Open source experts and advocates to flock to LinuxFest Northwest 2003
Apr 23rd, 12:14 UTC
LinuxFest Northwest 2003 is a free event offering
lectures, vendor booths, exhibits, and classes for
experienced and new open source users. It will be held in Bellingham, Wash., USA on April 26. System administrators, security experts, book authors, Unix
developers, and many fans of open source software will be flocking
to Bellingham, Wash. for LinuxFest Northwest 2003 this Saturday.
They will be showing demonstrations of software and hardware,
teaching short technical classes, and giving lectures advocating
Linux, BSD and open source software. Booths, presentations, and
knowledgable volunteers will also be available to help guide new
or interested users. The free event, hosted at Bellingham Technical
College, will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
LinuxFest Northwest is said to be one of the largest concentrations
of Linux enthusiasts on the West Coast. Last year, the event
organized by the Bellingham Linux Users Group, had over 20 vendor
and demonstration booths and six lectures and a few hundred in
attendance.
This year, the event is organized by the Bellingham, Kitsap Peninsula,
Seattle, and Tacoma Linux Users Groups and many other volunteers.
The number of exhibitors is up to 40 with many booths highlighting
using Linux, BSD, and open source software in the home and business.
And over 30 lectures will be given on a wide variety of open source
topics, ranging from decisions about open source software for K-12
education to migrating to Linux under Oracle.
Noted Linux advocate, Jon "maddog" Hall will be giving the keynote
address. Hall, the Executive Director of Linux International since 1995,
will be discussing both the economic features of open source and free
software and how to make these features known to the world.
"The high prices of commercial, manufactured software these days
is often not just a deterrent to business, but often raises the
barrier to entry for many new businesses in emerging economies,"
said Hall, who is also a board member for the USENIX Association.
"Open source can help solve this problem."
Open source consultant and trainer, Jeremy C. Reed of Puget Sound
Technology will introduce the BSD operating systems and BSD licensing
in his lecture. Puget Sound Technology's booth will also be debuting
their latest NetBSD-based Live CD and a new Linux distribution.
"Since last year's event, I have met with numerous companies and
individuals who are successfully using open source software in
their workplaces," said Reed. "It is exciting to learn how companies
are saving money and reducing support hassles by using open source
software."
Also at LinuxFest Northwest, Sun employee, Charles Ditzel will be
speaking about Sun's open source strategy and Linux Web
Services.
"Sun has bought major software companies, in the form of NetBeans
and StarOffice, and created open source initiatives out of them.
This is a huge open-sourcing of intellectual property," said Ditzel.
"Sun continues to provide millions of lines of source code and
innovation to open source projects -- the latest being JXTA -- a
peer-to-peer protocol."
In addition to several other presentations, a lecture track will
focus on education and school district IT experts from Washington
and Oregon are showing how to save scarce funding dollars by
integrating open source technologies.
For additional information about LinuxFest Northwest, see
www.linuxnorthwest.com. Bellingham Technical College is approximately
one hour south of Vancouver, B.C., 90 miles north of Seattle, and a
few minutes from Interstate 5.
(Submitted by Heather Reed of Puget Sound Technology)
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