neddie Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Has anyone been to this conference called linuxtag? The next one is in June of this year in Berlin, and it sounds interesting - a mixture of stands and displays, talks and discussions, and not just linux stuff but other open source stuff too, apparently. Have you been? Would you recommend it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Batson Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Wobo over at http://forum.mandriva.com has been. http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=107606&start=0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobo Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Wobo over at http://forum.mandriva.com has been. Thx, David. My first Linuxtag was in 2000 (together with Tom Berger) and I have not missed one since then. The German Mandriva user community MandrivaUser.de has participated in the last 3 exhibition with our own booth, sponsored by the Linuxtag organization. Linuxtag is Germany's largest Linux/OpenSource event, the motto is: "where .com meets .org". Seeing mostly German participants and visitors there are quite a lot of international guests. Lots of speeches, demos, workshops, etc. This year Mandriva will have a booth, 3-4 people from Paris headquarters will be there (including Anne Nicolas), supported by me and some more members of the German community. Hopefully we will have our own workshops, a "Mandriva Day". If you are interested in some pics from the Linuxtag, see http://www.mandrivauser.de/copper/ If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. wobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Great, thanks for the info, wobo! I like the pics, but they're just of the stands, which I am guessing (maybe wrongly?) is just a small part of the whole thing. Out of interest, were/are you there representing and promoting Mandriva, or mandrivausers.de? I mean, encouraging people to use/buy Mandriva or trying to get users to join the website? Is the main focus trying to sell stuff, like a trade fair, or is it geeks discussing kernel programming, or demonstrations of how to do cool stuff, or a mixture of everything? Dumb question I know but I've never been to one of these things before so I've no idea really what to expect. It certainly sounds like an interesting mix of stuff, from their website. And it's not just linux it's other OSS projects too, right? Also, is everything in German? I can understand it no problem but it might affect who I can encourage to come with me if there are no talks in engllish or other languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobo Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Of course the exhibition is only one part of it. As I wrote there are numerous speeches, workshops, conferences going on suring all 4 days. Go to the website, it is also in English. You will find a list of all the things which are going on apart from the exhibition. Out of interest, were/are you there representing and promoting Mandriva, or mandrivausers.de? I mean, encouraging people to use/buy Mandriva or trying to get users to join the website? Actually both reasons. Officially we were there as a free community project, presenting our community. But because Mandriva was not there themselves, we also played "Mandriva Ambassadors", showing the latest Mandriva and answering questions. I think most visitors did not realize the difference, they only saw "Mandriva".Over the years our community and myself became known as the "bridge to Mandriva" for the German crowd, so we were always seen as both: a community project and a Mandriva asset in our country. I think this is the same as BlogDrake in Spain or other large community organisations in countries with other labguages than English. Is the main focus trying to sell stuff, like a trade fair, or is it geeks discussing kernel programming, or demonstrations of how to do cool stuff, or a mixture of everything? Again, all of it that in a very balanced mixture. As I already wrote, the motto is "where .com meets .org" and the overall purpose of the event is to bring commercial interests and free projects together and present them to the public. It is less a business event than LinuxWorld and Expo or the Linux Solutions in Paris (where I met the Mandriva crowd last Wednesday). And it is less a geek ecent like the FOSDEM or the FrOSCon. It is all of them, shaken not stirred. :) And it's not just linux it's other OSS projects too, right? Would you be surprised that Microsoft had a large stand there? And HP, IBM, Red Hat, Novell, etc. Then there is the whole *BSD family, lots of Unix folks, but also commercial ventures and projects like LiMux, the project to migrate the complete city management of Munich to Linux. In short: there is everything. People who talk in back rooms about 8-digit-deals, and the small stand of a one man project who had an idea. There are the pale faced and long haired developers and also the sales reps with suits&ties. A lot of business, knowledge and fun. Also, is everything in German? Being an event in Germany, the major language is German of course. But the speeches are held in English or German, almost all people at the stands speak English. There is a large international crowd coming in from all over the world. During the previous events I met interesting people like Jon Maddog Hall, Mark Shuttleworth, the author of "Userfriendly" promoted his latest book, top developers talking about their latest buzz and plans. And there is a key signing party, there are exams for LPI and Typo3 certificates, etc. In short: it is an Open Source consumer trade show, a family get-together of the Open Source world, and a top class information act. Again: see the website http://www.linuxtag.org/2009/en.html To give an impression: At Linuxtag 2000 Mandriva (then Mandrakesoft) was there with a large stand with people from Paris and 2 Germany guys: Tom Berger and me. We had a large flatscreen (in 2000!), showing demos of Mandrake Linux in English and German. A man walked up to me, introducing himself as Kurt Pfeiffle. He had a "exciting new system to manage printers over the network with a browser interface and if he could demonstrate it at our stand. We agreed and that's where CUPS was first shown at a large event. The consequence: Mandrake Linux was the first Linux distribution with CUPS for printer management. At the same vent in 2000 another German guy (Stefan Siegel) and I went to the social event (party for all exhibitioners) together with friedn of Stefan. His name was Till Kamppeter. He was out of a job that time and next thing that happened: we talked him into contacting the Mandrkaesoft people. 2 weeks late he started his work in the Mandrakesoft offices as the top printer guru. Then there was Richard Stallman, grabbing the microfone and singing his song about Free Software... All this is Linuxtag. Sorry, got carried away because I love it! :) wobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Brilliant sales pitch, wobo, you got me interested! Thanks! Hey, maybe I'll find my next job there too! :P Anyone else likely to be near Berlin in June? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wobo Posted April 6, 2009 Report Share Posted April 6, 2009 Brilliant sales pitch, wobo, you got me interested! Thanks! I'm looking forward to see you there, your "First time Linux" page is excellent! As you understand German, you may stop by occasionally at www.mandrivauser.de wobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isadora Posted June 21, 2009 Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 No Mandriva at Linux-Tag!!!!!!!! http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=...&highlight= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted June 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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