Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Rock the Vote
Just got done with voting for the F10 release name. I don't know how hot I am on the range voting, but we'll see. What are you waiting for?? Vote for the Fedora 10 Release name NOW!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Fedora on the Final Frontier
There has been a long standing rumor regarding NASA running Fedora which all of us in the Fedora community have been always intrigued by. Is it true? What are they doing with it there? Why don't they run RHEL. Fortunately enough, a couple of weeks ago, I got to experience NASA behind the scenes, first hand, and hang out with the coolest members of the Fedora community, and find out the answer to these questions and lots more.
This is where it all began. Usually it takes 24-48 hours to get security clearance. Of course I got hooked up in only 4 on my drive down from Jacksonville, not including a 45 minute delay once I arrived due to a windows server running the badge printing machines being down. I was quite glad to have passed security clearance. The Feds ain't got nothin' on me. Whew!
Needless to say this was possibly one of the most awesomest days of my life. Let's go to the tape:
This is where it all began. Usually it takes 24-48 hours to get security clearance. Of course I got hooked up in only 4 on my drive down from Jacksonville, not including a 45 minute delay once I arrived due to a windows server running the badge printing machines being down. I was quite glad to have passed security clearance. The Feds ain't got nothin' on me. Whew!
{Photo of Security ID had to be removed at NASA's Request}
Security Clearance. Sweet!!
Everything started at the famous Operations and Checkout building where they do many many NASA-y things. Seeing as that I didn't get a good picture of the whole building I should mention that the building is HUGE and it serves many functions. Primarily, they process horizontal payloads going to space, whether on the Shuttle or some other rocket/rlv. The building also houses a lot of technology related infrastructure, which we will get into in a bit. Most importantly, or most cool I should say, this is where the Astronauts live while at Kennedy Space Center:
Under lock and key.
STS-112 was in space while I was there, so this banner was put up before they departed to show support.
This is the famous door where the Astronauts exit to load onto the bus to the shuttle. The bar you see on top is where all the TV cameras are usually mounted.
Astronaut Parking Only. Oddly enough, despite my vehement protest that I am a space cadet, they refused to let me park here. Maybe someday...
Now on to the good stuff.
Fedora at NASA: It Does Exist!
A video distribution and streaming system. You'll see the server shortly.
A video feed coming off the server, this was live footage of one of the spacewalks. It gets distributed from here to a few places, including Mission Control in Houston and of course NASA TV.
These servers run a few things at the lab, including video distribution, data processing, and web serving. Wanna know what its running?
RHEL.
Shadowman lurking in the dark corners of NASA.
This is an SGI supercomputer, 512 processors, more RAM than I can remember, running IRIX which does data analysis. Telescience provides telemetry data to Launch Control, and its all sourced from here. Nothing to do with Fedora, but still cool for geekdom at large. THIS has a fat pipe.
These systems were most likely built by Fedora release engineer Jesse Keating while he was working for Pogo Linux. These run Fedora. When they had to analyze the data and photos from the Columbia crash, NASA would move data from permanent storage onto these servers for analysis. Jesse told me about this and I was very skeptical, so I asked and it turns out to be very true. I was very proud to know, and we should all be very proud, that our community is making software that is helping make the future of space exploration safer.
If it ain't broke, don't upgrade it, right? Actually one of the guys in the lab told me they are in the process of upgrading to Fedora 8 and playing with 9 alpha.
This is a blade server running Fedora which runs NASA's countdown server. So what is this server you ask? So the actual time source for the launch countdown is the atomic clock but there are a few sources at NASA which sync to it and each other to provide launch services. This is one of them. Actually this is THE public facing countdown time source. If you click that main Telescience Lab link all the way above, this server is where alot of those links on that page land. They also have a page for ELV/RLV countdowns as well.
This is Jim, the director of the Telescience lab, at the command console in the lab.
This is me at the original command console desk from the Apollo era. That black and white photo shows everyone huddled around it back in the day.
This is the famous Shuttle assembly and prep building where they turn the Shuttle vertical and connect it to the rockets and put it on the transporter.
The Shuttle transporter. This things was as large as a city. It was actually headed out to the launchpad which as Jim explained was odd since we were in the middle of a bad weather warning and there was lightning and no apparent reason for this beast to be heading in that direction.
A pic of the transporters cab as we drove by.
This is a picture of the same building from the side showing Launch Control (the small building there). Those tracks are the from the transporter.
The countdown clock from a distance.
Launchpad B. Unfortunately, due to the lightning, we were unable to get any closer. I hope one day I get to go back and take some more pictures off the launchpad.
This is me on the inside of the door where the Astronauts come out to load onto the bus to the Shuttle. Many a great person have stood in this spot. I claimed it in the name of Fedora and was quickly then asked politely asked to leave the building. Just Kidding!
Reality hit when I saw this. See that text that says "You are Here?" Well if you've ever seen a Red Hat video, many of them end with that, and it sent a chill down my spine to see it there with in the same font nonetheless. It got me thinking about our community and how as people, we really imitate the vast mechanics of space and our universe. As a community, each interaction is like another collision of asteroids, another chance for something to take root. Another chance for a planet to come to life.
I've been involved in Fedora since Day -1 (RHL and RHLP). Looking back at everything that we've gone through and where we are now continues to amaze me, but above all else, the members of our community and their passion, their persistence and insistence on making those collisions gain momentum truly inspires me. Considering everything we have been through, success and strife, triumphs and tribulations, promises we made and followed through on, promises we made that fell through, how much we have learned and how much everyone in the community has gained as a result, being able to walk into a place like NASA with an open armed welcome, makes me damn proud to be part of this.
Look what we have done, but more importantly, look what we've enabled! That's been our goal all along and I think we have done it well. Some people have been to space, we enable others to go to space. We are the platform that dreams are built on. Not just our own dreams, but the dreams of all humanity.
Next time I see "You are Here" I think I can take a little more pride in answering, "Yes, yes I am." I for one am proud to call our planet, the Fedora Planet, my planet and my community.
Security Clearance. Sweet!!
Everything started at the famous Operations and Checkout building where they do many many NASA-y things. Seeing as that I didn't get a good picture of the whole building I should mention that the building is HUGE and it serves many functions. Primarily, they process horizontal payloads going to space, whether on the Shuttle or some other rocket/rlv. The building also houses a lot of technology related infrastructure, which we will get into in a bit. Most importantly, or most cool I should say, this is where the Astronauts live while at Kennedy Space Center:
Under lock and key.
Below are a few miscellaneous photos of stuff around the Ops and Checkout building:
STS-112 was in space while I was there, so this banner was put up before they departed to show support.
