Linux Expo

I talked to a few people after the recent Linux Expo which took place in Toronto between April 18th and 20th, and the general consensus was that the expo was dull/boring and overly commercialized. The main complaint was that the expo was a big sales pitch, rather than a venue for new and exciting technology. Others complained about the fact that the amount of freebies has diminished since the original expo.

Despite being seriously under the weather, I found the expo enjoyable, and while I would have liked to walk away with one of Novell's SuSE chameleon plush toys, I still managed to come away with enough freebies to make my bus trip enjoyable. I discovered a few things along the way, like the fact it's less expensive to claim a "same day return" trip than it is to get a university student return ticket. I only had two regrets: a) I should have left my notebook at home, it was a pain in the butt to lug around; b) I should have seen my doctor sooner so I was well for the trip.

Novell's presence could be felt throughout the expo, their banners were everywhere. I sat through a couple of presentations on Novell's enterprise offerings and came away with the enterprise evaluation kit and a stuffed Tux with Novell emblazoned across the belly - the largest Tux in my small collection. While I would have preferred the Novell chameleon, I've grown attached to my new Tux. I have yet to install the enterprise offering, but I have installed Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) which I got when Anthony Kay, technology solutions architect for Novell, visited KWLUG. NLD is Gnome-based and makes use of extensive use of Ximian, a company Novell bought, technology. One of the questions I posed to both Anthony and the reps at Novell was "Why has Novell closed Ximian Desktop" to everyone but Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) users. To date I still haven't had a satisfactory answer, but the rep at the show said XD wasn't closed and that I should talk to reps at their booth. Regardless, I've been quite happy with SuSE Professional 9.2.

Marcel Gagne, author of the Moving to Linux series of books, and "Linux Journal" columnist, greeted me by name at the expo and signed my copy of Moving to the Linux Business Desktop. We chatted for a few minutes before he had to head out to a signing at Pearson, Intl. Marcel is a great guy, very personable, and he's given talks at out Linux User Group a couple of times over the past few years.

While at the expo I took the opportunity to sign up for a year of "Linux Journal," and I grabbed an issue from a few months ago that I missed on the stands (the DBUS issue), but I didn't bother grabbing the April issue, which I'll probably have to pick up before it leaves news stands. I've heard that SSC is pretty poor at delivering magazines to Canada. I hope the rumour isn't true, but I've heard that some subscribers didn't get their issue until well after the current issue was on news stands. Whether that happens to me or not remains to be seen, but I'll be sure to post that news if it happens more than a couple of months in a row.

I also picked up a couple of issues of Linux Magazine UK edition, my favourite Linux Magazine by far. While I'm happy to support all Linux magazines, there's something about Linux Magazine UK that makes it more attractive, perhaps it's because most of the articles seem to be less enterprise-oriented than other magazines.

More on the expo in the next post.