Last week I had the privilege of covering the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon. The first time I’ve been to that particular conference, and I hope it won’t be the last.
I did the whole schmear — Monday through Friday, start to finish. Aside from being very tired after spending five days at the conference, I’m really glad that I did go the entire week. I had the opportunity to attend a lot of interesting presentations and talks, and also got to sit down with a lot of really interesting folks from the open source community — and not just the big names, some of the most interesting people that I spoke with are the users of open source who are actually using the technology.
Of course, I have coverage up on NewsForge from OSCON: day one, day two, day three, and day four are up now, and the wrap-up should go up tomorrow, along with some video goodness.
Closed source drivers for video cards have been a vexing problem for free software enthusiasts for some time. Open source drivers for most video cards exist, but fail to take full advantage of the cards’ ability, leaving users with a choice between free and high performance. The good news is that the Open Graphics Project (OGP) is making progress toward a completely open video card. The bad news is that it will still be a while before free software enthusiasts will be able to use a completely open video card. [Read the rest on NewsForge…]
Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be flying to Portland, Oregon to cover OSCON for Linux.com and NewsForge. I’ve been to tons of Linux and open source events, but this will be my first OSCON, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. Almost as much as I’m looking forward to the Ohio LinuxFest this year…
I’m also looking forward to not getting work-disrupting phone calls following up on OSCON briefing requests.
I’d like to spend time talking to some of the folks who are working on open source projects at OSCON — projects that may not have a PR budget to get the word out. If you’re interested in talking about a project at OSCON, drop me a note and let me know what might be a good time at the show — I’ll be there through Friday, trying to cover as much of the show as humanly possible. Hope to see you there!
I spent a fair amount of time playing with an interesting hardware/software combination a few weeks ago, the Levanta Intrepid M. It’s a really, really cool solution — a bit on the expensive side, but very well designed. I’ve got a review up on Linux.com if anyone’s curious.
Over the past few years, I’ve become a fairly devoted fan of WordPress — it works well, it’s so easy to set up I could practically do it in my sleep, and it’s free as in speech and as in beer.
But, I also like to check out the competition. A few weeks ago, I spent some time using Serendipity, another PHP-based CMS that is very easy to use. As an added bonus, Serendipity supports PostgreSQL and SQLite out of the box, so if you don’t have MySQL installed and/or would prefer to use PostgreSQL or SQLite, it’s a great option.
Overall, I liked Serendipity quite a bit — I’m not ready to switch, but it has some really good features. I’ve got a review up on NewsForge, please have a read and give Serendipity a shot if you’re looking for a good CMS or blogging software.
The Ohio LinuxFest call for papers was supposed to end a few days ago, but we’ve decided to extend it until July 31st to maximize the number of really awesome speakers for the show.
In case you’re not familiar with the LinuxFest, it’s a one-day free conference in Columbus, Ohio every year. It’s a totally community-oriented event, focused on educating users and bringing together the Linux community in the Mid-West that is so woefully under-served by the conferences that take place on the coasts. This is why I’m donating some time to help out — I think it’s really important to cultivate community events, and doubly important to help cultivate events in locations that aren’t served by shows like LinuxWorld, OSCON, and so forth.
It’s not easy for many people to get a travel budget to attend a big show in New York, Boston, San Francisco and so forth — those are easy targets for commercial shows, but Linux and open source aren’t just about the bucks. What keeps me interested in Linux is the technology and the community — and that’s what OLF has in abundance.
There’s a lot of Linux users and enthusiasts in the chasm between the coasts, and they deserve a day in the sun as well — actually, they deserve more than that, but at least OLF gives ‘em one day a year to gather together and soak up the community spirit that has brought Linux this far and continues to make it great.
So, if you’re involved with Linux and open source and have something interesting to share, be sure to check out the speaker’s guidelines and propose a presentation.
Even if you’re not interested in speaking (or sponsoring…) be sure to sign up to attend the show if you’re anywhere near Columbus, Ohio. I’m not sure who’s going to be speaking just yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be a great line-up. Heck, it’s worth showing up just to rub elbows with all the great folks who turn out — it’s a really fun crowd, and easily one of the best ways to spend a Saturday for anyone who’s a Linux geek or just Linux-curious.
I’ll be there, and I hope to see you there as well.
Okay, I’ve been in the business of writing about Linux for a while now, so change over time is to be expected… but, look, this is getting silly.
The distro now known as SUSE started off as S.u.S.E., and then morphed into SuSE, and then finally became SUSE. Then, they launched the openSUSE project, and it was openSUSE and SUSE for a while, plus Novell Enterprise Desktop or something, and then to clear up confusion they said “it’s all SUSE.”
Until today, when they announced, it’s openSUSE again. Note this is less than six months after standardizing on the SUSE name.
Bloody hell, already. Pick a name, and stick with it. At this point, I will no longer feel bad at all if I happen to reference SUSE by some outdated version of its name in a story or article. No one should be held accountable for trying to keep track of all the permutations of SUSE that they’ve got going on that change on a regular basis.