This is the famous door where the Astronauts exit to load onto the bus to the shuttle. The bar you see on top is where all the TV cameras are usually mounted.
Astronaut Parking Only. Oddly enough, despite my vehement protest that I am a space cadet, they refused to let me park here. Maybe someday...
Now on to the good stuff.
Fedora at NASA: It Does Exist!
A video distribution and streaming system. You'll see the server shortly.
Okay, so as it turns out, NASA is using Fedora and RHEL. A Lot! I was taken into the data center of the Telescience Lab, and got to see some machines. This is but a fraction of whats going on. I was happy to find out that Fedora is being used to help shuffle the above video streams around. You can get to the server here. Most of this stuff is what ends up on NASA TV.
A video feed coming off the server, this was live footage of one of the spacewalks. It gets distributed from here to a few places, including Mission Control in Houston and of course NASA TV.
These servers run a few things at the lab, including video distribution, data processing, and web serving. Wanna know what its running?
RHEL.
Shadowman lurking in the dark corners of NASA.
This is an SGI supercomputer, 512 processors, more RAM than I can remember, running IRIX which does data analysis. Telescience provides telemetry data to Launch Control, and its all sourced from here. Nothing to do with Fedora, but still cool for geekdom at large. THIS has a fat pipe.
These systems were most likely built by Fedora release engineer Jesse Keating while he was working for Pogo Linux. These run Fedora. When they had to analyze the data and photos from the Columbia crash, NASA would move data from permanent storage onto these servers for analysis. Jesse told me about this and I was very skeptical, so I asked and it turns out to be very true. I was very proud to know, and we should all be very proud, that our community is making software that is helping make the future of space exploration safer.
If it ain't broke, don't upgrade it, right? Actually one of the guys in the lab told me they are in the process of upgrading to Fedora 8 and playing with 9 alpha.
This is a blade server running Fedora which runs NASA's countdown server. So what is this server you ask? So the actual time source for the launch countdown is the atomic clock but there are a few sources at NASA which sync to it and each other to provide launch services. This is one of them. Actually this is THE public facing countdown time source. If you click that main Telescience Lab link all the way above, this server is where alot of those links on that page land. They also have a page for ELV/RLV countdowns as well.
This is Jim, the director of the Telescience lab, at the command console in the lab.
This is me at the original command console desk from the Apollo era. That black and white photo shows everyone huddled around it back in the day.
This is the famous Shuttle assembly and prep building where they turn the Shuttle vertical and connect it to the rockets and put it on the transporter.
The Shuttle transporter. This things was as large as a city. It was actually headed out to the launchpad which as Jim explained was odd since we were in the middle of a bad weather warning and there was lightning and no apparent reason for this beast to be heading in that direction.
A pic of the transporters cab as we drove by.
This is a picture of the same building from the side showing Launch Control (the small building there). Those tracks are the from the transporter.
The countdown clock from a distance.
Launchpad B. Unfortunately, due to the lightning, we were unable to get any closer. I hope one day I get to go back and take some more pictures off the launchpad.
This is me on the inside of the door where the Astronauts come out to load onto the bus to the Shuttle. Many a great person have stood in this spot. I claimed it in the name of Fedora and was quickly then asked politely asked to leave the building. Just Kidding!
Reality hit when I saw this. See that text that says "You are Here?" Well if you've ever seen a Red Hat video, many of them end with that, and it sent a chill down my spine to see it there with in the same font nonetheless. It got me thinking about our community and how as people, we really imitate the vast mechanics of space and our universe. As a community, each interaction is like another collision of asteroids, another chance for something to take root. Another chance for a planet to come to life.
I've been involved in Fedora since Day -1 (RHL and RHLP). Looking back at everything that we've gone through and where we are now continues to amaze me, but above all else, the members of our community and their passion, their persistence and insistence on making those collisions gain momentum truly inspires me. Considering everything we have been through, success and strife, triumphs and tribulations, promises we made and followed through on, promises we made that fell through, how much we have learned and how much everyone in the community has gained as a result, being able to walk into a place like NASA with an open armed welcome, makes me damn proud to be part of this.
Look what we have done, but more importantly, look what we've enabled! That's been our goal all along and I think we have done it well. Some people have been to space, we enable others to go to space. We are the platform that dreams are built on. Not just our own dreams, but the dreams of all humanity.
Next time I see "You are Here" I think I can take a little more pride in answering, "Yes, yes I am." I for one am proud to call our planet, the Fedora Planet, my planet and my community.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Florida Linux Show Wrap Up
Last Monday I had the pleasure of attending the Florida Linux Show at the University of Central Florida. The show was sponsored by Red Hat and as such we had both a Red Hat and a Fedora booth. Coming into it, I knew it would be smallish show, being that SCALE had just ended but I really wanted to get a feel for what was going on there and really get a chance to meet some of the community members down there as its not an area we often get to. A special thanks goes out to Kyle Gonzalez for really playing a huge part in coordinating everything. Everyone who attended got a Fedora 8 LiveCD in the goodie bag and many many more CDs and DVDs were given out.
Everything went smoothly, we had a great booth setup with Red Hat along the back wall next to the entrance and Fedora in prime time right at the entrance. The show had, I would guess close to 400 people in and out over the course of the day and the talks seemed really cool, although I didn't get to go anyway because I was manning the booth.
I was very surprised to see the everyone that approached us was very enthusiastic and we had barely anyone come over and give us the usual "you suck because of this and that." Mostly, people came over to tell us thank you for the great work we have been doing, especially with Fedora 8 and all the great artwork recently, to play with OLPC and to check out the Fedora 9 Alpha. I was surprised that so many people were interested in the Alpha, given that it was our first time doing it, but it just proves that our philosophy of getting code into peoples hands as early as possible is really what people want.
I'll go through the show with some pictures and let everyone make their own impressions, but my overall impressions were that this is going to become a very large and very good community oriented conference much like there were in the good old days, because the guys organizing the show really want to keep the focus on the software projects and communities around them as well as packing the show with a good pack of speakers. It's nice to see that things like that are becoming the norm again.
Some guys checking out the F9 Alpha and trying to do some disaster recovery.
This dude came ready in his Red Hat gear to check out the OLPC.
Myself and Kyle hanging out in the booth.
The pristine booth setup!
More Fedora Fans. Yes!!
A nice message someone left us. I couldn't agree more!
Everything went smoothly, we had a great booth setup with Red Hat along the back wall next to the entrance and Fedora in prime time right at the entrance. The show had, I would guess close to 400 people in and out over the course of the day and the talks seemed really cool, although I didn't get to go anyway because I was manning the booth.
