Check inside for our photo review of this year’s LinuxWorld. In short, Novell rocked the show, while Red Hat and Sun were missing completely! We think that there were fewer people visiting this year… However, we got to see the new PalmSource ALP OS, we chatted with Motorola about their Linux SDK’s state of affairs and more!
Special thanks to Vincent Queru for the pictures!
Chander Kant, CEO of Zmanda and LinuxCertified, and I. Recently, Zmanda extended its Amanda Backup enterprise support while it has been selected to join Novell’s Market Start program for innovative open source companies. Amanda Enterprise will now be available on SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.
Corey Burger and Jorge Castro at the Gnome booth with their “Golden Penguin Bowl” trophy. “We kicked Novell’s a$$ at the competition last night“, they told us…
Corey Burger shows us a live Userful desktop, a lock-down version of Gnome (great solution for kiosks).
Our good online friend Ben Rockwood at the OpenSolaris pavilion. Check out his beast server, with 12 Terrabytes of storage (can go up to 24TB). With ZFS it’s very easy to maintain it rather with other available solutions, he said.
The Xandros booth.
The FreeBSD booth. Matt Olander told us how fast their PC-BSD CDs were going away! Everyone wants a FreeBSD desktop version it seems!
Representatives from webScurity and StoneSoft, special guests at IBM’s pavilion. They provide advanced firewall solutions.
The Fedora Project guys! The single Red Hat employee was to be found at the Fedora’s booth. They showed us the new default icon theme for the upcoming Fedora, called Echo. They were running Fedora Core on an Intel MacMini and it worked perfectly, even ACPI “sleep” worked well.
Trolltech’s GreenPhone. This development ODM version doesn’t come with WiFi, but it has Bluetooth, QVGA screen and more. The phone looks like a normal phone, but it has a touchscreen.
Guy Martin from Motorola. At last, someone who knows his stuff regarding Linux at Motorola and we were able to get info regarding their Linux phones: the plan is that all future Motorola phones (Chameleon or EZX platform) will come with a standard SDK that enthusiasts will be able to write native applications for. Motorola hopes that others will use their stack and so they create a big Linux platform of many binary-compatible phones in the market. However, don’t expect an SDK to be released for their current Linux phones…
On the first picture, the very helpful Eugene Tan of Palmsource (ex-Be, Inc. build engineer). Also, the Palm ALP running a GTK application recompiled for PalmSource’s version. They are using Glade 3.0 and they have contributed many new widgets to the Glade developers, but they think that these haven’t been integrated yet to the standard Glade… Apparently with a small makefile change you can recompile existing GTK applications for the ALP (and some reformatting of Widgets is getting taken care of by the ALP system so it fits on the small screen). Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures from the live ALP running on some Haier cellphones (with touchscreen). The interface looked good, although the system requires 64MBs of RAM, which is kinda hefty requirement if they try to market them towards mid-range cellphones…
The always cool Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda of Slashdot in a bean bag at the Slashdot lounge. Jeff “Hemos” Bates was hunting elephants in Africa, he told us…
The Intel booth.
The whole LinuxWorld expo from left to center and right.
You say Novell rocked the show, but there’s no trace of Novell in either of those photos. What happened?
There are a lot of other pics of Novell’s booth online (check newsforge), so we didn’t take any. Also, their booth was so big, that it was almost impossible to capture any meaningful portion of it in a single frame…
I would have taken a picture of Nat Friedman and an interview if he hadn’t had such a busy schedule that made it impossible to do so. Most of our pictures were people-oriented as you saw rather than generic pictures of booths.
Edited 2006-08-17 00:23
Thanks for answering. I thought you may have forgotten to upload it or something.
Eugenia, maybe you can do a writeup of your impressions of the show.
From the pictures on the second page there didn’t seem to be that many people. Now that Linux is maturing into its role, the hypemeisters aren’t all that interested anymore. Novell is about the only company that is making a last ditch effort on the desktop.
