Conference and Expo by sneaking onto the exhibit floor before it
opened and grabbing some fast pictures of people setting up, starting
with the .ORG pavilion. This is the area set aside for the non-profit
and volunteer groups that are the heart of this show — and of open
source and free software in general.
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Here’s the Free Software Foundation display about 45 minutes before the show opened on Tuesday. Without the FSF, there would be no LinuxWorld.
There would be no Linux — or GNU/Linux, for that matter. In my opinion, this is the most important display in the whole show and should be placed next to the main entrance with bright lights focused on it. But nobody asked me, so it’s tucked back in a corner. It’s worth finding though, and I heartily recommend
joining the Free Software Foundation
whether you do it in person at their booth or online from your home or office.
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Not far from the FSF booth, the X.org people are getting ready to show off their latest work. This is another project that’s essential to
modern GNU/Linux and everything that surrounds it.
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Fedora and Gentoo, side by side. Two of the best known “community” distributions. Both great software. What else can you say about them?
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Hanging a PostgreSQL booth banner.
On the commercial side of things…
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Intel had two separate, rather large display areas with dozens of young women in blue shirts handing out literature in them. In this pic, some of the Intel booth reps are getting their final briefing.
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HP people are getting pumped up, ready to deal with the impending hordes of eager buyers who will no doubt descend on their display area the
second the exhibit floor is open to the public.
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Showing off Novell’s Groupwise — one of several “Exchange alternatives” on display at LinuxWorld.
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A fire alarm went off during lunch. Boston firemen responded and an evacuation notice went out for one floor of the Hynes Convention Center, but it was a false alarm and everyone was back to business a few minutes later.
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Boston Red Sox player Doug
Mirabelli autographed baseballs and photos at an after-hours HP “VIP” reception that I talked my way into even though I didn’t have an
invitation. What do baseball player autographs have to do with Linux? Nothing that I could think of, but it was apparently an effective
marketing ploy; there was a long line of people waiting to get them.
