openSUSE Conference 2010 Impression

For those who couldn’t make it to the actual event, here is a little impression of the openSUSE conference. Of course, the many blogs on planet openSUSE and the cool special conference section in the latest openSUSE Weekly News have already given most of you a taste.

However, there’s always more to be had and videos are a great way to share the atmosphere of a conference. So without further ado, here is a short video showing the hard work by Cornelius Schumacher and Vincent Untz being criticized by Sirko “gnokii” Kemter, Andrew Wafaa and your humble writer; and some walking around at the conference during the break.

(download here)

In general, for those who haven’t been to many Free Software conferences, the images in this gallery show the three most important components: the talks, the working together and, last but definitely not least, the party. There is often a group picture (should be followed by the group hug), the indoctrination of the new generation, the thanking of people for their hard work and dedication, the food and the crazy moments.[gallery]

You can find many more photos online on flickr!

During a break your editor asked both Colin Guthrie and Will Stephenson for an impression. Colin admitted to having fun, Will went all out, showing off his mad marketing skills…

Sirko “gnokii” Kemter made the following impression video with images from the conference:

openSUSE Conference - Collaboration Across Borders from S.Kemter on Vimeo.

During the party sponsored by B1 on Thursday night your editor had a quick chat with Red Hat’s Harald Hoyer who is developing a MKINITRD replacement (dracut) in truly collaborative fashion - aiming to replace the distribution-specific tools. He admitted to have come to indoctrinate us all, revealing his evil plans in the process.

Friday saw a movie night organized by Sirko “gnokii” Kemter and the KommKino featuring Free Movies, high point of the night being the latest free Blender Foundation movie, Sintel. The location was close to central station in a big building full of very colorful people. There was a concert going on in one room and in the hallway there were a variety of small stands where you could creat your own buttons, paint bags, create ‘airbrush tatoos’ and many other creative things. The KommKino people explained a bit about the movies, talked about Free Movies and the Creative Commons and during the breaks the visitors had a look in the other areas, enjoying art, creativity and music.

On Saturday some of the openSUSE ambassadors introduced themselves to the crowd using the following video.

Besides the media above, you can find much more on the web - look for the tag #osc10 and #osc2010 on flickr, Youtube and blip.tv here and here.

All in all, it was a great conference. We had fun, we learned new things, went out, talked to each other - all in the spirit of “Collaboration Across Borders”!