michaeldehaan.net

I’m just about done uploading pictures from SouthEast Linux Fest 2010. As Ian Weller mentioned, we had a pretty good random photo walk in the middle of it, and I think that’s a fine conference meme to continue in the future.

But seriously. Damn. What a huge conference for being in Spartanburg, SC. No disrepect, home of the mighty Wofford Terriers, but wow, we did not expect this from you. At all. The South East Linux Fest crew — David, Jeremy, scores of volunteers — well done. You shame Raleigh, Durham, and RTP. You bring envy to Atlanta. You bring folks travelling from near and far. SELF Folks, you not only put my previous attempt at Evil Robot Conference to a level of shame where it looks like kickball to the scale of the world cup, but were also incredible hosts to all of us. Thank you immensely.

I gave a talk about Puppet and why datacenter automation is important, with a few nods to previous projects I’ve worked on (cobbler, Func) thrown in — pretty well received I think, about 60 people were there and there were a lot of good questions. There were a lot of other good talks though, I’m most excited about Ian’s datanommer as it inherits a lot of legacy (euphemism intended) from some past projects of my own. I was also quite happy to see all the new folks who turned out for the FAD– quite a good difference from the usual FudCON where we typically already know most of everyone. I think this underscored, very very well, how much of a democratic and friends-helping-friends kind of community Fedora (and Linux) can be. Major points for reaching out and keeping the barrier to contribution down. Ubuntu can have some very polished initiatives, but they need to work at being less centralized, that is for certain. I hope they learn that lesson as they grow.

It was also nice to talk with lots of folks I had met at previous conferences, plus the cool folks at OpenNMS, ZenOSS, sqlite, and XenSource. I will certainty be back next year. You should to. Especially if it’s right next to the Krispy Kreme again.

Cinnamon Apple Filled, I am glad you are back.