Re: NetBSD at Southern California Linux Expo 7x...

[Jason Dixon <jason%dixongroup.net@localhost>]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 05:01:45PM -0800, Kevin Lahey wrote:
> 
> Well, we successfully flew the NetBSD flag at yet another Southern
> California Linux Expo -- for the fifth year in a row.  Big thanks to
> the SCALE organizers, especially Gareth Greenaway, who went out of
> their way to make us feel welcome, and to David Maxwell and John
> Hickey, who came out yet again to staff the booth.
> 
> David was there bright and early both days, staffing the booth even
> before I managed to get there, and toughed it out to the end!  John
> showed up Sunday with lunch and an Ultra 60;  he proceeded to install
> NetBSD on his mini netbook under VirtualPC and then used that to
> netboot the Sparc and install it during the show.
> 
> We (well, I, at least) had a great time talking to all of the crazy
> hackers in Southern California;  an amazing number of folks came by
> the booth to talk about the little SGI Indy on the table.  I had no
> idea so many people were still running Irix!  Hopefully we converted
> a few to NetBSD.
> 
> This is a relatively big event, and it feels good to know that NetBSD
> has a booth there along with FreeBSD and OpenBSD.  I'd encourage other
> folks to think about spending a weekend in LA next year!

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed so much success at SCaLE.  However, I'm
personally a bit disappointed to hear that NetBSD put forth so much
effort into representation at a Linux conference, while having zero
presence at DCBSDCon 2009, a BSD conference aimed at celebrating BSD
software, developers and the community.

Please understand I'm not trying to rest all of this on your shoulders.
I just think this is a good opportunity to address the lack of
participation by the NetBSD project at some of our own conferences (from
my experience, particularly at NYCBSDCon and DCBSDCon).  I know that
NetBSD has a strong U.S. East-coast footprint, so I'm confused as to how 
these events can be overlooked.

If there's anything we, as organizers, can do to make ourselves more
engaging to the NetBSD speakers and developers, please let us know.  I
personally sent numerous emails to this list and to team members trying
to get some participation.  My pleas were met with silence.

Thanks,

-- 
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net/