Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 03:25:11 +0100
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Toronto Linux Expo day 2.

Here are my notes for day two. Unfortunately, I lost my laptop power
outlet and could only take notes during the morning keynotes.

        S. Fermigier, Toronto, october 31 2000.


Bob Young
=========

He is now chairman of RH. Matthew Zulik (sp?) is now CEO.
Bob's job is to increase the size of the pond.

People buy applications, and choose the OS later. The secret of Linux success
is the Internet applications, because of lack of centralized control.

Maddog: "build technologies for the other 5.6 billion people".

Red Hat network is the solution for people managing tens of servers.

ASP = back to the future (time-sharing).

Killer app of the late 90s is the Web (ASP).

Red Hat is not in the software business (they don't sell the software).

When they established the Red Hat Software Foundation, they understood that
there is no need to contribute code. Looking at intellectual property from an
open source perspective. According to Jefferson, patents could not apply to
ideas, only to inventions.

But you should not apply copyrights and patents to things Jefferson knew
they should not be applied to.

Now patents apply to things like 1-click shopping and forms of expression.

Difference between real property and intellectual property is that
if when you share ideas with someone, you don't loose then for
yourself, unlike with physical items.

RH committed to produce only Open Source software.

Q & A
-----

Comment on M$ investment in Corel: MicroSoft's only important monopoly is in
file formats. [Right!]

Good complexity is complexity that works. It has to be modular.


Jacques Lemarois
================

"From Open Source to Open Development".

Power of Open Source = fast development cycles, involvement of users and
protection from competitors (e.g. from the proprietary software industry).

Linux Mandrake products are 95% based on 3rd party open source software
products, and all internal developments are Open Source, plus they have
employees dedicated (KDE and KOffice, Gnome, Plex86, Kernel, Bastille...).

They share R&D with their competitors.

Open source is not only sharing code, it is a development process. You have to
behave accordingly: share information, release frequently, be close to your
users to build a strong community. You also have to use the right tools (Web
site, CVS, mailing lists).

MandrakeSoft applies Open Source development to its own products: Cooker is the
development version of the Linux Mandrake distribution, and it's always
available for download. That way, they can work easily with partner companies
or external developers.

According to Forrester, Open Source is going to reshape the software industry
by 2004, from operating systems to middleware to horizontal applications to
vertical applications.

Q & A
-----

What about quality control? MandrakeSoft has a QA team and strict quality
control procedures, but the open development process ensures that remaining
bugs are found much quicker by users downloading the packages and testing them
(almost in real time!).

Linux Mandrake is moving from a easy-to-use end-user distribution to be also
an easy-to-use server distribution.

Urmpi is an easy way to install new packages.

Mandrake's early success was due to KDE, now they are offering 9 different
window managers. They develop in Gtk. There is no desktop war inside
MandrakeSoft. MandrakeSoft will be the only company both in the GnomeFoundation and the KDE foundation.


Tim Ney
=======

Tim is an officer at the Free Software Foundation.

Originally, a lot of free software programming projects had to be funded by the
FSF, which is not the case anymore.

The other important contribution is the GPL. This is the legal instrument that
made the Open Source industry possible. The GPL is actually very simple (!!!),
but patent and copyright attorneys can't actually understand it.

The desktop is still an issue. Miguel and his colleagues in Cambridge are
trying to address the issues.

Open Source is not against making money. It is about freedom, then freedom for
programmers.

Korean government has embraced Open Source, and started to promote its
use among startups.

Yesterday, Tim was moderating a panel at the DoD, and people were cheerleaders
for Free Software. They are running Linux on tanks. But it's not yet a policy.
It will require training and marketing.

Q & A
-----

What about security? Under the GPL, you can make modifications that are
internal only and not publish them. (Comment by someone:) What's important is
the correctness of the algorithms, not how obscure they are.

FSF is fostering discussion on software patents (see RMS call for Amazon
boycott). Not doing much more.

-- 
Stefane Fermigier, Tel: +33 6 63 04 12 77 (mobile).
Portalux.com: le portail Linux.
"Internet: Learn what you know. Share what you don't."