Sun was there (pimping Solaris) and so was some FreeBSD guys. Maybe they should rename it UnixWorld.
Sun was NOT there (at least I didn’t see it, neither it’s listed in the exhibitor’s list). OpenSolaris was represented by Ben, who is an enthusiast.
And I think you are too harsh on BSD being there. I mean, come on, even Apple was there. Should we rename it AppleWorld then? Everything that interests Linux professionals, usually it has something to do with Unix — and even Windows up to some level–, so all these booths were relevant.
It’s amazing the extraordinary lengths some people will go to to indulge their Linux denial.
unixworld would be a cool name
And I think you are too harsh on BSD being there. I mean, come on, even Apple was there. Should we rename it AppleWorld then?
How exactly was I too harsh on BSD? If anything, you support my point that it should be called UnixWorld.
Novell is about the only company that is making a last ditch effort on the desktop.
So I guess you never heard of Canonical, Linspire, and Xandros, then? Never mind that Novell is finally succeeding where they failed (with UNIX) ten, fifteen years ago.
For someone implying a claim to having his/her finger on the Linux pulse, that’s very odd.
Very odd indeed.
So I guess you never heard of Canonical, Linspire, and Xandros, then? Never mind that Novell is finally succeeding where they failed (with UNIX) ten, fifteen years ago.
Let’s see. We have Canonical giving away Ubuntu, and a couple smalltime players like Linspire and Xandros that are about as relevant as a one man show like Mephis.
And how exactly is Novell succeeding? Are you somehow privy to some new info about their desktop efforts being a money maker now?
You should probably talk to RedHat about how they feel about the Linux desktop. And they’re the only relevant player actually making money off of actually selling Linux.
//You should probably talk to RedHat about how they feel about the Linux desktop. And they’re the only relevant player actually making money off of actually selling Linux.//
That is a very strange concept you have there.
RedHat don’t make money “actually selling Linux”. One can after all get RedHat-equivalent software from Whitebox or CentOS.
RedHat make money from selling services and support for their Linux product.
So to do Novell. Not long ago Novell were in a nosedive. Retrenchments. The Linux services division was one of the few making money, AFAIK. With the release of Suse 10.1 this is reportedly getting better and better all the time.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=NOVL&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=NOVL&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=NOVL&annual
That is a very strange concept you have there.
RedHat don’t make money “actually selling Linux”. One can after all get RedHat-equivalent software from Whitebox or CentOS.
RedHat make money from selling services and support for their Linux product.
RedHat sells licenses as well as service and support. RedHat executives have come out time and time again to say that servers are where they are making money.
So to do Novell. Not long ago Novell were in a nosedive. Retrenchments. The Linux services division was one of the few making money, AFAIK. With the release of Suse 10.1 this is reportedly getting better and better all the time.
And this is related to the desktop how? You think they’re actually getting a ROI for the desktops they sell?
Ford have come out time and again saying they make money from cars, not vegetables. But then, they don’t sell vegetables.
Perhaps the reason RedHat aren’t making money from desktops is that they don’t offer a desktop distribution for sale?
And no, RedHat do NOT “sell licences”, since that implies (a) a right on the part of the client to use the software which the buyer would otherwise not have (false, since one can get Linux from any number of distributors, and RHEL itself from several), and (b) an exclusive right to licence RHEL on the part of Red Hat. The only thing Red Hat can “licence” is their trademark, which is why Centos go to great lengths to remove it from their (freely obtained and therefore non-licensed and non-licensable) Red Hat based distribution.
Of course, one can include non-GPL’d and therefore separately licensable software with a Linux distribution. However, Red Hat doesn’t.
Perhaps the reason RedHat aren’t making money from desktops is that they don’t offer a desktop distribution for sale?
I thought Red Hat Enterprise linux WS was Red Hat’s desktop distribution
Maybe it is; however, if it is, I haven’t heard anyone claim RH is not making money on it, which goes to the heart of the argument I was responding to.
