FOSDEM 2004 trip report

FOSDEM is organized in a way which is well described by its name: it is a meeting of developers. As such, it features a series of talks which are likely to be of interest to the development community and a distinct lack of presentations on how to configure the print system or on how Linux will leverage your business paradigm shifts into the next generation. Additionally, a set of "developer rooms" was occupied by various projects and interest groups (Debian, KDE, embedded Linux, Tcl, etc.). Each of those rooms was a place to gather, and most put up their own schedules of talks as well. Throw in a (problematic) wireless network, a beautiful city with no shortage of good food and beer, and support from a set of sponsors, and you have all the makings of a free software conference with a distinctly European flavor.

Keynote speaker Tim O'Reilly told the gathering that, while it is clear that free software is changing the computing industry, nobody, least of all the free software community, knows how. He pointed out that there are already user-friendly Linux-based desktop applications which are used by millions of people; they go by names like Google, Amazon, and Yahoo. These companies are building massive proprietary applications with free software, and, in many cases, giving little back. Tim would like to see free software developers think more about the use of their code in web application settings. He is also concerned about the implications of the large databases being created by these companies; those databases, too, are proprietary, and they can pose serious privacy threats. Do we, asks Tim, need a "web services bill of rights" which is analogous to the licenses which accompany free software?

Tim was immediately followed by Richard Stallman, who gave a fairly predictable talk about the importance of freedom, "Linux" and "GNU/Linux," etc. The freedom issues are important, but will be familiar to most readers of LWN. More amusing, perhaps, was the final part of the talk, where Richard addressed charges that he adopts a "holier than thou" attitude. Says Richard: "It's my job to be holy, I'm a saint." He then donned his disk platter halo and proclaimed himself to be Saint Ignucius of the Church of Emacs. Anybody can be a saint in this church, it seems; all that is required is (1) to free your computers of all proprietary software, and (2) make the profession of faith: "There is no operating system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels." (In the same humorous vein, Richard proclaimed that use of vi is not a sin according to the Church of Emacs; it is, instead, a penance).

Richard did also address the web services issue. He is not concerned about companies like Google failing to share their own code; what Google runs on its servers is its own business, and has nothing to do with anybody else's freedom. He is concerned about data stored on other people's servers; his response is to not keep his data there. Richard allowed as to how there could be freedom issues with web services, but he does not see those as free software issues in particular. One gets the impression he thinks he has taken on a big enough fight as it is; web services will be somebody else's problem.

There have been persistent rumors that a third revision of the General Public License would require that changes to code which are deployed in public web services be released. When questioned about this idea, Richard did not have much to say; there has been little time to work on such ideas, apparently, though that could change soon. He did mention the possibility of a "download source" clause. With this clause, the author of web-oriented software could include a "download source" link which would do exactly that. An optional license feature would require those deploying that code to retain the source download capability - and to ensure that it provides the source for the actual, deployed application. It is hard to see such an intrusive license winning a lot of followers.

The final keynote speaker was, inevitably, Jon 'maddog' Hall. Maddog talks resemble sitting in front of the fire with Grandpa and hearing his stories from before you were born. The stories are interesting, well told, and fun, but after a while you realize you've heard most of them before. You're always there when Grandpa tells another set of stories, however.

Keith Packard gave a heavily-attended talk on the future of the X server. In order to support many of the visually pleasing features envisioned for the future Linux desktop, some fundamental server changes will be required. In the new scheme, X clients no longer draw directly into the frame buffer; instead, they draw into off-screen memory which is then combined, under the control of a new "composition manager" process, into the screen seen by the users. Keith demonstrated some of his "eye candy" work which showed (1) how slick the Linux desktop can be, and (2) how slow it can be when all of this work is done in software.

In the future, Keith sees the X server moving into a fundamentally three-dimensional mode and speaking GL directly to the low-level graphics drivers. Many 3D applications will also be able to send GL directly to the hardware, and bypass the X server altogether. The current crop of two-dimensional applications will be handled in a compatibility mode. This change would pave the way for a new generation of 3D Linux applications, improve performance greatly, and would make vendor support easier; most video card vendors stopped wanting to deal with 2D modes years ago.

Keith also addressed the political issues currently being faced by the X community; see Zonker's article (below) for more information on that side of things.

LWN editor Jonathan Corbet presented two talks at FOSDEM; the slides from those talks are now available. The first was a variant on the "2.6 kernel changes from the inside" talk which has been presented at other events. Making its debut at FOSDEM was "kobjects, ksets, and ktypes: the device model from the bottom up," a low-level technical tutorial on the glue which holds the 2.6 device model together.

Other presentations seen by your editor include Robert Love on providing better support for the Linux desktop in the kernel (it is a good thing some developers are finally seeing this support as an important priority), Bill Haneman showing the features of the GNOME Onscreen Keyboard, Hans Reiser on the underpinnings of the Reiser4 filesystem, and an interesting developer room session on hacking into embedded Linux systems. There was far more going on than any one person could possibly see; FOSDEM is an event which truly showcases the vitality of the free software development community. It is not surprising that attendance has been growing strongly every year; this is one event which may have to find a larger venue for 2005.