
    I'm sure they would have loved the chance to pick a up lot of potential customers for their code licencing initiative. After all, surely everyone there was using their code.
    • SCO attending Linuxworld???

      I'd imagine there would be a brief flurry of activity, as a thousand or so geeks and gamers all opened up their cans of whoop-ass (with a neat "POP" sound), then a blast and a huge cloud of blood, like when the CyberDemonLord from the original DOOM exploded. We're talking instantaneous and total destruction.

      There'd be like, nothing left. Maybe a couple of pairs of blood-soaked penny loafers with argyle-socked ankles sticking up out of them, that's about it.

      Of course, then every
  • Why dont people just admit it to themselve, stop calling them conventions, and call them "Malls that only last a few days."

    • Cause few people go to the mall to hang out with people from different geographical areas. I go to the mall with friends. I arrange to meet a few friends at the mall when the come to town (presumably for some other reason). When I go to a convention I don't know who all will be there, but I know we share an interest, so I will meet some new people.

      You can have a convention at a mall, but the atmosphere and expentation is different between malls and conventions.

      Typically you will not see too many talk

  • First time @ LinuxWorld (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Shant3030 ( 414048 ) * on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:46PM (#8077467)
    I went to LinuxWorld on Thursday and it was my first time... some thoughts.

    Good to see the large companies trying to get a piece of the linux pie.sigh Buzzwords were flying all over the place. Fed up, I started asking exhibitors at large companies for "scalable enterprise solutions". Most had answers! lol...

    The .org pavillion rocked. By far the most knowledgeable and friendly people in the place. Spoke to some of the good people at geekcorps, FSF and gentoo. One thing I will never understand... why were the people at LILUG playing that stupid dancing game? They looked like a bunch of fools.

    We sat in on a keynote Thursday afternoon, "The Impact of Open Standards on the Technology Industry". Absolutely useless. I was quiet amused at the people feverishly taking notes on very general topics.

    Good experience, learned alot and will probably attend next year.

    • One thing I will never understand... why were the people at LILUG playing that stupid dancing game? They looked like a bunch of fools.

      Well my guess would be that they were having fun.

      Hell I laughed the first time I saw the game being played, but after trying out the mat I bought my little sister for her birthday I can see the appeal. The first few goes I kinda just stood there thinking "Shit I must look fucking stupid!" But then I got past that and started to enjoy it.

      It's basically an "each to their

    • Re:First time @ LinuxWorld (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      One thing I will never understand... why were the people at LILUG playing that stupid dancing game? They looked like a bunch of fools.

      Maybe because they don't give a f*** what people think of them? I don't mean to sound harsh, but who cares what they look like? You don't know any of them. It's amazing that in the USA, the land of equal opportunity and "freedom" that a bunch of people having fun can get such a comment for doing nothing else but having some innocent fun.

      • It's amazing that in the USA, the land of equal opportunity and "freedom" that a bunch of people having fun can get such a comment for doing nothing else but having some innocent fun.

        I think that the definition of freedom includes the freedom to make fun of people making a fool of themselves, as well as the freedom to make a fool of one's self. Not to mention doing both at once with some comments.

        I find it amazing that whatever culture you come from doesn't allow you to speak your mind [when you will l

    • Re:First time @ LinuxWorld (Score:5, Informative)

      by Devil ( 16134 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:46PM (#8077793) Homepage
      We were not playing Dance Dance Revolution, we were playing PyDance [pyddr.org], a from-scratch DDR lookalike that was written by one of the guys on our mailing list; it runs off a Linux box. It's just so well done that you thought it was regular DDR.
      1. Fed up, I started asking exhibitors at large companies for "scalable enterprise solutions".

      Well -- all buzzwords aside -- most of it is, isn't it?

    • How was the .org Pavillion arranged?

      I first went to a LWE in San Jose back in 1998, I think. At that time, the pavillion was arranged as a group of reserved booth spaces surrounding a common area. It was a great setting for socializing, seeing what was going on among the genuine geeks, and just hanging out. (The free pinball and driving game helped too.) In later years, it devolved into a couple of rows of standard booths with aisles in the middle. There was no "common space", and the .org reps were more o

    • yeah that was a big way over the top as im sure by now you've gotten about 200 replies on this that was not DDR but instead a amazing (if not better dupe called pyDance [icculus.org] which MADE the table as far as im concerned. at least we werent sitting there spewing the same boring crap or giving away yet another pen ! Anyway the honorable thing might be to update your comment so you dont look so foolish but thats your call clarifying -jsin

  • they're not even co-branded (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:48PM (#8077471)
    "Novel: SUSE is presented as completely separate from Novel, they're not even co-branded (yet?)."

    the SuSE standard edition CD set was a co-branded distro, including both Novell and SuSE software.
    If you install off of the UnitedLinux CD, its UnitedLinux. If you install off of the SuSE 1 CD, its Suse.