I was very surprised to see the everyone that approached us was very enthusiastic and we had barely anyone come over and give us the usual "you suck because of this and that." Mostly, people came over to tell us thank you for the great work we have been doing, especially with Fedora 8 and all the great artwork recently, to play with OLPC and to check out the Fedora 9 Alpha. I was surprised that so many people were interested in the Alpha, given that it was our first time doing it, but it just proves that our philosophy of getting code into peoples hands as early as possible is really what people want.
I'll go through the show with some pictures and let everyone make their own impressions, but my overall impressions were that this is going to become a very large and very good community oriented conference much like there were in the good old days, because the guys organizing the show really want to keep the focus on the software projects and communities around them as well as packing the show with a good pack of speakers. It's nice to see that things like that are becoming the norm again.
Some guys checking out the F9 Alpha and trying to do some disaster recovery.
This dude came ready in his Red Hat gear to check out the OLPC.
Myself and Kyle hanging out in the booth.
The pristine booth setup!
More Fedora Fans. Yes!!
A nice message someone left us. I couldn't agree more!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Fire in the Attic, Proof of the Prize
Lyric from the song: Anna Molly
By: Incubus
From the Album: Light Grenades
I like it when good things happen. Especially when those good things are related to Open Source and Open Standards, so I have to give a few shoutouts this morning. One blog post at a time. People are giving us reasons to be proud.
First up today: AOL
That's right! AOL might no longer be the laughing stock of everyone who has owned a computer since the 80's. Seriously though, AOL has the potential to be the world's largest identity providers. They have over 63 Million user accounts and have been working on implementing OpenID. I actually did my first OpenID login using AOL as a provider when I had to
log into Oreilly's site for OSCON 2008 to submit my abstract for the call for papers. It was really neat and it worked flawlessly. I give AOL a lot of respect for working on this and will gladly use them as my provider from now on. Unless Fedora ever becomes a provider that is. You can find more info about AOL and their OpenID efforts here.
Now in case that wasn't exciting enough for you, the bombshell came this morning. AIM is going Jabber! I was absolutely delighted when I read this. AOL is making positive steps to finally move on and up from their decade long commitment to being as proprietary as possible and pissing of numerous people to actually opening up, embracing the age of open standards and trying to regain some mind share and build community. AOL must have hired the right hackers along the way...
This along with the MySQL deal this week serves as a tremendous validation of the open source/open standards model to those who don't know any better. We're winning!
By: Incubus
From the Album: Light Grenades
I like it when good things happen. Especially when those good things are related to Open Source and Open Standards, so I have to give a few shoutouts this morning. One blog post at a time. People are giving us reasons to be proud.
First up today: AOL
That's right! AOL might no longer be the laughing stock of everyone who has owned a computer since the 80's. Seriously though, AOL has the potential to be the world's largest identity providers. They have over 63 Million user accounts and have been working on implementing OpenID. I actually did my first OpenID login using AOL as a provider when I had to
log into Oreilly's site for OSCON 2008 to submit my abstract for the call for papers. It was really neat and it worked flawlessly. I give AOL a lot of respect for working on this and will gladly use them as my provider from now on. Unless Fedora ever becomes a provider that is. You can find more info about AOL and their OpenID efforts here.
Now in case that wasn't exciting enough for you, the bombshell came this morning. AIM is going Jabber! I was absolutely delighted when I read this. AOL is making positive steps to finally move on and up from their decade long commitment to being as proprietary as possible and pissing of numerous people to actually opening up, embracing the age of open standards and trying to regain some mind share and build community. AOL must have hired the right hackers along the way...
This along with the MySQL deal this week serves as a tremendous validation of the open source/open standards model to those who don't know any better. We're winning!
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
But I didn't need to just say that, because we've known all along! It's just a matter of time.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
I Seem to Recognize Your Face...
Lyric from the song: Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
By: Pearl Jam
From the Album: Vs
I should be doing work right now, but somehow I ended up managing to add my blog as being imported as part of my Facebook notes. This means that if you have chosen to validate our acquaintance via Facebook you will now be harassed on your home page every time I put up a new post. Consider this a test...
By: Pearl Jam
From the Album: Vs
I should be doing work right now, but somehow I ended up managing to add my blog as being imported as part of my Facebook notes. This means that if you have chosen to validate our acquaintance via Facebook you will now be harassed on your home page every time I put up a new post. Consider this a test...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Chicken Nuggets: 88 Happy Lessons I Learned in the Cafeteria
When I decide to write a book about my life, the subject line will be the title. Doesn't that sound weird? Chicken Nuggets? Chicken Nuggets taught me a lot about life. Let me give you the background story and then give you the top lessons (no not all 88) I took away from chicken nuggets.
When I was in 6th grade, at least I think 6th grade, one day me and one of my good friends decided that we were going to have a pig out during lunch at school--a good old fashioned keep going until your body is so full there is room for your soul eating contest. To our utter delight, that day they were serving chicken nuggets. We loved chicken nuggets.
I ate, in the span of 20 minutes, 88 chicken nuggets. I was the champ. It felt good. Even our principal who was all the while disgusted, was at the same time extremely impressed by the feat. If there was ever anything to take pride in at that time in our lives, it was knowing that the kid who can eat the most nuggets was in your school, your friend, your enemy, your pupil, the kid you threw stuff at it in class and the one you pushed at recess. Nothing mattered though, because for a glorious few precious moments, I felt the world stop turning, and someone was truly happy.
After that there are different accounts as to what happened, some of which include me throwing up, which I vehemently deny, although it is possible.
Anyway, what lesson could a person take away from a Chicken Nugget? Here are a few:
Lesson 1: Everything is covered in layers, often layers that no cares about, looks can be deceiving and the best stuff is always on the inside.
Lesson 2: Kids are stupid, and will always do stupid things, but if we could hold on to the happiness of our youth forever, maybe we would reconsider and realize that maybe kids aren't so stupid after all. They're just happy.
Lesson 3: Anything you can fit 10 of in your mouth at once probably shouldn't be in there in the first place.
Lesson 4: Don't throw up next to people. People are easily disgusted and will never forgive you for throwing up on their shoes.
Lesson 5: This is the most important one. In my life, I absolutely must build a time machine to go back to those times. Times were simpler then, we did whatever the hell we wanted and we were truly happy. Go back to those times, just to sit and take in the happiness. Go back to those times... Even if only for a minute, go back to those times...
When I was in 6th grade, at least I think 6th grade, one day me and one of my good friends decided that we were going to have a pig out during lunch at school--a good old fashioned keep going until your body is so full there is room for your soul eating contest. To our utter delight, that day they were serving chicken nuggets. We loved chicken nuggets.
