RIP LinuxWorld

[LinuxMint-4]

RIP LinuxWorld
Oct. 07, 2008

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5429778931.html


The largest conference devoted to Linux technology is changing its name to embrace open source software on other operating systems (OSes). Next August, LinuxWorld will relaunch as the OpenSource World Conference & Expo, but will retain existing LinuxWorld features, says show organizer IDG World Expo.

The first OpenSource World will take place Aug. 10-13, 2009, at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Like LinuxWorld, it will be co-located with IDG World Expo's third annual Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) event. The two events will share the exhibit floor, but feature separate conference programs, say organizers.

Although LinuxWorld is largely focused on enterprise software, this year it tipped its hat toward embedded Linux developers with a Mobile Linux Conference. That will change next year, with OpenSource World featuring a technical conference program devoted to IT themes, organizers say. Planned themes include applications, security, power efficiency, virtualization, cloud computing, systems management and automation, and legal and licensing issues, says the group.

Stated Inna Kuznetsova, Director of Linux at IBM, "For a decade LinuxWorld provided a forum for technical and business debates. Now it is time for different and expanded discussions."

The first LinuxWorld show took place in 1999. Drawing attendees sporting tie-dyed T-shirts and worsted wool alike, it featured keynotes by the likes of Linus Torvalds and Richard M. Stallman.

For a time, LinuxWorld featured an East Coast event, at the impressive Javitts Center in downtown Manhattan. Later, LinuxWorld East moved to Boston, before shrinking back to New York as the OpenSolutions Summit, being perhaps now being phased out altogether. Even the West Coast show in recent years has seemed more focused on data center and IT than on Linux, with prominent Linux vendors like Red Hat choosing to give the event a miss.

Meanwhile, Linux conferences on the upswing seem to include:

* The Linux Foundation's first-year LinuxCon
* O'Reilly's ever-popular OSCON (Open Source Convention)
* Open Source in Mobile
* CELF's Embedded Linux Conference

Additionally, MontaVista's Vision Summit drew a healthy crowd again this year, despite being a captive single-vendor event, and thus arguably part of a disappearing breed.

[allix]

I heard its been very commercial for quite a few years, in that case is it that sad that its going or turning into something different ?

[Patrick]

I'm actually kind of glad they're doing this. Linux World Expo has been in decline the last few years. It's not that interest in Linux is down in fact it's way up. The problem is that it's become very common place in a company's infrastructure. LWE is extremely corporate oriented. Community based events like OLF, SCALE and LNW are the place to go for every day users of Linux. That being said I did enjoying going to some of these big shows back in the day. We use to rent a mini-bus for the LUG and go to the LWE in N.Y.C. every year. I can't see how these mammoth trade shows can continue when they're so damn expensive to put together. It's costs 10 of thousands of dollars to rent a booth, buy some swag and man a booth with knowledgeable staff at these types of events. When the local union requires they do all the work and charge $100 to carry a box 100 feet from the loading dock or plug in a cable you know it's a doomed cause.