    UnitedLinux is dead, thanks to Darl.
    Maybe it will be revived after SCO (CalderaSCO) is dead.

    Having left the show with such a distro, I can fully state (evidence in hand) that his point is wrong.

    Pd

  • lol (Score:4, Funny)

    by theNote ( 319197 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @06:55PM (#8077508)

    The KDE people really impressed me. At one point one of them wanted to show me how you can write simple javascripts to create full KDE apps or dock applets. He didn't have it installed though, so he decided to download it from the net; there was a compatibility problem with the binary, so he pulled the code from CVS; he didn't want to wait for a long compile, so he decided to use the other processors on the LAN, but to do that he needed icecream; he pulled that from CVS... All this was done at a fast and furious pace, he had 10 or 12 shells running at the same time, was bouncing between them; other developers stuck their heads in: "which shell is patching...?" Development in action. It was cool.

    Just when I was ready to try linux again, I read this paragraph and remembered why I got rid of it last time.

    • Re:lol (Score:5, Informative)

      by jamienk ( 62492 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:11PM (#8077594)
      Just when I was ready to try linux again, I read this paragraph and remembered why I got rid of it last time.

      To be fair, this was developer software under development, not something for your average desktop user. Here's more info [kdedevelopers.org].
  • He appears to be bashing Microsoft because UNIX Services for Windows is faster than Cygwin. Pretty lame.
    • I didn't like how MS tried to appeal to me as an Open Source user/programmer. To a Linux enthusiast, it's not enough to say "It's faster." You have to say WHY it's faster. And if you say why it's faster, you have to let me ask even more questions. But at some point in this back-and-forth discussion, MS will say "I will not answer that question. It would not be in MS's interest." Oh.

      Sure, you are your Grannie are content to say "It's faster, therefore better, I don't care about the openness." But I'm a Linu

  • People forget (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Unregistered ( 584479 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:18PM (#8077621)
    That corps are necessary for widespread adoption of linux. Sure the people they send too these shows are worthless, but important stuff does cope from corps as well as individuals. So don't gete too down on the corps since we wouldn't have come this far without them.

  • Rose-colored glasses (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PCM2 ( 4486 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:20PM (#8077643) Homepage
    Let the stuffed shirts and corporate bigwigs make money from the Free code. Let the pundits question what it will take for Linux to succeed on the Desktop. There is massive innovation in Linux userspace, driven by the same geeky joy that, in another era and in other fields is called "intellectual curiosity." That's what I see as the main force behind the Open Source movement; not corporate possibilities, as the LinuxWorld convention pretends, but brutal candor, mischievous smartness, self-mocking over-eagerness. The corporate successes of Linux are just the results of an overflow of energy, the excesses being mopped up. The hacker ethic is driving the corporations. We don't need them, but they need us.
    Umm ... OK.

    This guy's conclusion seems to be that LinuxWorld was overrun by corporations (read: evil) but that secretly the geeks were powering everything and they, in the long run, would "win out." Um -- huh?

    I mean, that might be a nice way to think about things, but how really is the open source world any different than any other scientific endeavor? You've got gigantic automobile manufacturers, aerospace companies, drug companies ... Boeing, Ford, Glaxo, Archer Daniels-Midland, whatever. Yes, these are "evil" corporations doing "evil" things, but a large proportion of what constitutes the products they sell came out of academic research. Weird guys with beards, in laboratories, doing things for the sake of "intellectual curiosity." People squirting things into petri dishes, people pointing lasers at things to see what happens. And then the corporations buy it all up and make money off of it.

    Does this surprise anyone?

    • Researchers research.
    • Tinkerers tinker.
    • Businesses make money.
    Aren't these pretty much the dictionary definitions, and hasn't that always been the case?

    Sorry, but it just kills me when Linux geeks seem to think they're creating some kind of cultural/scientific revolution that somehow dwarfs past endeavors like, oh, the Saturn 5 rocket. And that, because of their personal ethics, they're going to somehow escape The Way the World Is, unlike Einstein, or Stephen Hawking, or John Nash, or whomever.

