FOSS.IN/2005
It’s that time of the year when all roads for geeks lead to Bangalore.
FOSS.IN/2005 starts in less then 10 days and I’m quite excited about this year’s event. Most of you know, Linux-Bangalore/2003 was a blast, and the years before that was total party too, and after that, linux-bangalore/2004 was quite a drag. Many blamed it on the participants, some on the speakers and few even said it was the bad food. But personally I think it was because linux world itself changed. Let me tell you why
Few years ago, no one ever heard of Linux and it was great fun evangelizing it around and doing a demo to show how linux used to kick windows in everything. Back then I was evangelizing free software in a big way too (which I do not anymore). Then as time passed, we were showing people how linux was ready for business and how companies could gain a lot with linux and how the ROI on it will be great. Then Linux became mainstream.
It did not make sense to show people how to install linux. Why ? Because installing linux is dead easy now and people who wanted to play with it already had linux installed. If a guy does not use linux today, its not because he does not know linux, he’s just not interested. It did not make sense to show linux performance, because today most of the high performance computing is done on linux platform. It did not even make sense to have a talk to show people how an application works or how to write an application as most of it has been well documented already. And this was what happened at Linux-Bangalore/2004.
However this year, things are different. Not only do we have a great speaker lineup, the event itself has been changed. I see an O’reilly like event (Etech, Web 2.0 etc) this year. It’s no longer about showing and telling people what to do, its about bunch of people getting together and sharing each other’s works, each others experiences and ideas. I, for one plan to spend most of my time in the BOF areas then the actual talks. Since one of my talks got shot down, I’ll be glad to talk about the stuff at one of those stalls 🙂
Linux-Bangalore had its own share of controversies and I know many people who will not be attending the event. But let’s face it, this is *one* event, which gives everyone a change to catchup with who’s who of the open-source circles and a great chance for people to see what’s happening in the FOSS world.
Back then I was evangelizing free software in a big way too (which I do not anymore).
Elaborate?
What were you going to talk about?
well said, dude. I noticed Linux had gone mainstream last year, which is what turned my interest towards others things that’re cool but not mainstream yet. but I do miss the days of evangelising Linux, and I’m looking forward to being there at FOSS.IN/2005.
BTW, even though Linux is mainstream, very few people actually “get” free software (as in speech), and once in while I still do break into preach mode on the unsuspecting victim 🙂
Mainstream? Not yet.
When Linux somehow manages to become as much a marketing platform as an OS, then it will truly have become mainstream. And, until it is one and has inherited all of the disadvantages that Windows users face now, then I for one am just as excited about it as I ever have been. Even KDE and Open Office, as slow and bloated as they are, are still spyware-free and exist entirely to be controlled by and to do the bidding of the user. Windows alone has made me appreciate those qualities more than anything else in software today. I’m not entirely sure I even want Linux to become more mainstream…
I leave Bangalore a day before the event.
It’s too long to be commented here 🙂
I’ve got this 20GB partition on my laptop that I still call “Debian” in the vain hope that I’ll someday install that on it.
… to?
Screw debian and do yourself a favor by installing ubuntu. Seriously.
Will do. But that would mean I skip the Gentoo era almost entirely…
Thailand.
Polite…
🙂 — I missed the smiley 🙂