I ate, in the span of 20 minutes, 88 chicken nuggets. I was the champ. It felt good. Even our principal who was all the while disgusted, was at the same time extremely impressed by the feat. If there was ever anything to take pride in at that time in our lives, it was knowing that the kid who can eat the most nuggets was in your school, your friend, your enemy, your pupil, the kid you threw stuff at it in class and the one you pushed at recess. Nothing mattered though, because for a glorious few precious moments, I felt the world stop turning, and someone was truly happy.
After that there are different accounts as to what happened, some of which include me throwing up, which I vehemently deny, although it is possible.
Anyway, what lesson could a person take away from a Chicken Nugget? Here are a few:
Lesson 1: Everything is covered in layers, often layers that no cares about, looks can be deceiving and the best stuff is always on the inside.
Lesson 2: Kids are stupid, and will always do stupid things, but if we could hold on to the happiness of our youth forever, maybe we would reconsider and realize that maybe kids aren't so stupid after all. They're just happy.
Lesson 3: Anything you can fit 10 of in your mouth at once probably shouldn't be in there in the first place.
Lesson 4: Don't throw up next to people. People are easily disgusted and will never forgive you for throwing up on their shoes.
Lesson 5: This is the most important one. In my life, I absolutely must build a time machine to go back to those times. Times were simpler then, we did whatever the hell we wanted and we were truly happy. Go back to those times, just to sit and take in the happiness. Go back to those times... Even if only for a minute, go back to those times...
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Godspeed to All You're After
Lyric from the song: Godspeed
By: Anberlin
From the Album: Cities
Is it just me or does anyone else feel like a piece of them just died? I surely do.
Back in the day, when I was a mere speck of nothingness on the Open Source map, one name everyone knew was Havoc Pennington. Not only because it was only the coolest name every but because the guy was one of the greatest hackers of our time. In secret, I had always dreamed of meeting the man behind the mailing list posts and then one day I did and it turned out that not only was all the hype true, it wasn't enough.
Havoc is one of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of meeting and working with. A great mind, a genius hacker and most importantly an all around good guy.
Havoc, you are a pioneer and visionary, your daily presence will be missed. Godspeed to
all you're after...
By: Anberlin
From the Album: Cities
Is it just me or does anyone else feel like a piece of them just died? I surely do.
Back in the day, when I was a mere speck of nothingness on the Open Source map, one name everyone knew was Havoc Pennington. Not only because it was only the coolest name every but because the guy was one of the greatest hackers of our time. In secret, I had always dreamed of meeting the man behind the mailing list posts and then one day I did and it turned out that not only was all the hype true, it wasn't enough.
Havoc is one of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of meeting and working with. A great mind, a genius hacker and most importantly an all around good guy.
Havoc, you are a pioneer and visionary, your daily presence will be missed. Godspeed to
all you're after...
I Am The Manager!
The following is a statement which Max was supposed read on Saturday morning at FUDCon when he announces changes to Fedora leadership. It was triggered to auto post and thankfully it didn't because I don't think Max ended up reading it. Anyway, this is what I would have said had I been there for the announcements and asked to speak.
Good morning friends. When I call you friends, I truly mean that and it is to you that I owe this great honor. I started off doing little more than carrying boxes in and out of conferences, and saying Fedora and Red Hat until people were about to puke; the lowest of the low in the community. And, I am proud to NOT be here today as one of it's newly appointed leaders, your Fedora Community Manager. I cannot say that I made it here without the help of each and every one of you and while working with you throughout the past years, since before
Fedora even existed, I feel as though we have become true friends.
If anything, my words today are a message of commitment. If you understand the true value of Fedora as a technology platform, as a community and as a vehicle for social change, and are willing commit to making our community successful, then I guarantee you 1000% in return.
I will measure my success much like any parents do their child's, by gauging your health, well being, activity and strength, and by the same token you should measure your success by mine as a leader. Most importantly, like in any relationship, we must nurture each other's growth.
It would also be unfair to not acknowledge and thank Red Hat's new CEO, Jim Whitehurst, who could have flown home this weekend to see his wife and kids, and yet decided to come here and geek it up with us. This demonstrates true appreciation of the value of the community and Jim on behalf of our community I warmly welcome you as our newest member. Jim has a lot of vision and truly believes in Fedora and we owe it to him, and every other member of the community, who could easily invest their time elsewhere, and chooses to invest it here, nothing more than 100%.
We will not fail. We cannot fail.
Finally, I would like to say that over the years we have hit some bumpy spots and have always persevered and I will be working with each and everyone of you to ensure that we fill those potholes. Alongside that, there are an interesting number of new initiatives that you will hear
about in the coming weeks which will prove interesting to many of you. Some of those initiatives might or might not even be taking place this weekend. Wink, Wink. I eagerly await your feedback. My email is jaa {at} redhat.com my phone is xxx-xxx-xxxx, (I wasn't about to post my phone number on the internet) don't call too early, but call often!
So a little bit of tweaking, a lot of growing and 100% commitment. We owe it to each and every one of us, in this room, and not. From here on out, we got each other's back...
Cheers! to a brighter future...
Good morning friends. When I call you friends, I truly mean that and it is to you that I owe this great honor. I started off doing little more than carrying boxes in and out of conferences, and saying Fedora and Red Hat until people were about to puke; the lowest of the low in the community. And, I am proud to NOT be here today as one of it's newly appointed leaders, your Fedora Community Manager. I cannot say that I made it here without the help of each and every one of you and while working with you throughout the past years, since before
Fedora even existed, I feel as though we have become true friends.
If anything, my words today are a message of commitment. If you understand the true value of Fedora as a technology platform, as a community and as a vehicle for social change, and are willing commit to making our community successful, then I guarantee you 1000% in return.
I will measure my success much like any parents do their child's, by gauging your health, well being, activity and strength, and by the same token you should measure your success by mine as a leader. Most importantly, like in any relationship, we must nurture each other's growth.
It would also be unfair to not acknowledge and thank Red Hat's new CEO, Jim Whitehurst, who could have flown home this weekend to see his wife and kids, and yet decided to come here and geek it up with us. This demonstrates true appreciation of the value of the community and Jim on behalf of our community I warmly welcome you as our newest member. Jim has a lot of vision and truly believes in Fedora and we owe it to him, and every other member of the community, who could easily invest their time elsewhere, and chooses to invest it here, nothing more than 100%.
We will not fail. We cannot fail.
Finally, I would like to say that over the years we have hit some bumpy spots and have always persevered and I will be working with each and everyone of you to ensure that we fill those potholes. Alongside that, there are an interesting number of new initiatives that you will hear
about in the coming weeks which will prove interesting to many of you. Some of those initiatives might or might not even be taking place this weekend. Wink, Wink. I eagerly await your feedback. My email is jaa {at} redhat.com my phone is xxx-xxx-xxxx, (I wasn't about to post my phone number on the internet) don't call too early, but call often!