    Nice world you must live in, buddy, but I'm not buying it.

    • Re:Rose-colored glasses (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jamienk ( 62492 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:50PM (#8077811)
      Corporate technology companies have portrayed the computer as being driven by companies. Linux development has been driven by hackers. At Linux World, the corporations put their accomplishments and offerings front and center, but they still somehow get dwarfed by the independent developers, who are more creative, more excited, more genuine, and more fun. I have no problem with businesses making money, touting their wares, and spinning their services. But they are the less interesting side of the story, a predictable sideshow.

    • Re:Rose-colored glasses (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I myself have often thought that there is a startling percentage of GNU/Linux users who do not understand the concept of Free Software or Open Source and as a result, decide that any company looking to utilize either idea as a evil entity. In my mind, it all comes back to people thinking free software equates to zero cost. And with that being the case, and the majority of GNU/Linux software being zero cost as well as free, it has been determined that only evil bastards try to make a living off free software

    • Re:Rose-colored glasses (Score:4, Insightful)

      by crazyphilman ( 609923 ) on Sunday January 25, 2004 @02:13AM (#8079576) Journal
      Hang on, be fair. If everyone brings their straw man to slashdot at the same time, the resulting fire could kill us all. It would only take one stoner to set off the conflagration, ok? You know those bongs throw sparks from time to time.

      Part of what you're saying is true. And part of what the other guy said was true. I think the TRUTH lies somewhere in the middle, like this:

      Corporations, and people who buy into that whole mindset/lifestyle, are pretty boring and soulless. All they think about is money, so whenever they latch onto something cool or interesting, the best they can do is fake it and try and squeeze a buck out of it. It's like this guy I know, let's call him "M". Back when I was on speaking terms with him, I used to tell him about ideas I'd had, little things I was working on at home. He would ALWAYS evaluate them based on whether they could be "monetized". I would argue, "but wait, you don't understand; this is cool, it's not about money, it's about having it, playing with it..." And he would make fun of me. He would call me a "techie weenie".

      Now, on the other hand, you have your true geeks, a group I consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool member of, albeit a moderate member. We do things because they're fun, although if there's money in it that DOES increase the fun a little bit. So, we'll build a system because it's interesting, or useful, or something we want but which we can't find anywhere. For example, I'm building myself a custom knowledge-management app because I'm tired of storing my source-code toolbox in a flat-file directory. Will there be money in it? Who knows? But it'll be USEFUL and FUN. Now, in contrast to the last guy, one of my friends, let's call him "D", heard a few of my ideas (the same ideas the other guy made fun of) and thought they were great. HE thought they should be done whether they make money or not, because it would be cool if they just EXISTED.

      And, THIS is the difference between corporate and geek. It has nothing to do with revolution, or who's going to "win" or any other thing of that nature. It's a basic difference in mindset which results in two entirely different worlds coexisting in the same space.

      The result of all this is that the vast majority of people are stuck with the boring, not particularly innovative stuff the corporations put out, and this isn't going to change, EVER. Because that's just how it is; boring people produce boring stuff for other boring people.

      Us geeks will ALWAYS have cooler, more interesting tech than the rest of the people out there because WE BUILD IT OURSELVES from nothing. We pull this stuff right out of our heads, you know? Eventually some of that stuff finds its way into corporate imaginations, such as they are, and regular people get their hands on a watered down version of it. Look at how Comp USA is selling a staid, boring, plastic-panel "modded" PC, but the REAL enthusiasts are making systems regular people couldn't even imagine exist.

      It's how it's supposed to be. Everybody relax; this is the nature of things, the form and structure of our world. Enjoy it.

    • As someone who attended LinuxWorld on behalf of my corporation, I can let you into a little secret: companies really want to run Linux; they just need the support and services around it before it can be deployed. When I talk to my CTO and CIO about the benefits of Linux, they listen and they agree that it is a cool thing. The problem historically was that I couldn't provide the same solution that I can with either a proprietary UNIX or Windows. This is now changing (although there are some hurdles).

      To the

  • 2nd or 3rd time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LinuxHam ( 52232 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:22PM (#8077660) Homepage Journal
    and it was but a mere shell of what it used to be.. at least I got to support the FSF by buying a nice-looking "Free Software/Free Society" t-shirt. Other than that, got the google pen and a good look at small displays that would be perfect for replacing my in-dash GPS display screen.. looking for one with multiple inputs. Oh, and I finally got a replacement Linux [opengroup.org] license plate. The one on my car now has "Compaq" in huge red letters on it, which isn't too cool as an IBM consultant. :) The new one has "OpenGroup" up there now.