Of course, one can include non-GPL’d and therefore separately licensable software with a Linux distribution. However, Red Hat doesn’t.
Except for RedHat Satellite Server, which has an extremely restrictive license. Unless of course this has changed, and you can point out where I can download the source to it…
RedHat sells per-system service and support contracts. You can call it whatever you want. And RedHat can use whatever semantics they want to. The effect is the same.
The relevant info is:
From https://www.redhat.com/apps/commerce/open/agreements.html
4. REPORTING AND AUDIT. If Customer wishes to increase the number of Installed System, then Customer will purchase from Red Hat additional Services for each additional Installed System. During the term of this Agreement and for one (1) year thereafter, Customer expressly grants to Red Hat the right to audit Customer’s facilities and records from time to time in order to verify Customer’s compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement
So the bottom line is that you can’t just buy a RedHat enterprise “service and support” contract and then install the distro on all your machines.
I didn’t say you could. All I said was that RH cannot restrict others from downloading GPL software.
Of course you can install RHES on however many systems you want.
Red Hat will just only support it for whatever server configuration you bought suppport for.
Your posting on this whole thread is nothing but a silly Anti-Linux anti Red-Hat crusade and smells of astroturfing.
I hope you are getting paid for this.
Of course you can install RHES on however many systems you want.
Red Hat will just only support it for whatever server configuration you bought suppport for.
Oh really, did you read the service and support agreements? Please explain away the agreement to audits.
Your posting on this whole thread is nothing but a silly Anti-Linux anti Red-Hat crusade and smells of astroturfing.
I hope you are getting paid for this.
Yeah, the nutty conspiracy theories argument to a little reality check is always a good one.
Your right. I’m working for “the man”. And “the man” is holding desktop linux down.
Try again.
Usually the only trade shows with that many boobs are car shows. The difference is that at car shows they belong to women.
Where was LinuxWorld held anyway? I didn’t see that mentioned in the summary.
LinuxWorld in the summer is always at the same place: Moscone North, San Francisco.
@Eug : actually, last year it was on moscone west.
and i do agree, it was much less,.. busy,.. this year then last.
—
I enjoyed the novell (mainly the SLED 10 demos) more then anything as well.. wait.. i lied.. i LOVED the moto peeps and the DDR game,.. it was one of my highlights.. got me a 101K score too, almost got that japanese phone. but alas i lost by about 21K, hehe…
Dont know his name, so i’ll call him ‘thick guy’ at the fedora stand, he insulted me like twice when i was wondering by, said ‘download the bittorrent tis much faster then anything’ as im thinking ‘not faster then me grabbing a dvd, but kthnx’..
the opensolaris was a very nice guy, but in person im quite short on words, so i just said thank you for the demo cd and wondered away while the gf appoligized for me being anti-social..
did i mention i loved the DDR Moto game? i could keep goin on about things, but i’ll end there.. hehe.. now to sort thru my 50+ CD’s of demo stuff,..
p.s. to the fedora guy, sorry, i actually dont have internet at home for a few weeks, and havent used fc5 yet, so thats why i was liking the cd option, but thanks anyways :-p
also, im a new sled 10 convert from ubuntu, the GF REALLY REALLY likes sled 10,.. and that makes life easier for me as well, being liked by myself as well..
i’ll write more later, dont want to turn this too much into a personal blog post.. :-X
Edited 2006-08-17 04:07
+5 Funny haha
On a more serious note though, I always loved the sound of these shows. It looks like such a neat thing to check out. What does it take to get into one of these shows? I guess it varies from show to show, but I imagine you can get into LinuxWorld by paying an admission fee? I would love to go to a show someday.
It is free if you just go to the exhibition part (not to the conferences) and you pre-register online. If you just show up there out of the blue while the show is ON, they will charge you $70.
And Press/Media (like us) gets free lunch.