So a little bit of tweaking, a lot of growing and 100% commitment. We owe it to each and every one of us, in this room, and not. From here on out, we got each other's back...
Cheers! to a brighter future...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I won't let you give up on a miracle, 'cause it might save you...
Lyric from the song: Miracle
By: Paramore
From the album: Riot!
Its bittersweet and ironic how sometimes in life the people who we hope will save us end up being the ones who need the most saving. Its often painful to admit and some people, for fear of coming to some stark realizations, will fight with all their might to prevent themselves from accepting this profound truth.
One thing I can proudly say I've been blessed with, above all else, is the opportunity to go all around the world and meet some of this planet's greatest people. Some rich, some living in utter poverty, some Ph.D.s and some who never made it out of grade school. Some in the farthest reaches of Earth and some right in my own backyard.
Once in a while, you happen upon a truly great person and as much as you realize their potential, they are unwilling to even begin to attempt to reach it. And no matter how much you push them, they push back doubly as hard and in the end of the day all you are left with is a tremendous wasted potential. Some people let the past hold them back and so they struggle with themselves; some more passively than others. As much as they want something or realize something would be good for them, they subconsciously can't live with that and they keep themselves closed up tightly and stuck in some impenetrable psychological bubble. That fills me with great sadness.
People have no idea what it is I do. They know it has something to do with computers, some Linux thing perhaps, but more than that, they have no clue. Some people get downright confused by it. My parents, after showing them the Linux Format article, are even more confused than before about what I do. Its quite funny, because in reality it has nothing to do with computers. It has everything to do with people and helping each and every person reach their maximal potential. Technology is just the means I guess.
So from now on when someone asks me what I do I'm gonna start saying, that is my mission, to make sure that each and every person sees their potential and to help them realize it and reach it. It's not faith if you use your eyes.
I tried to save you. I might have failed, but I'm not gonna give up on a miracle because it might save you. When this memory fades, I'm gonna make sure its replaced with chances taken and hope embraced. I hope I told you...
By: Paramore
From the album: Riot!
Its bittersweet and ironic how sometimes in life the people who we hope will save us end up being the ones who need the most saving. Its often painful to admit and some people, for fear of coming to some stark realizations, will fight with all their might to prevent themselves from accepting this profound truth.
One thing I can proudly say I've been blessed with, above all else, is the opportunity to go all around the world and meet some of this planet's greatest people. Some rich, some living in utter poverty, some Ph.D.s and some who never made it out of grade school. Some in the farthest reaches of Earth and some right in my own backyard.
Once in a while, you happen upon a truly great person and as much as you realize their potential, they are unwilling to even begin to attempt to reach it. And no matter how much you push them, they push back doubly as hard and in the end of the day all you are left with is a tremendous wasted potential. Some people let the past hold them back and so they struggle with themselves; some more passively than others. As much as they want something or realize something would be good for them, they subconsciously can't live with that and they keep themselves closed up tightly and stuck in some impenetrable psychological bubble. That fills me with great sadness.
People have no idea what it is I do. They know it has something to do with computers, some Linux thing perhaps, but more than that, they have no clue. Some people get downright confused by it. My parents, after showing them the Linux Format article, are even more confused than before about what I do. Its quite funny, because in reality it has nothing to do with computers. It has everything to do with people and helping each and every person reach their maximal potential. Technology is just the means I guess.
So from now on when someone asks me what I do I'm gonna start saying, that is my mission, to make sure that each and every person sees their potential and to help them realize it and reach it. It's not faith if you use your eyes.
I tried to save you. I might have failed, but I'm not gonna give up on a miracle because it might save you. When this memory fades, I'm gonna make sure its replaced with chances taken and hope embraced. I hope I told you...
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Manhattan Calling
Our world is falling apart at the seams but I take solace in the fact that in a mere 6 years there will be full cell service in the stations of the NYC subway, as announced today.
I wonder how the MTA will mess this up though. It only took 5 years to come up with the plan and then another 2 years to debate it. I take it there might be 45 minute delays getting calls through on Monday mornings because of there being "a red signal in front of us" or "due to an earlier incident" of which we will never be told the truth. Either that or they will decide to charge an auxiliary fare for those passengers carrying cell phones and then hike the fair each year claiming they need more money to maintain the stations now that the radiation from the cell spots is corroding the tracks. You know it will be something crazy. They can't do anything right. Ever. Period.
I wonder how the MTA will mess this up though. It only took 5 years to come up with the plan and then another 2 years to debate it. I take it there might be 45 minute delays getting calls through on Monday mornings because of there being "a red signal in front of us" or "due to an earlier incident" of which we will never be told the truth. Either that or they will decide to charge an auxiliary fare for those passengers carrying cell phones and then hike the fair each year claiming they need more money to maintain the stations now that the radiation from the cell spots is corroding the tracks. You know it will be something crazy. They can't do anything right. Ever. Period.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Cursed Missed Opportunities
Zimbra just got bought out by Yahoo. For $350 million. We could have had them for like 10 million back in the day, but no one listens to Jack.
What I hate the most about this is that it is clearly in response to Google and obviously a tremendous waste of some pretty good software. It had so much potential, its really heartbreaking. The motivations for the acquisition is really what hearts the most man--it's just a parry. I wonder what the future of the Open Source edition looks like now? I'm sure as Yahoo tries to enterprise it up and all it will slowly but surely start sucking exponentially.
What I hate the most about this is that it is clearly in response to Google and obviously a tremendous waste of some pretty good software. It had so much potential, its really heartbreaking. The motivations for the acquisition is really what hearts the most man--it's just a parry. I wonder what the future of the Open Source edition looks like now? I'm sure as Yahoo tries to enterprise it up and all it will slowly but surely start sucking exponentially.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Goodnight and Go
This is not my weekly update as promised, but two comments that I have to fire off real quick. First, yes, I finally got Facebook. I hate these social networking sites so damned much, but they are sure as hell a ton of fun. Why did I finally cave? Mainly its because I wanted to do some application stuff and you need an account for that, but otherwise, I don't know, I guess it is better than myspace and I guess I owe it to Mark anyway. So it's been cool finding friends on there that I haven't seen in like a decade and all the college buddies and all that. I'm a friendly person, so this works out well. Find me and add me if you feel the need to validate our acquaintance/friendship/relationship.
Second, regarding Chris' post about my comments regarding the car, when you're going 120 it only feels like 40. When you get up in the 150 range, it starts to feel like 50. God knows I would never do something so stupid as to take a picture while driving at any speed greater than 50! If you don't believe me about that though, I can pick you up on my way down from Nashua and you can experience this phenomenon first hand. All you need to do is make sure to get Boston PD to close off a stretch of highway for us. Alternatively, I can just run people over.
