OSCON 2008: Moblin.org
Continuing my afternoon tradition of attending sessions with absurdly long names, I’m in D136 at Moblin.org: The Community for Linux on Mobile Internet Devices (MID), netbooks, nettops and More…. It’s being presented by Dirk Hohndel, who I just overheard agreed at the last minute to substitute for the original author of the presentation. He’s nervous, so I hope it goes well. He is, however, the same person who gave the keynote this morning.
I work for a small telecommunications design company, so this venture into Linux on mobile platforms holds quite a bit of interest for me. Granted, I work in a support capacity for the folks who do real work, but knowledge is always a good thing, right?
Intel has chosen a Fedora- and GNOME-based platform for Moblin. I’ve contributed a couple of packages to Fedora, which means users of these Intel mobile systems can play Zork.
Dirk wasn’t able to have any sample devices with him, so he was left to describe what a “net book” is. Fortunately, in a room full of geeks in a mobile computing presentation, several people had ASUS EEE PCs, which he could show off to the audience. There were also a Nokia N800, N810, and of course several iPhones in the crowd. Obviously I mobile-savvy audience.
Linux is often touted as the obvious first choice for these mobile devices because of its price. One of the more important reasons is the ability to strip down Linux so much to fit on these devices, but still be incredibly usable.
This session ended up being exactly what I thought. It’s essentially a marketing spiel masquerading as a technical talk. The slides are far too slick, and the only reason any technical details are being given at all is because of the last-minute speaker substitution. Our new speaker is a technical guy who has been promoted to a managerial role. The presentation was apparently designed by a marketing guy with enough technical knowledge to be dangerous. I hope Brad is having more fun in the Moose talk.
I’m really regretting where I’ve chosen to sit. Someone in front of me is wearing way too much pungent cologne. I may be sick.
[tags]oscon, oscon08, oscon2008, Intel, Moblin, mobile, Linux[/tags]