But I never knew till looking at that photo on page 2, that CmdrTaco from Slashdot played the russian computer guy in the James Bond movie Goldeneye!
But I never knew till looking at that photo on page 2, that CmdrTaco from Slashdot played the russian computer guy in the James Bond movie Goldeneye!
Yes, that’s why he runs around yelling “I’m invincible!”
Okay Eugenia, thank you for showing me the goddamn app for a second at least.
After seven months, it was turning from vaporware to bad taste joke very quickly.
So, after all the speculations, finally ALP will be plain Linux with the graphic layer of Palm Os on top. More clearly, linux engine and Palm Os icons and layout…
Okay, can live with that, but did not catch the part about minimum 64 M to run properly. I mean, I really never gave a thought about how much memory ( beyond the storing part) my Palm T5 has.
Do you think it would work right now?
Thanks for the pics, they made a very good impression to me.
PalmOS 5.x requires about 8 MBs of dynamic RAM. PalmOS 4 can run with 4 MBs. ALP requires 64.
Please note that there is an emulator running at all times on ALP, they showed us Bejeweled running unmodified.
Linux hype is over? Linux is dying? Netcraft confirms it?
Sry, couldn’t resist
>Linux hype is over? Linux is dying? Netcraft confirms it?
Just speculating (I wasn’t there), but I’d say that Linux “hype” is, indeed, dying. Which is OK. I would hazard a guess that maybe the vendors and attendees are more serious and down to business than before. I also suspect that Linux has reached “trade show saturation”. It seems like every time I turn around there is another Linux trade show in progress.
I’m going to call this part of Linux’s maturation process. At age 15, it’s just about time, I suppose.
Edited 2006-08-17 16:58
The FreeBSD booth. Matt Olander told us how fast their PC-BSD CDs were going away! Everyone wants a FreeBSD desktop version it seems!
Over 100.000 downloads since version 1.0 release, not counting unofficial mirrors. PC-BSD is not feature complete yet, I’d say it would be ready for desktop by version 2.0, according to roadmap:
http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=roadmap
And some ideas about upcoming 1.3 installer:
http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?t=4738
A new point release every month? That is some pretty good progress. Looking forward to downloading them all.
Where was redhat’s booth?
Edited 2006-08-17 07:35
The booth vanished for the mortals this year. Instead, Red Hat sent a special ninjas squad to be around other booths for a “secret” mission. For example, one of them managed to demonstrate Xen on Dell booth. In other word, Red Hat is everywhere
.
Edited 2006-08-17 07:51
SUN employees were present (though SUN itself did not have it’s own booth) as Ben Rockwood mentions:
“I want to thank Alan DuBoff for helping out so much in the booth, Bill Moore for supplying the X4500 and hanging out in the booth with us this afternoon, and all the other Sun employees who stopped by or were working in the AMD booth. I want especially to thank Teresa Giacomini who did all the coordination with IDG, supplied us with swag (DVD Starter Kits, “1 Year” tshirts, clings/sticker, signage, etc), and help out in the booth, and Michelle Olson who has gone way above and beyond the call in helping out in the booth. If it weren’t for Teresa the show wouldn’t have happened and if it weren’t for Michelle I’d have gone insane.”
So, it would seem SUN employees were present, and SUN provided resources for the OpenSolaris booth
Maybe it’s the journalists and trade shows themselves who are dying due to the recent changes in technology.
Most people are bringing technology home or downloading it. They generally don’t have to travel to other places to understand the next new thing. They don’t need others to understand it.
We Linux, BSD, and MacOS users continue our onward march leaving rusty and crusty crap in the in the dust bin of history.
If journalists and those who run trade shows don’t adapt to the changing times, they are going to go the way of the dinosaur.
Edited 2006-08-18 02:25
I dont know why but, damn why the mayority of the humans that likes computers looks rare, strange ugly people, specialy the girls ?
Edited 2006-08-18 03:42