Finally, today is Jono Bacon's birthday. Now I know that those guys get a lot of crap from us sometimes, but in the realm of community builders and people bringer-togethers, Jono is a legend. Let's all wish him a great year and all the desires of his heart! Happy Birthday man.
A real weekly update coming tomorrow, since there is a lot of action going on today.
Second, regarding Chris' post about my comments regarding the car, when you're going 120 it only feels like 40. When you get up in the 150 range, it starts to feel like 50. God knows I would never do something so stupid as to take a picture while driving at any speed greater than 50! If you don't believe me about that though, I can pick you up on my way down from Nashua and you can experience this phenomenon first hand. All you need to do is make sure to get Boston PD to close off a stretch of highway for us. Alternatively, I can just run people over.
Finally, today is Jono Bacon's birthday. Now I know that those guys get a lot of crap from us sometimes, but in the realm of community builders and people bringer-togethers, Jono is a legend. Let's all wish him a great year and all the desires of his heart! Happy Birthday man.
A real weekly update coming tomorrow, since there is a lot of action going on today.
Monday, September 10, 2007
So Much to Say
Another summer has come and gone and the world is still spinning, silently but surely. That's kind of odd, I went away for a weeks and was almost certain that the earth would stand still. ;) Anyway, Jack is back, more relaxed, more committed than ever, more vigilant and now with a ruthless new machine, of which I will post pictures when it gets off the boat; and there is tons that needs doing. I'll post up an agenda later this week. and then updates on those tasks as they occur.
I've also made a commitment to myself to post at least one entry a week from now on until the foreseeable future. The reasons are twofold, first and foremost I would like to start keeping a decent record of my own comings an goings on in a public, searchable fashion. Second, I already do a ton of writing and most of it is kept privately in various journals and I want to start digitizing all that and so I might as well start posting the new stuff up here. And I think in the near future there will be a good reason for me to start blogging more often.
For now, the one thing I really need to focus on is my foundation which I chartered right before I left for Europe. I'll explain it a bit more detail in a later post, but the gist of the mission is to promote the use and re-mixing of free/open technology, open content, art and education to enrich the lives of people around the world and to help animate the creative spirit which is present within each and every single person. It's a new social revolution! That sounds like a lot of do-gooder fluff really for now, but believe me I already have two projects, working with awesome people, some quite famous, which are close to kickoff which will give the foundation some real perspective.
I've done a write up on what I hope the foundation will be able to accomplish and I need to post that up at some point, when I feel it is sufficiently edited. Also, I've been writing a really awesome essay entitled "Crash" which talks about my new general philosophy on life and works in my experiences as a member of the Open Source community for more than 10 years now. I'll post pieces of that as well periodically, but I am going to hold on on posting the whole rough draft for now, until the very famous person who I hope will edit it gets back to me. It might take a while, but DAMN, its a good story, I can't believe I wrote it.
That's it for now. I'm hungry and tired and I have a nice grilled mushroom with my name on it.
I've also made a commitment to myself to post at least one entry a week from now on until the foreseeable future. The reasons are twofold, first and foremost I would like to start keeping a decent record of my own comings an goings on in a public, searchable fashion. Second, I already do a ton of writing and most of it is kept privately in various journals and I want to start digitizing all that and so I might as well start posting the new stuff up here. And I think in the near future there will be a good reason for me to start blogging more often.
For now, the one thing I really need to focus on is my foundation which I chartered right before I left for Europe. I'll explain it a bit more detail in a later post, but the gist of the mission is to promote the use and re-mixing of free/open technology, open content, art and education to enrich the lives of people around the world and to help animate the creative spirit which is present within each and every single person. It's a new social revolution! That sounds like a lot of do-gooder fluff really for now, but believe me I already have two projects, working with awesome people, some quite famous, which are close to kickoff which will give the foundation some real perspective.
I've done a write up on what I hope the foundation will be able to accomplish and I need to post that up at some point, when I feel it is sufficiently edited. Also, I've been writing a really awesome essay entitled "Crash" which talks about my new general philosophy on life and works in my experiences as a member of the Open Source community for more than 10 years now. I'll post pieces of that as well periodically, but I am going to hold on on posting the whole rough draft for now, until the very famous person who I hope will edit it gets back to me. It might take a while, but DAMN, its a good story, I can't believe I wrote it.
That's it for now. I'm hungry and tired and I have a nice grilled mushroom with my name on it.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Behind a Counter in a Small Town
I fell in love with her. I fell in love with her hard and fast. I fell in love with her from the second I laid eyes on here. I fell in love with her in the middle of Austria. I fell in love with a city called Vienna.
What a place!
What a place!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
I Just Want to Scream, Hellooooooo
The expo is over. Another one bites the dust. A full wrap up report/media/pictures is soon to come. Right now though, Karsten just dropped me off at the hotel and what can I say, for the first time ever I feel very homesick. Some people know why, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I know I'm coming back home to an empty house for a day and then I'm jetting away for another 2 weeks.
With all this in mind though, a tremendous amount of work got done this week in the background masked by all the good press and the seemingly never-ending line waiting to speak to us. There is a ton of news to come soon, I promise. As for now, even through all the loneliness, I have an odd feeling of infinite hope and I take away a renewed commitment. A renewed commitment to many many things. We'll see whether that ends up being good or bad.
With all this in mind though, a tremendous amount of work got done this week in the background masked by all the good press and the seemingly never-ending line waiting to speak to us. There is a ton of news to come soon, I promise. As for now, even through all the loneliness, I have an odd feeling of infinite hope and I take away a renewed commitment. A renewed commitment to many many things. We'll see whether that ends up being good or bad.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
756
I was there. Section 121, Row 28, Seat 8. It was surreal, after the two prior at bats, we all knew it was coming. The stadium exploded and strangers were slapping each other five and giving each other hugs. I almost fell on top of Dave I was so excited. Good, bad, controversial for sure, whatever it was, I was there as a witness to history.
Monday, August 06, 2007
It's My Blooooood
Someone just asked me if I did have to chose a lyric for the last post what would it have been? It's my blood. Courtesy of Pearl Jam of their second album Vs. Track #7. Enjoy.
To Infinity and Beyond
I know some of my blog reading faithful will be shocked. I've deviated from my standard of titling posts after alterna-rock lyrics. What is this dude thinking? Well listen up, its with good reason.
