By: Con Zymaris conz@cyber.com.au
Created: 1999-09-29
Modified: 1999-09-29
The Interact + PC IT shows are the largest IT industry events in Australia, regularly pulling in crowds of over 40,000. As such, this was a prime event and an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate Linux to the great majority of non-Linux using PC users.
By everyone's impression it was a wonderfully succesful event, and a great example of what can be achieved (with a little effort) for Linux advocacy.
How it started
This whole project began as a round-robin of ideas at one of the previous
LUV Installfests and on the LUV mailing lists. John Mann from Monash
University took over much of the organisation, and marshalled the
'troops' of volunteers which sprung up to assist. I volnteered support
and some funding on behalf of Cybersource as we felt it
imperative that the word about 'Linux and free software' be spread as
far-and-wide as possible.
There were some wonderfully useful ideas floated around by the group, including the creation of flashy posters on Linux and LUV, various flyers highlighting specific 'cookbook' implementations of Linux based systems to help attendees visualise the use of Linux within their organisation, and suggestions of what applications to run for demos.
How it went
In a word? Fantastic!
As a team, we felt energised throughout the event, and we passed on some of this enthusiasm to the attendees. We are guessing that we 'reached' maybe 10,000 people during the course of the show, 90% of whom would have never seen Linux up close. All of them were impressed. Moments that stand out in my mind included discussions with many senior IT execs about introducing Linux into their networks, numerous people who were almost dumbstruck at how lovely the Linux desktops on display were, other standholders coming around and pointing out that they were selling Linux based/enabled/supported/bundled products, and the video-documentary interview several of the LUV members gave to the roaming camera crew.
Another highlight for the LUV stand was to receive 'Finalist' awards in two seperate categories for our SGI 1400L server on display. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but fortunately, we were beaten by another Linux product: the NetGear Server, which won the 'Best of Show' Award!
To give you an idea how popular Linux is becoming, Australian Personal Computer Magazine, publishers of the Linux Pocketbook (which includes both Red Hat 6.0 and Caldera 2.2) sold over 1,500 copies in the 4 days of the show! This is in addition to the hundreds of GPL CDs and SuSe, Turbo Linux, Red Hat and Caldera boxed sets sold during the show.
Goodwill
Some things were plainly obvious from our presence at the PC IT show.
Linux, and the Linux community engender a substantial amount of goodwill
from the computer industry. By the first afternoon of setting up, we had
lost track of how many firms showed up on our 'doorstep' to offer free
hardware, encouragement and support. Throughout the day, we had amassed
so much new hardware, that we had to turn suppliers away, as we had run
out of bench space.
Press Coverage
Even the press noticed that the Linux pavilion was perhaps the major
attraction of the whole show. There were a few enthusiastic pieces about
our show, many commenting about the 'buzz' and crowd-pull.
Also popular was the display of flashy desktops on Gnome and KDE. StarOffice 5.1 was also very impressive, and attendees were amazed at how close it could be made to look like MS-Office 97. Both Blender and The GIMP generated numerous 'oohhs' and 'aahhs'. But perhaps the most popular 'exhibit' was the semi-regular installs of Mandrake/Red Hat. People were very keen to see exactly how easy Linux was to install.
Advice for other user groups
The main piece of advice I can give to any other Linux user-groups about
undertaking such a venture is 'Just Do It!' :-) Seriously, it may seem
like hard work, but it's great fun, a wonderful way to meet people and
share your Linux enthusiasm with, and a spectacularly succesful method to
increase membership of your user-group!
Thanks must go to...
Huw Davies and the guys from Compaq who provided manpower at the stand
plus that impressive Alpha server; SGI Australia for the loan of their
spanking-new Linux server; the Qube distributor-guys for setting up the
new Qube and Raq boxes whos looks wowed a great many people; but
most of all, the super-dedicated LUV guys, including:
John Mann, John.Mann@its.monash.edu.au Daniel Dekok, 080970@bud.cc.swin.edu.au Micheal MacCana, mikem@cyber.com.au Rodney Brown, RodneyBrown@PMSC.com Huw Davies, huw.davies@compaq.com, for his help in acquiring the big Alpha server from Compaq running Linux Philip Cook, cookp@ocean.com.au Kheeran.Dharmawardena@its.monash.edu.au George Hansper, george@hansper.wattle.id.au Andrew McDonald, andrewm@aone.com.au Tim Abbott Kirrily Robert, skud@netizen.com.au Morgan Jaffit Matthew Parslow, roy@alphalink.com.au Laura Rumble, laura@everythinglinux.com.au, for supplying some of the Linux stand crew with Penguin polo shirts Paul Rushton, paulr@sydney.sgi.com, for his help in acquiring the SGI 1400L Linux server The other Cybersource guys who were around to lend a hand over the duration of the showPlus any more that I've missed. Also, special thanks to Martin Nightingale, Martin@ausexhibit.com.au who is with AES, the organisers of the PC IT show, and the main reason we could make the presence in the first place. Check out their next Linux event, the Linux and Open Source Expo & Conference in Sydney in March 2000
Photos
I've included links to some (quick & dirty) photos from this event.
(The venue was a fair bit brighter than the photos would indicate :-)
LUV members demoing Linux to
what looks like someone from the Air Force :-)
The SGI 1400L server,
which was a finalist in two categories at the PC IT Show For
more information click here to go: Welcome
to SGI
The infamous Linux Penguin
'Hindenberg' atop the LUV stand
A shot of just how busy
things got!
Anthony Rumble of EverythingLinux
Another crowd shot, showing
off the Electroboard projector demoing Red Hat Linux in the background