    Oh, and my vote for the most mis-guided individuals who have no idea how to make the conversion to Linux-for-business: the VOIP people who ran their setup on a chipped X-Box. Are you kidding me, people??? You want a business to buy your product, and you power your display with a video game console? The coolness factor drops way the hell off when you're trying to sell VOIP solutions. Build a damn PC. Jeez.

    Anyone remember the IBM party in 2001? They rented out the whole upstairs, had an open bar, great music, a real BattleBots cage, and, well, an ice sculptor. But he cut out a damn fine Tux, too. THAT'S what I think of when I think about the days before the bust.
  • I'm really looking foward to this year's HOPE conference. It seems everythings on the uprise in the computer sector to me. 2600 alaways throws a good party hope it happens again
  • I was there on Thursday, dropped by the M$ booth hoping to see some ex-Softway employees. M$ was giving out a reasonably cool little fm radio thing. I avoid their software like the plague, but have to admit that a long time ago i got a decent lunch bag from them at a trade show (the only M$ product i've ever had that was worth anything). So I grabbed the radio. Unfortunately like most things Microsoft, when i got home i found out that it was junk, missing the little door that holds the batteries in. I guess
    • Yeah, the little radio is utter crap. I got the same type for singing up for a Citibank credit card. So its leats its not a proprietary Microsoft piece of junk. :)

      BTW, in my opinion, the MS people looked pretty silly sitting there at _LINUX_ World, trying to show how you can get a unix shell under windows. Why?? *Shrug*

  • it was my first linuxworld. im a reasonably new user of linux (started a few months ago.)
    now, i only went on the last day (boy was it freezing here.)
    i didnt know what to expect, i guess - but i sure expected a lot less corporate "types". most of the big names were out with their shiny new servers, and enterprise software (both not interesting to me.)

    the MS booth was as big as Redhat - and I noticed that everytime they clicked on anything a window with something on SCO would come up. they were promoting MS
    • gentoo had a nice lot (maybe the goth chick had some to do with that...), and so did suse, sun and amd.

      As the official gentoo booth "goth chick", I take that as a compliment.

      Want to make your local goth chick happy? Install gentoo [gentoo.org] today!
  • I totaly agree. For slashdoters the .org was the place to be.

    I noticed that the big corporations like to do the media presentation with some hired gun enthusiasticaly pronounsing the greatness of their products or services. I wondered who are these people who seat though all those boring presentations?

    Gentoo had a bunch of gentoo users the "chearleaders" intermixed with the developers. It made the project representation look a bit amaturish although the developers where on hand to answer any techincal qu

  • My impressions (Score:4, Informative)

    by parkanoid ( 573952 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @09:21PM (#8078256)
    The AMD people were surprisingly clueless. I asked a few of them which socket a particular opteron system on display was using (Looked like it was 939), but most of them started mumbling "socket? what do you mean?", or worse [penny-arcade.com]. Some of the systems they had up were pretty cool though, like the dual opteron rackmounts with watercooling.
    The sun booth was another disappointment in terms of the staff. I wanted to see how reponsive the Sun Rays were, so I walked up to one of their public terminals and started looking around, starting a couple applications, etc. The nearby sales drone stood and glared at me, as if I was going to steal the bloody thing, the entire time (after asking "May I help you?" in that "What the fuck are you doing here, kid, get lost!" tone). I just walked away.
    Other corporate booths were similar; either the staff didn't know that much beyond their script, or they didn't want to talk to me, by the benefit of me being a high school student (i.e. a PFY). It's appropriate, I suppose, since I'm not going to be making any million-dollar purchases anytime soon, but still not cool. The IBM booth was a notable exception; one guy showed me GeoProbe [magicearth.com], a very neat visualization system. The program had two sets of seismological data loaded from an oil field in England (several square kilometers), and it could be manipulated in real time in various ways. It was running under RHEL 3.0 on a prototype opteron with only 4GB of ram; pretty impressive, considering the complexity of the model. In the mainframe section, two engineers showed me the new zSeries servers, and explained how the hardware worked. Really cool guys (both the mainframe and GeoProbe people), knew their stuff and were really friendly. Otherwise, Oracle's grid seemed promising, but I wasn't able to get too many technical details.
    In the .ORG section we had the usual debian, BSD and Linuxboot people, fun to talk with as always. Didn't get a conversation going with the Gentoo or KDE guys, but the projects were still pretty interesting. EFF wasn't here this year, unfortunately, meant to buy some stickers.
    O'Reilly had a pretty good deal on books, 25% off and a free shirt (the shirts only lasted through the first half of the day). Honeynet gave a pretty interesting presentation in the back of the O'Reilly booth.
    There was also a robot rolling around the show floor, Sprocket (not sure of the spelling, it might have been different). It demonstrated pretty impressive speech recognition capabilities, talked to the presenters, made crude jokes and movie references. It seemed pretty capable of sustaining normal conversation and was able to recognize people based on their clothing (although it misinterpreted blue lettering on my t-shirt as a blue jacket). Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to it for more than a couple of minutes.
  • This was my second LWNY and it was good for me because I was able to check out the reformation of the New York City BSD User Group (NYCBUG or " Nice Bug [nycbug.org]"

