188 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
188 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Usenix in Anaheim Issue 14</title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BACKGROUND="../gx/spirbind.gif">
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<table>
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<tr><td><img src="../gx/blank.gif" width=50></td>
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<td>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more lovable!</I>"
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<IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="../gx/heart.gif"> </H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H2>Usenix/Uselinux in Anaheim</H2>
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<H4>By Phil Hughes,
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<a href="mailto:phil@ssc.com">phil@ssc.com</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<A HREF="./photos.html">Usenix/Uselinux Photo Album </A>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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Here I am at Usenix at the Mariott Hotel in Anaheim. Actually,
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it is pleasant to be in nice weather after almost drowning in
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Seattle. It had rained here the day before so the air
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was actually clean. But, let me talk about the show instead of the weather.
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<P>
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Usenix is a five-day show that, this year, has a heavy Linux
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presence. For those not familiar with Usenix, it has been the "wear a tie
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and get laughed at" Unix show for years. It is technical
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and tends to draw a very seriously technical crowd.
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<P>
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It is broken up into tutorials, a trade show and a technical
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conference. Well, plus the informal beer drinking sessions and such.
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><H4>Tutorial Days </H4></center>
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<P>
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The first two days are tutorials and I elected to attend an all-day
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tutorial on the Linux 2.0 kernel presented by Stephen Tweedie. I found
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it to be excellent and that seemed to be the general opinion of the
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approximately 125 people who attended.
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<P>
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In eight hours and 170 overheads, Stephen addressed four specific
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areas of the kernel: memory management, the scheduler, filesystems and
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I/O and networking. I feel the goal of the talk, "to be with
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the design and algorithms behind the Linux kernel and to be able
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to read the Linux source code with some understanding"
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was met. While Stephen did not necessarily expect attendees
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to be familiar with Unix systems programming, the more you
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knew about Unix the easier it was to understand the
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presentation. After all, learning all about a new operating
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system in eight hours is quite a challenge.
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<P>
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On Tuesday, Ted T'so taught a tutorial on writing device drivers under
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Linux. This talk was attended by about 60 students. I elected to
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take Tuesday as a day to catch up on <I>LJ</I> work and make a run to
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Fry's Electronics to see if they carry <I>Linux Journal</I>. They
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don't--which makes no sense as Fry's is exactly the
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kind of place a Linux geek would want to go.
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<P>
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Tuesday evening started with free food and drink. This is one of
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the best ways to get geeks talking. The Marriott did a great job
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with an array of food carts with various choices including fruit,
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veggies, potato patties, nachos, hamburgers and hot dogs. There
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were also drink and dessert carts. They even had my drug of
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choice, Dr. Pepper.
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<P>
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There were Birds-of-a-Feather sessions scheduled from 6PM
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to 10PM. The two Linux ones were scheduled at the same time,
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both at 7PM. As I already know a lot about Caldera Linux I
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elected to go to the talk on Electronic Design Automation
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(EDA). Peter Collins, manager of software services for
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Exemplar Logic, headed the BoF and talked about how his
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company had done an NT port but now had a Linux port. He
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pointed out that EDA grew up on Unix-based systems like Suns and
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the capabilities of Linux were a better fit for current EDA users.
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><H4> The Trade Show </H4> </center>
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<P>
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The trade show started on Wednesday. While this was not a Linux-specific
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trade show, Linux had a large presence. Linux vendors included
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Caldera, EST (makers of the bru backup utility), InfoMagic, Linux
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International, Red Hat, Walnut Creek CDROM, Workgroup Solutions and
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Yggdrasil. Plus, of course, our booth where we were giving away
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sample copies of <I>Linux Journal</I>. Lots of other
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vendors came by to talk about Linux and the Linux products they sell.
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<P>
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Linux interest was very high. While Usenix is a geek conference,
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these are mostly professional geeks who are making serious technical
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decisions for real companies. I answered many "It seems
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like Linux could do this" inquiries.
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<P>
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Within the trade show I think SSC offered the biggest hit. We just
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finished our new "fences" t-shirt. We sold out of the
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shirts in about four hours on the first day. This gave me the
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feeling that I was at the right show--not one where Microsoft
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was being honored.
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><H4> Linus Talks and Linux Talks </H4></center>
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<P>
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On Wednesday afternoon we proved how significant the Linux
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interest/presence was. Linus was scheduled to talk on the future of
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Linux in a fairly large room, which soon filled up, with standees
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everywhere--including the hall outside. Usenix quickly offered
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to move the crowd into a much larger hall.
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<P>
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The talk went well as Linus explained new features and new
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ideas. I won't bore you with details. The important thing is that
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the goal is world domination. To some this sounded like humor. Maybe
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it was. Only time will tell. In the mean time, building a superior
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product can't hurt.
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<P>
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Wednesday evening was a time for more Linux sessions. I attended
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one called <I>The Classroom of the Future</I> that showed how an
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experimental program brought the Internet to K-12 schools in
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Ireland. I also attended another called <I>The Future of the
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Linux Desktop</I>, missing Greg Wettstein's talk on perceptions. [see
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Greg's article "Linux in the Trenches" in <I>LJ</I> #5,
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September 1994--Ed.]
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<P>
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Thursday was another day of talks and trade show. Peter Struijk,
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SSC's "head nerd" managed to make it to
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Victor Yodaiken' presentation on real-time Linux [see
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<I>LJ</I> #34, February 1997] and a talk on the /proc file system
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by Stephen Tweedie. In the evening,
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I hosted a session on embedded, turnkey and real-time systems and
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intended to make it to Developing Linux-based electronic markets
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for Internet Trading Experiments but ended up talking with
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some of the attendees of my session instead.
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<P>
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The evening ended with a short talk about Linux and reality with
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Stephen Tweedie and then a trip back to the hotel room to finish up
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this column. Then, if I run out of things to do I may actually
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get some sleep.
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<P>
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Friday offers a day of Uselinux business talks. However, the
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combination of editorial deadlines and exhaustion mean that
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you won't get to read about it here.
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<P><HR> <P>
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<center><H4> What Next? </H4></center>
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<P>
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It was a great show. Usenix has always been a great show offering
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high-quality sessions and a really nice mix of
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"non-suites". Having Usenix/Uselinux made it all the
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better. I am sure there will be serious cooperation between Usenix and Linux
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International to continue to make Linux a big part of Usenix.
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<P>
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If I have one complaint it was that there was too much to do. Add
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a Linux International board meeting to a schedule that included
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sessions, talks and BoFs from 9AM to 11PM with parallel Linux tracks
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plus the normal Usenix tracks and there just wasn't time to breathe
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or, more importantly, sit down to a beer and talk to fellow kernel
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hackers, systems administrators or vendors.
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<P>
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Anyone who wants to get copies of the Proceedings of this
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conference or find out what the future holds with regard to Usenix,
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should contact USENIX Association at <A HREF="mailto:office@usenix.org">
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office@usenix.org</A> or check out their web site at
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<A HREF="http://www.usenix.org/">http://www.usenix.org/</A> or, if all else fails, call
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510-528-8649. Oh, and if you don't know what 8649 spells you
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must be new to the Unix community.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Phil Hughes <BR>
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Published in Issue 14 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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