VanLUG Email Archive
I really like the "Just the facts" theme for the booth.
I think we need to demonstrate the Linux strengths:
Reliability
Flexibility
Efficiency
Choice or software and hardware vendors
Solid internet serving
Total remote administration
File and print server for Microsoft LANs
Software development and research platform
Open source pricing and licenses
Transparency of open source development projects
I don't think that we should be demoing proprietary software in the
booth, with the possible exception of work by local companies. Oracle,
Informix, and Corel are quite capable of selling their wares without our
help. If people have questions about proprietary applications on Linux
we should tell them what's available and send them to the suppliers
booth for more information. What better way for the vendors themselves
to see the interest level.
We are not selling this stuff, so we should be prepared to talk about
it's current status and disadvantages as well.
It would be really cool to be able to say that everything we demo on
Linux can be used in a commercial environment without per machine or per
user licence fees and comes with source code.
There are some interesting "lures" that we could use to emphasize these
points:
1) 7x24 reliability. We could offer a prize if any one of the Linux
demo machines crashes during the show. This is a little risky, but it
would really force us to "bulletproof" the demonstration machines which
is a good thing[tm]. Prize would go to whomever is getting the demo or
using the machine. ...Vanlug members not eligible ;-(
2) Look ma, no head! We could setup a "truly headless" server. IE: a
machine that has been installed and configured without ever having a
video card. The server machine in the back of the booth is usually the
most boring thing at these shows, but ours could have a big sign and
some descriptive text. We should demo that even GUI administration
tools can be run on this server using X over the LAN. It should be
serving lots of things at the same time -- samba, apache, mail
(sendmail, pop3), news (private news, not usenet), SQL server, telnet,
IPMasquerading, ftp, NFS, IPX, Appletalk, and possibly DNS and
authentication. We should demo that a windows client machine can access
these services (network neighborhood, MS Access, ftp, telnet, MS
Internet Explorer). We could also demo "dual booting" with this machine
as well. The server should be a "modest" machine, but we should run
100BaseT if possible.
3) The desktop is safe, extremely flexible, and supportable. The number
one advantage of Linux as a desktop machine in the corporate
environment is that users configuration can be managed and supported
over the LAN. We should have a machine with a whole range of user IDs
each configured with a different desktop. Some of the IDs should be
restricted to running a very limited set of applications (ie: captive
accounts). We could demo:
- A win95/98 looking desktop (fvwm)
- A win3.x looking desktop (fvwm, or even twm)
- A traditional UNIX (Motif) like desktop (fvwm)
- The newer Linux desktops (KDE and Gnome)
- Some really creative desktops (E, afterstep, etc.)
- An account that only runs netscape
- An account that just displays network status
- A text only account (running on a text virtual terminal)
- A web creators desktop (netscape, gimp, editor, java tools, perl)
- A home desktop (netscape, gimp, mp3, xanim, games)
Some of the accounts should be "boring" and some should be "way out".
4) Choice of vendor. We could have a "wall display" of Linux
distributions including not only the major distributions, but also some
of the minor ones including "extreme Linux". There should be a list of
supported CPUs for Linux. It would be good to have at least one non-x86
machine in the booth -- a Mac and a NetWinder would be good.
5) Open source leads to innovation. We could have a machine demo'ing
alpha versions of open source projects in progress. An experimental
kernel, Wine, AbiWord, Gnome, Mozilla, and whatever is interesting at
the time of the show. Presenters at this station should be prepared to
talk about how Linux and open source is being used in research and
software development. The key benefit to COMDEX attendees is that this
work is being conducted "in the open", that the results will be
available without per user or per machine license fees, and that anyone
can evaluate progress and make contributions (ie: customer constructed
software).
6) Local vendors. We could have one "station" in the booth dedicated
to local vendors. Depending on the number and nature of their products,
we could have a schedule or just get them to set up everything on the
same machine with round robin demos. Non-linux open source enthusiasts
(eg: netBSD) should also be able to use this location.
Well, I've written enough (I'm sure it's more than fits in the booth!).
I think Linux has a great story to tell and nothing to be ashamed of in
the applications or desktop area (even without demoing proprietary
products). GIMP is amazing, gnome 0.30 is a great demo that includes
friendly on-line help and a GUI spreadsheet, and I notice that the first
alpha of AbiWord is out. Another three months will bring even more new
stuff to show off.
-Brian