Today, I'm at LinuxWorld in San Francisco and I've just wrapped up a set of press interviews along with our very good friends from the Creative Commons. Whats the skinny you ask? I'll tell you, but only because I like you. Today we have announced (link to press release) the first step in what is a long term partnership between Fedora and he Creative Commons. That first step is the CC LiveContent Distribution (available off the Fedora torrent site), built on Fedora, available to all.
The story is as follows. After we broke our backs getting Fedora 7 and all the little bits and pieces in place to let people remix it out the door, we were wondering who would come knocking at our door. That's the beauty of the culture in which we operate, you never known from whence innovation will come, all you can do release something that will hopefully be useful to someone and marvel at the results of what they come back to you with. Anyway, luckily enough Creative Commons had been fishing around for a while for a platform upon which they could build a distribution that will be used to proliferate and educate people about Open Content. They had already been looking at using Fedora for this and then I met Jon Philips, and the rest as they say, is history.
Around a month and a half ago we sat down and defined what needed to be done, why, and how we were going to go about doing it. The result is CC LiveContent v1.0 (direct torrent link), a Fedora-based live-cd distro jam packed with educational material about CC, CC licensed content and a set of applications with which you can manipulate that content. Remix your OS, your content. As I'm known for saying, it's all good in the hood. Don't just sit there, make something, dammit!
I am personally proud to be standing here. One reason is because I have been busting my ass to make sure this happens. (Well not really, the credit really goes to Tim Vollmer and Scott Shawcroft of CC, but I tried!) The second reason is that with the release of Fedora 7 and the opening up of our build process and tools such as pungi and revisor, we have really tried to position Fedora as more than just a Linux distro and the reason we have been encouraging the masses to "Remix" their fedora is that we have tried and pushed over the past 3 years to transform Fedora into a true platform for innovation.
That innovation occurs on a number of levels, there is of course the technical excellence which we always strive to live up to and which we are well-known for. Then there is innovation in other areas which need a viable platform through which to deliver their message to the masses. There is also innovation in unexplored areas that we will only find out when we afford the community the ability to go about and explore those themselves. We have positioned Fedora to act as a platform for whatever it is you are interested in and to that effect, we have done well.
Obviously, as members of the open source community, one of the causes which we are passionate about is Open Content and as such we are proud to partner with Creative Commons who have, for the same reasons described above, chosen Fedora to server as the basis for their LiveConent Distribution.
The purpose of the LiveContent Distribution is to act as as tool and an enabler to both educate people about what Creative Commons is and does, and to provide them the tools and a selection of content with which they can begin to explore the remix culture and how endless the possibilities really are when a culture of collaboration is fostered, not detested.
Clearly not everyone understands computer software, so trying to reach out to people about freedom, democracy and rights at a software level alone would be a huge fallacy.
Open Software, Open Content, Free Culture and the hope for a better tomorrow side-by-side, forging a brighter future for tomorrow's programmers AND artists, children, educators, creators and consumers, society in general.
Code or content, pick whichever one you want to explore; they are both there on one handy disc.
That being said, there are many people who deserve thanks. First and foremost, Max Spevack, for being the greatest leader Fedora has ever had and a true champion of everything we believe in. Max busts his ass all day every day through thick and thin to make sure this machine keeps on rolling. Greg DeKeonigsberg, for well, being Greg and constantly reminding us that thinking is a good thing and to always push the boundary. The Fedora Board and the Fedora crew within Red Hat who really have thankless jobs and yet give it their all on a daily basis. The Fedora community who won't ever stop harassing us to fix whats broken and make things even better for them all the time and especially those who contribute back, we all owe you thanks. Jesse for pungi. Jon, Jeroen and Bob and the Fedora Unity folks for spearheading the Revisor project. The NYC interns, Mo, Yankee, Arjun, Hunter, Ben, James and Bobby for doing some awesome work over this summer and who still aren't sure that I don't work for Creative Commons, I hope you guys can stay part of the Fedora family. The Red Hat PR team who so gracefully handled all of the press stuff for this, including Caroline, Kerri and Leigh. Last but not least, I think a huge thank you of the largest proportions needs to go out to Matthew Szulik, who really works himself to the bone every day trying to run a company which can at the same time be public, profitable, accountable and yet so righteous and benevolent and who affords Fedora the freedoms with which it operates. The whole concept of Fedora was such a radical idea and here we are years later still going strong and it is only due to the dedication, persistence and wisdom of great people. For giving of yourselves to make this life just a little better for ourselves and others. For that, thanks.
Today, I'm at LinuxWorld in San Francisco and I've just wrapped up a set of press interviews along with our very good friends from the Creative Commons. Whats the skinny you ask? I'll tell you, but only because I like you. Today we have announced (link to press release) the first step in what is a long term partnership between Fedora and he Creative Commons. That first step is the CC LiveContent Distribution (available off the Fedora torrent site), built on Fedora, available to all.
The story is as follows. After we broke our backs getting Fedora 7 and all the little bits and pieces in place to let people remix it out the door, we were wondering who would come knocking at our door. That's the beauty of the culture in which we operate, you never known from whence innovation will come, all you can do release something that will hopefully be useful to someone and marvel at the results of what they come back to you with. Anyway, luckily enough Creative Commons had been fishing around for a while for a platform upon which they could build a distribution that will be used to proliferate and educate people about Open Content. They had already been looking at using Fedora for this and then I met Jon Philips, and the rest as they say, is history.
Around a month and a half ago we sat down and defined what needed to be done, why, and how we were going to go about doing it. The result is CC LiveContent v1.0 (direct torrent link), a Fedora-based live-cd distro jam packed with educational material about CC, CC licensed content and a set of applications with which you can manipulate that content. Remix your OS, your content. As I'm known for saying, it's all good in the hood. Don't just sit there, make something, dammit!
I am personally proud to be standing here. One reason is because I have been busting my ass to make sure this happens. (Well not really, the credit really goes to Tim Vollmer and Scott Shawcroft of CC, but I tried!) The second reason is that with the release of Fedora 7 and the opening up of our build process and tools such as pungi and revisor, we have really tried to position Fedora as more than just a Linux distro and the reason we have been encouraging the masses to "Remix" their fedora is that we have tried and pushed over the past 3 years to transform Fedora into a true platform for innovation.
That innovation occurs on a number of levels, there is of course the technical excellence which we always strive to live up to and which we are well-known for. Then there is innovation in other areas which need a viable platform through which to deliver their message to the masses. There is also innovation in unexplored areas that we will only find out when we afford the community the ability to go about and explore those themselves. We have positioned Fedora to act as a platform for whatever it is you are interested in and to that effect, we have done well.
Obviously, as members of the open source community, one of the causes which we are passionate about is Open Content and as such we are proud to partner with Creative Commons who have, for the same reasons described above, chosen Fedora to server as the basis for their LiveConent Distribution.
