25 conference tracks | 240 lectures | "Mobile with Linux" is the mega trend
"We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the volume and quality of suggestions sent in", said Oliver Zendel and Nils Magnus, the two managing directors of LinuxTag e.V. responsible for the programme. ?This is why we have expanded the programme by one-fifth, even if financially and logistically it is not always easy for an association that relies on voluntary work?. Magnus explained the idea behind the event: "At LinuxTag quality is the utmost priority. We want our visitors to feel they can rely on this programme.? Working in a network with session chairs, developers and insiders for over ten years has made a decisive impact, is how they describe what drives LinuxTag.
Focus on mobile devices with Linux
The programme of technical lectures consists of 25 theme tracks, each put together by recognised experts on the subjects in question. Linux-operated mobile devices and phones are the mega trend this year. The track entitled "Mobile Embedded" (Wednesday, London Room) will dwell on topics ranging from OLPC, OpenMoko to free Java toolkits. This will be followed by a track on Thursday, in the Paris Room, focusing on the mobile user interfaces Maemo and Qtopia.
Linux kernel and storage solutions
Infrastructure issues will be the main topic at the Storage Track, with speakers from Google, Oracle, Red Hat and the Samba Team (Wednesday, Europa 2 Room) and again at the Kernel Track, where debate will focus on driver development, virtualisation and architectures, and once again at the Network Stack (Thursday, London Room). The traditional "Kernel Kwestioning" event will conclude the series, during which developers will take questions from the audience. The speakers will include numerous sub-system maintainers, among them David Miller, Christoph Hellwig, Thomas Gleixner, Zach Brown, Heinz Mauelshagen, Olaf Kirch and Daniel Phillips.
Practical knowledge for using desktops and servers
Providing practical knowledge for users and administrators will also be one of the main topics at LinuxTag. A series devoted to system administrators will be presenting all the important aspects, ranging from maximum service availability to spam-free and stress-free mail servers, practical virtualisation and redundant storage solutions (Wednesday, Paris Room). Users will find useful information on OpenOffice at the two relevant tracks (Thursday and Friday, Europa 1 Room) as well as on advanced training and certification (Friday, London Room). Afterwards they will be able to obtain certificates following a variety of LPI, Ubuntu and BSD tests.
All the major distributors are present
The large events by the large Linux distributors are both regular and major attractions. The Fedora community will be holding its fourth FUDCon event (Friday, Europa 2 Room), developers under the Chameleon banner will be inviting audiences to an openSUSE Day (Saturday, Europa 2 Room), Ubuntu will be meeting to hold an Ubuntu Love Day (Saturday, Paris Room), and Open Solaris will be introducing its innovations. The Debian project will be holding a meeting as part of the workshop programme.
LinuxTag will be reaching across borders and targeting specific groups. Several tracks will address developers, for example Enterprise Development (Wednesday, Berlin 2 Room), or discuss web development in general, as will Zope (Wednesday, Europa 1 Room). Newcomers to Linux will receive advice at the easyLinux beginners? workshop (Friday afternoon, Workshop Room 2), at the track on Linux in education (Saturday, Berlin 1 Room) or will be able to debate the social issues in the context of free software (Saturday, Business Forum).
LinuxMCE and a live performance
Tracks organised by the teams of KDE (Friday, Paris Room) and GNOME (Saturday, Paris Room) and the Multimedia Track (Saturday, London Room) will be showing that Linux is not only at home on servers. These projects will be presenting photo processing, the popular music player Amarok and for the first time in Europe the home entertainment system LinuxMCE, and will conclude the event with a musical live performance, naturally with Linux.
Overview and community tickets
All programme details can be found on the LinuxTag website, under the ?Conference" heading. A day ticket costs EUR 9 (reduced rate EUR 5); an unlimited admission ticket costs EUR 24 (reduced rate 13 EUR). This year LinuxTag will again be distributing free e-tickets to projects and partners exhibiting at the fair, which as part of an Open Source project can be passed on to visitors and members of the community.
Conference package for visitors
LinuxTag is also offering a special Professional Conference Package to representatives of companies and administrations, for visits to the Business & Public Authorities Conference (Wednesday + Thursday, Berlin Rooms 1+2). The conference package includes registration at LinuxTag and the parallel IT business trade fair IT Profits 4.0 (www.it-profits.de), a lunch at the Business and Public Authorities conference, and the options of viewing keynote speeches via live streaming on the internet as well as searching for additional information from individual documentation on the conference.
Packages can be booked at www.linxutag.org. Linux New Media AG will be providing Live streaming of the International Keynotes.
About International LinuxTag in Berlin
LinuxTag 2008 will be taking place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 28 to 31 May 2008. LinuxTag is Europe?s leading event for Linux and free software, and a joint platform for open source projects and companies in German-speaking countries, in Europe and overseas. This four-day event brings together producers, supporters, software products and communities. LinuxTag Berlin is organised by Messe Berlin GmbH in association with LinuxTag e. V. Additional information is available on the internet at www.linuxtag.org.