A Sunday in FOSDEM (Bruxelles)

Good Evening,

I just came back from Bruxelles when I went to the Fosdem . I write this article in english because the conferences were in english and I will find my words more easily in english. I would apologize for my very bad level in english grammar (huh, prepas ?) before the end of the introduction. Also, I must say I just went on Sunday, not on Saturday because of work (homework).

So I lived this day in three times : The morning, the lunch, and the afternoon. I feel it is great to separate this day in three times, another prepa pratice… I have to say Bruxelles is unfortunately far from France, especially from Paris and I went to FOSDEM with car (3 hours) : I woke up at 6 o’ clock, it is usual for the week but not for a Sunday. Fortunately, I slept in the car. We found relatively easily the University (with iPhone’s help) and I went alone in the event. I prepared my trip before going and I directly went to CentOS room, my place for the morning. I assisted to the conference from 10h30 to 13h (I arrived with late and going before the end of the last conf, I will explain why after). I saw a CentOS presentation and a comparative between CentOS and RHEL (this demo was probably the best I saw this morning) and a explanation on CentOS on Desktop. I had to go after that and I finally came back for the end of the session on virtualization. I feel the CentOS general presentation was maybe useless because the comparative between CentOS and RHEL included in some way the presentation of CentOS. Fortunately, I arrived at the end of the first session and I didn’t see entierely. The man who presented the comparative just created a driver to use the Wiimote as a remote for OpenOffice and presented it too. Honestly, it was great and I am impatient to see it in my favourite distro. The speech on desktop and CentOS was interesting too but I’m asking why he didn’t show us any screenshot of a desktop. We all knew what is KDE and Gnome but it would have created dynamism.

I should confess I am totally stupid (yes, I am, some of you know it but it ‘ll show it best than ever) : I explained. Just after the first mile in France, I remember I forgot my identity card. We had to come back to take it. In FOSDEM, I believed I took my jacket with me and when I didn’t find it (normal, it was in my home), I panicked and I though I lost my identity card. That’s why I finally met the FOSDEM’s staff (very nice people who speaks various languages, including french: when you panicked, you only spoke in your primary language) and they tried with me to find it again. I finally let my phone number if they found it (and I personnaly would like they see this article NOW to stop caring about it if they do). So, that’s totally stupid (again) and it totally broke my happiness during this day. That’s too why I left the CentOS conference and finally saw the end on virtualization (I think it was about it because of the demo of VMWare, yes a demo but which unfortunately didn’t work because of a network problem).

During the short time between the end of CentOS conference and the beginning of the Debian conf which interested me, I visited the place. There were many people from all countries in Europe. Infortunately, I was alone and my timidity didn’t let me to speak with someone in particular. I got a CentOS sticker and a Fedora pin’s for free. I would like to buy some stuff like Fedora or Debian mugs but I fand nothing, except t-shirt I didn’t like. During the visit, I saw some people who had a red hat, a real red hat not a sticker. My first though was dowant dowant but fortunately for my wallet, I didn’t find them. People who prepared the FOSDEM did it with a lot of humor : there were a command line in the toilet who indicate things where the things were going (/dev/null ? or /dev/jeff I didn’t remember). It was fun and bring the spirit of FOSDEM even in the toilet. Great. [I dunno why but I feel it great, that's simple].

The afternoon was consacred in my planning to Debian. Why ? Because I like this distro and it was the first distro which I learned something about Linux (I never need to use command line except from brag in Ubuntu) and I wasn’t disappointed by the even. Few months ago, I saw on Debian they recorded conf and I forgot it. When I saw the camera, I need some time to remember this fact : few minutes of strange feeling. During the demo I learned Lenny will be released next week, next Saturday (shame on me, I miss it). For the occasion, Debian team created a poster with two logo which looks a heart (next Saturday is Valentin’s day). The main subject was the Lenny released : it was everywhere in the room, in every mouth. So, I arrived before of the end of the session which explained the administrative organization of Debian (it is very complex). Unfortunately, the man who presented finished lately and the next session about Lenny was modified : the new man presented the lenny distribution and the release system in few minutes and answered during thirty minutes to questions. Question were interesting and it was probably better than a long speech. By listening, I identified few members of Planet Debian from France. I talked with them a little bit and the next conf was about KDE4 in Debian. Infortunately, it xas about programmation and I don’t know any language of programmation. For me, it was a litte bit busy but it looks like interesting for people who get involved in the project.

Finally, we came back at 19 o’ clock after 600 km in the day. I am very tired by the trip (why passing two hours to write this article) but it was very interesting. Bruxelles is unfortunately too far and the fact I was alone was boring. I dunno where the FOSDEM will take place next year (it can be everywhere in Europe) but I know I will only go if it took place in Paris or in London (maybe Berlin ?), Athenes is definitively too far for me…. Maybe I will translate this article in french, it will correct grammar mistakes (and I know there are plenty) but not this week… Definitely not. See you on Debian servers Saturday with the holiday…

Florent

Publié dans Informatique, Planet Libre Tagged: anglais, bruxelles, centos, debian, english, fodem 2009, kde, presentation, rhel, visite