The purpose of the LiveContent Distribution is to act as as tool and an enabler to both educate people about what Creative Commons is and does, and to provide them the tools and a selection of content with which they can begin to explore the remix culture and how endless the possibilities really are when a culture of collaboration is fostered, not detested.
Clearly not everyone understands computer software, so trying to reach out to people about freedom, democracy and rights at a software level alone would be a huge fallacy.
Open Software, Open Content, Free Culture and the hope for a better tomorrow side-by-side, forging a brighter future for tomorrow's programmers AND artists, children, educators, creators and consumers, society in general.
Code or content, pick whichever one you want to explore; they are both there on one handy disc.
That being said, there are many people who deserve thanks. First and foremost, Max Spevack, for being the greatest leader Fedora has ever had and a true champion of everything we believe in. Max busts his ass all day every day through thick and thin to make sure this machine keeps on rolling. Greg DeKeonigsberg, for well, being Greg and constantly reminding us that thinking is a good thing and to always push the boundary. The Fedora Board and the Fedora crew within Red Hat who really have thankless jobs and yet give it their all on a daily basis. The Fedora community who won't ever stop harassing us to fix whats broken and make things even better for them all the time and especially those who contribute back, we all owe you thanks. Jesse for pungi. Jon, Jeroen and Bob and the Fedora Unity folks for spearheading the Revisor project. The NYC interns, Mo, Yankee, Arjun, Hunter, Ben, James and Bobby for doing some awesome work over this summer and who still aren't sure that I don't work for Creative Commons, I hope you guys can stay part of the Fedora family. The Red Hat PR team who so gracefully handled all of the press stuff for this, including Caroline, Kerri and Leigh. Last but not least, I think a huge thank you of the largest proportions needs to go out to Matthew Szulik, who really works himself to the bone every day trying to run a company which can at the same time be public, profitable, accountable and yet so righteous and benevolent and who affords Fedora the freedoms with which it operates. The whole concept of Fedora was such a radical idea and here we are years later still going strong and it is only due to the dedication, persistence and wisdom of great people. For giving of yourselves to make this life just a little better for ourselves and others. For that, thanks.
OSCON Wrap-Up
This got backlogged due to all of the stuff I had to deal with before I up and disappear for close to month, but here it finally is.
OSCON, in a word, kicked ass. Okay, so two words. Aside from the fact that my luggage was lost for most of the time I was there, people were really impressed with our booth setup and with our commitment to the community. Let me explain.
We went in figuring that we would get railed due to the fact a large majority of people there would be there for Ubuntu live as well. I thought that at least every other person would walk up to us and say "Ive Switched." In fact, what we got was the exact opposite. We even got Ubuntu users AND developers coming up to us and tell us that we are doing some really cool stuff in Fedora. Boy, if they could only see the future!
A large number of people were visibly distraught at the fact that they paid $700 bucks for Ubuntu live and then Ubuntu didn't have an OSCON booth and not a single CD was there to be had. Naturally, they thought that Fedora would be the best place to vent this anger. After speaking to many of them, it seems as though they couldn't care less which distro they were running, they cared more about having someone at these shows representing their "clan" and someone they can vent their frustrations and delights at. Us being there worked well in this case.
I cannot begin to tell you how many people were so extremely enthusiastic about our little PS3 demo. People were walking up to us left and right asking us, "Hey is that Fedora on the PS3? That's wicked Cool!" I know, thats why I thought we should be showing that off. We even had a couple of IBM developers walk by us and tell us, "All of the cool innovation happens in Fedora anyway." Thats a direct quote.
That quote sums it up pretty efficiently and we heard alot of that stuff especially after Dave Jones' "Why Userspace Sucks" talk. It was really nice to have people acknowledge what we've been saying all along--we are the ones driving innovation forward.
Also, and this goes without saying, the OLPC was a massive draw. Everyone was really interesting in finally seeing the machines which will lead us to the promised land and did we ever deliver! We had non stop action around the thing. Education people, software people, government people, social movement people, a group of economists and we even had a monk come by and give us a benediction and thank us for contributing to such an awesome project.
We have some video footage which will go up somewhere once we have it in our hands. Other than that, I think that OSCON was the proper venue to re-invigorate the troops and to prove to everyone that not only will we not stop, but we are pushing forward even more quickly, with some pretty interesting initiatives and with a renewed commitment to our community showing that the Fedora 7 milestone wasn't the end of anything, it was simply the beginning of all the awesomeness to come.
OSCON, in a word, kicked ass. Okay, so two words. Aside from the fact that my luggage was lost for most of the time I was there, people were really impressed with our booth setup and with our commitment to the community. Let me explain.
We went in figuring that we would get railed due to the fact a large majority of people there would be there for Ubuntu live as well. I thought that at least every other person would walk up to us and say "Ive Switched." In fact, what we got was the exact opposite. We even got Ubuntu users AND developers coming up to us and tell us that we are doing some really cool stuff in Fedora. Boy, if they could only see the future!
A large number of people were visibly distraught at the fact that they paid $700 bucks for Ubuntu live and then Ubuntu didn't have an OSCON booth and not a single CD was there to be had. Naturally, they thought that Fedora would be the best place to vent this anger. After speaking to many of them, it seems as though they couldn't care less which distro they were running, they cared more about having someone at these shows representing their "clan" and someone they can vent their frustrations and delights at. Us being there worked well in this case.
I cannot begin to tell you how many people were so extremely enthusiastic about our little PS3 demo. People were walking up to us left and right asking us, "Hey is that Fedora on the PS3? That's wicked Cool!" I know, thats why I thought we should be showing that off. We even had a couple of IBM developers walk by us and tell us, "All of the cool innovation happens in Fedora anyway." Thats a direct quote.
That quote sums it up pretty efficiently and we heard alot of that stuff especially after Dave Jones' "Why Userspace Sucks" talk. It was really nice to have people acknowledge what we've been saying all along--we are the ones driving innovation forward.
Also, and this goes without saying, the OLPC was a massive draw. Everyone was really interesting in finally seeing the machines which will lead us to the promised land and did we ever deliver! We had non stop action around the thing. Education people, software people, government people, social movement people, a group of economists and we even had a monk come by and give us a benediction and thank us for contributing to such an awesome project.
We have some video footage which will go up somewhere once we have it in our hands. Other than that, I think that OSCON was the proper venue to re-invigorate the troops and to prove to everyone that not only will we not stop, but we are pushing forward even more quickly, with some pretty interesting initiatives and with a renewed commitment to our community showing that the Fedora 7 milestone wasn't the end of anything, it was simply the beginning of all the awesomeness to come.
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