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8.4 KiB
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183 lines
8.4 KiB
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Title of Article Issue 17</title>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#EEE1CC" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0020F0"
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H2>1997 Linux Expo</H2>
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<H4>By Jon "maddog" Hall
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<a href="mailto:"maddog@zk3.dec.com">maddog@zk3.dec.com</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P><HR><P>
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<a href="./photos.html">Linux Expo 97 Photo Album</a>
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<P><HR><P>
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<p>"Well, should we get one pitcher or two?" That was the question
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that began the first unofficial event of the Linux Expo Thursday
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night. A group of people, including Red Hat employees, some of the
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speakers and a tired maddog were at the Carolina Brewery in
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Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was late, and I was the
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last person to arrive."Two pitchers," I cried,"Now what
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will you be drinking?"
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<p>The next day, Friday April 4th started early, as I had to set up
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the Linux International booth, as well as absorb all that was
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happening. The event was held in the North Carolina
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Biotechnology Center at Research Triangle Park. As I
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approached the Biotech Center, I was met with a friendly
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parking coordinator that reinforced the information that
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"parking was scarce", and that most people had to park at
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outlying lots. Fortunately Red Hat had arranged for shuttle
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busses from those lots and from several of the hotels. Since our
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car had an exhibitor's pass, we were able to park close to the
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Biotech Center and unload our banners, handouts and stuffed
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penguins.
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<p>There was a large tent to the left outside of the building
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containing the "Linux Expo Super Store" stocked with
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Linux books, Linux bumper stickers, T-shirts (including
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an excellently designed Expo shirt that said "Expose yourself to
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Linux" with a front and rear view of a penguin holding open an
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overcoat) and other interesting souvenir items. Further
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to the left was an outdoor viewing area for the conference talks
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that (due to the excellent weather) was a favorite spot for
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people to view the technical talks for free, especially while
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playing Frisbee. A raffle was held in the registration area,
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and prizes were given away on an hourly basis.
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Having registered, attendees were given a copy of the talks as
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well as an event schedule.
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<p>The event was held on two floors with the exhibits spread out on both. There
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was another conference viewing area inside the building with TV
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monitors, as well as the conference auditorium itself. There was
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an Install Fest area (sponsored by the Washington D.C. Linux
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User's Group, Linux Hardware Solutions and Red Hat Software),
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where people brought their systems, received help with installing
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Red Hat's latest release, and Olaf Kirch's kernel-based NFS
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server was "stress tested" at the same time. Finally, there was a food
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court area, where people could buy sandwiches, chips, soda and
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other "software development food".
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<p>There were fifteen vendors at the Expo, each with "table-top"
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booths to display their wares. I prefer the "pipe-and-drape"
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approach to trade shows rather than expensive booths, since I
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would rather the vendors put more money into development of the
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product and less into elaborate displays or floor shows with
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unicycle riders who juggle things. While not all Linux vendors
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were at Linux Expo, a wide spectrum of companies, including Linux
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International, Cyclades, Numerical Algorithms Group, Linux
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Hardware Solutions, Enhanced Software Technologies, Caldera,
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Applix, Xess, WorkGroup Solutions, Stay Online, VA Research, Apex
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Systems Integration, PromoX Systems and (of course) Red Hat
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Software were present. One item being demonstrated at the Linux
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Hardware Solutions booth was a free piece of software called [cw]em86[ecw]
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that allowed an Intel/Linux binary to run without change on an
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Alpha/Linux system. Being shown for the first time, it allowed
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Applixware, Netscape and various other applications to execute as
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if they had been ported to the system.
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<p>Penguins abounded in various T-shirts, giveaways and objects
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d'art. In fact, there were so many people there (I estimated 900
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over the two-day event) with penguin "stuff", that I thought
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I'd
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had enough of penguins; but afterwards while wandering around Chapel Hill, Alan Cox found some
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candy in the shape of penguins, so penguin "lust" started all
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over again.
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<p>The technical conference started off with a presentation by
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Gilbert Coville of Apple Computer with a talk about the MkLinux
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kernel. For people who were afraid that this would turn into a
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"Red Hat Only" event, it was interesting that Gilbert's talk
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opened the Expo and that a talk about the Debian Linux
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Distribution (given by Bruce Perens) followed shortly after.
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Bruce also discussed the graphics used in the making of Toy Story in
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a separate presentation.
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<p>Various presentations about hardware-specific ports were given.
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Dave Miller talked about the "Next Generation SPARCLinux" as well
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as the Free Software Development Model, and David Mosberger-Tang
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talked about the Alpha Port, as well as methods, applicable to both Intel
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and Alpha, for
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speeding up your programs by paying attention to memory and
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cache accesses.
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<p>Other talks were more general across the Linux OS, such as Jeff
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Uphoff's "Network File Locking", Alan Cox's "Tour of the Linux
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Networking Stack", Peter Braam's "Coda Filesystem", Alexander
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Yuriev's talk on the IPv4 family of protocols and infrastructure
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and his talk on security, Michael Callahan's "Linux and Legacy
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LANs", Eric Youngdale's "Beyond ELF", Olaf Kirch's "Linux Network
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File System", Theodore Ts's "Ext2 File System: Design,
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Implementation and the Future", Miguel de Icaza's talk on the new
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RAID code and Daniel Quinlan's talk on the File System Hierarchy
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Standard.
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<p>To round out the list of talks and events was Dr. Greg
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Wettstein's talk on "Working and Playing with others: Linux Grows
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Up" and the Linux Bowl.
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<p>The Linux Bowl was the final event. Two teams
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of six developers were pitted against each other to answer
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thirty questions about Linux and the Linux community. Questions
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ranged from "What liquid should one drink between rounds of a
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Finnish sauna?" (correct answer: beer) to "What version library
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fixed a particular security hole?" to which Alan Cox gave a
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(seemingly) ten minute answer. While some of the questions were
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very obscure (even the moderator was unsure of the answer), most
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of the time either the right answer (or a good facsimile) was
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given.
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<p>The show sponsors (after tallying up the attendence) reported that
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958 people showed up, which could be the largest Linux-specific event
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ever, of which 40% were from within North Carolina. Attendees came from
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over 25 states, 4 Canadian provinces, and 10 countries, including Australia,
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Korea and European countries.
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<p>Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Atlanta Linux
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Enthusiasts <a href="http://www.ale.org/">http://www.ale.org/</a> group who helped to staff the Linux
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International booth. They were great and helped give me the freedom
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to get out from behind the booth every once in a while, because
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most importantly, Linux Expo was a chance to talk with the
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vendors, the developers and other old and new friends on a
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one-to-one, quality basis. Perhaps some things could be improved
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for next year: A larger auditorium for the talks, more and
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closer parking and less expensive food in the food court. But
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certainly the southern hospitality and warmth of Red Hat Software
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came through. I want to thank the sponsors for arranging a great event,
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and I hope that next year's will be even larger and better.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Jon "maddog" Hall<BR>
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Published in Issue 17 of the Linux Gazette, May 1997</H5></center>
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