FOSDEM 2004 trip report [LWN.net]

FOSDEM 2004 trip report

Posted Feb 26, 2004 14:59 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
Parent article: FOSDEM 2004 trip report

Almost as predictable as Stallman mentioning that the OS should be called "GNU/Linux" is that some people will hear little else. He did give a history of the OS and suggested the name "GNU/Linux", but (by my internal clock) spent most of his slot discussing software patents, the DMCA, "Trusted Computing", and the freedom issues of web services - then took questions about GPLv3, the Hurd-maintainer fiasco, graphics programs trying to prevent the copying of bank notes, and "is there such thing as commercial free software?".

I went to see Jonathan Corbet's 2.6-internals talk, but there wasn't even standing room left when I got there (or much breathable air). Hans Reiser's talk was excellent, his approach to filesystem design sounded very logical - I'll move to ReiserFSv4 when it comes out (RSN). Keith Packard's talk was good, the politics was interesting, but I heard that the prior DirectFB talk made Keiths demonstrations look silly. The GCJ talk was interesting - I don't know Java but I was glad to hear that the various free java projects were steadily progressing.

The OpenBSD stall was reasonably large with 10 or so people, but they sat around silently typing at their laptops while drinking cans of the cheapest beer available. This seemed to miss the point of (a) having a stall at a conference, and (b) being in the city with the worlds greatest selection of beers.

FFII had a stall but unfortunatley I didn't see much interest there. FSFeurope also had a stall where they sold t-shirts and seemed to spend most of their time talking to associates that they only see at these conferences.

I missed Jon Hall's talk. I planned to attend it, but ended up spending most of Sunday in bars. Brussels is a really great city - it doesn't take much to get me to go there, but FOSDEM was a great event.