    I found it was great to talk to some Geograpic Information Systems firms there (since I am an Environmental Engineer). I was disapointed with some of the companies efforts to push me along on Friday Afternoon because they thought I was just a student looking foor a free stuffed TUX. I will be in the market for a cluster (once I have the money) so they just

  • "from the Y2***-is-the-year-of-desktop-linux dept" (Score:3, Funny)

    by LeninZhiv ( 464864 ) * on Saturday January 24, 2004 @09:47PM (#8078412)
    timothy, man, come on! /. editors need to have basic wildcard skills:

    2* already means "any year starting with 2"; for single-digit substitution use ?:
    2??? is the year of desktop linux.

    man bash | grep -A32 "Any character"

    And yes, desktop GNU/Linux is just around the corner :-)

  • "As usual, the ".org Pavilion" was where everything interesting and fun was. Crowds of friendly, smart, kind-hearted people mulling around the back-corner, kindly paid for by corporate interests, a small bone thrown our way."

    Actually, the whole thing was paid for by the "corporate interests". It cost big bucks to rent the space for those big booths. You should say "Thank you, corporate interests."

  • UNIX Services for Windows (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AstroDrabb ( 534369 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @10:45PM (#8078724)
    It seems odd that MS would hand out CD's of UNIX Services for Windows at a Linux show. Not that long ago MS was saying how the GPL is a "cancer" and yet they include GPL'ed software in their UNIX Services for Windows. I guess the GPL is OK if it helps the bottom line of MS and a "cancer" if it is any competition to them?
  • Gentoo was there in force, some of them were punk.

    I'm proud to have been one of those "punks", but I am sure he was referring to esammer and his wife. It was great meeting everyone who came by the booth and we all had a fun time. -- wolf31o2

  • This is the evolution. Linux will create corporate millionaires and billionaires, and like Microsoft, someday will be the mega dominate OS. The next thing will be driven by the hackers and 'punks' all over again. I selected Linux because the money my consulting company saves in not paying MS licenses, (ie more profit for us and not Microsoft) helps go toward my second home purchase. This software is wonderful.
  • Anyone who went: were any of the newer Exchange alternatives shown? I know some of the groupware systems, but I'm looking for one that is outlook compatable and end user indistiguisable from Exchange. Prefereably for a low cost :-)
    • Kroupware is your friend. I heard good things about it after a friend of mine went to a conference in the UK and saw a presentation on Kroupware by Bo Thorensen.

      Pity the name sucks.
  • It seems as if the who Corp. world has taken over the Convention and only given a little bit of space for the true geeks. Not like the days when people who had jobs would take a day off to bring everything there and show off their stuff. I miss those kind of conventions, more like a non-gaming LAN party these days. Any how I think it is good to go to these big shows and see what commercial "stuff" is around, but remember-that's not all Linux is about.
  • Was Sco there?
  • I'm positing this comment about the article here because the handling of apostrophes and quotes within the Nine Nines.org comment handling is all fubar. Anyway, the article says ...

    [mid-level managers]...

    fall back on corporate speak when addressing a crowd ("middleware," "enterprise").

    Perhaps the reviewer doesn't understand - middleware is real. It's an actual type of product, that does a genuinely useful job. The only synonymn for "middleware" that is really appropriate which I guess you wouldn'

  • Does anyone know the name of a small tech company thats been prospering as a result of being a supplier to RedHat? I read about this company several months ago and failed to record their identity. Thanx for any help.

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