If you are a Fedora friend, Ambassador, or hacker, there are many reasons to take a shift at the Fedora booth in the .Org Pavilion at LWCE SF 2008. Here are three of my favorites:
- North American Fedora Ambassadors are in the midst of a nice resurgence, this is a great time to show your mettle and get more deeply involved.
- Jack and I will be there, we always know how to have a good time.
- Considering which exhibitors are not going to be at LinuxWorld (HP? Sun? Red Hat?) and who is sponsoring and what is being installed at all the official desktop shootouts and installfests, you might consider the Fedora booth to be a great island in a storm of fanboy crap.
The San Francisco show has always been a touchstone of West Coast open source communities, and many are well represented as usual. But the relevance of the show is always in question, especially after the death of the Boston show, which was the last show Red Hat was at. I was there, I saw the tumbleweeds blowing down the aisles. When vendors stop exhibiting at LinuxWorld SF, it makes me wonder. Do they no longer need to prove their open source chops and are ready for the next level? Or are they missing out on actual, qualified sales leads and cannot justify the enormous cost for marketing alone?
I hope that the reports of LinuxWorld’s death in San Francisco are beyond greatly exaggerated, and I’ll continue to do my part to bring open community to the show.