Reactions to the first LinuxTag to be held in the German capital were remarkably positive: 94 per cent of those questioned obtained a good or very good overall impression of the event. In addition, some 85 per cent were also satisfied with the commercial results of their attendance at this trade show. The extensive program of conventions and papers was assessed positively by nine out of ten of those questioned. The relocation to Berlin met with the approval of around 82 per cent of the visitors polled. Over 90 per cent declared their intention of attending the next LinuxTag in Berlin.
Nils Magnus, Member of the Board of LinuxTag e.V.: ?We are extremely satisfied with the progress of this year's event. Such a wide range of open source ideas cannot be found anywhere else. The close links between free projects, the exhibiting companies, international speakers and visitors are unparalleled. The level of commitment shown by companies and projects emphasizes the viability of open source. Berlin is the ideal venue for such a mix, now and in the years to come.?
On 1 June the organizers of Europe?s largest combined trade show and convention for Linux and free software ? LinuxTag e.V. and Messe Berlin ? signed an agreement on long term collaboration.
According to Raimund Hosch, Chief Executive Officer of Messe Berlin GmbH: ?This has been a very promising start. LinuxTag provides Berlin with a new and highly attractive trade show and convention for advanced information and communication technology. This is underlined by the presence of leading representatives of politics and public sector administration: the German capital has thoroughly accepted LinuxTag.?
Views of participants in LinuxTag:
Quim Gil, Product Manager maemo Development Platform, Nokia (Finland): "Berlin is a very good city for LinuxTag because of its location at the heart of Europe. Here at LinuxTag it was possible to meet an interesting mix from the community and companies. My impression is that the organization of LinuxTag here in Berlin has been very professional."
Sergei Pikalev, Director, OpenSolaris Community Russia: "LinuxTag breaks down the barriers between individual projects and links developers across the board. It is sometimes difficult to find assistance for special topics using the internet. Here at LinuxTag I found the support I need. I particularly valued the papers, which were very clearly devoted to specific themes."
Florian Schliessl, City of Munich LiMux Client Team: "This year?s LinuxTag provided an outstanding platform for LiMux. Based on our own experience we were able to show that free software offers a genuine, ready-to-use alternative for public sector administrations. In our many discussions we were able to present the numerous uses of our own Basis Client to the representatives of various authorities, including those of Berlin.
Dag Klimas, German Moodle Community moodle.org: "Together with Skolelinux we organized a virtual classroom at LinuxTag in order to present ?Learning on the Computer?. I never dreamed that we would meet as many professionals as we did here over the last few days."
A large proportion of those attending LinuxTag 2007 did so for professional reasons. Around 40 per cent occupy management and executive positions. One in ten of the visitors to LinuxTag came from abroad.
Approximately 14 per cent of the participants in this year?s LinuxTag are employed in public sector authorities and administrations. Relocation to Berlin benefited the Business and Public Sector Authorities Convention at LinuxTag in particular, according to the organizers. Speakers, including high-ranking representatives of a number of German government ministries and the European Commission, dealt with the advantages of free software in public sector administration.
Berlin?s department of economics will switch to Linux in 2008
Speaking at the official opening of LinuxTag, Berlin?s Mayor and Senator for Economics, Labour and Women?s Affairs Harald Wolf announced that his department?s servers would be switched to the Linux free operating system at the beginning of 2008. The Senator emphasized the traditionally open IT infrastructure of his administrative department. Moreover the IT strategy of the Land Berlin will be expanded to incorporate the subjects of open standards and open source software.
Virtualization, Web 2.0 and new developments from the world of OSS
The slogan of this year?s LinuxTag was ?Come in, we're open!?. The dominant themes of this community and business event were the virtualization of operating systems, technical possibilities for Web 2.0 and new developments in the world of free and open source software.
Visitors to LinuxTag were able to conduct face to face meetings with leading IT architects and developers from all over the world. The speakers included Alan Cox, one of the main contributors to the development of Linux Kernel, Matthias Ettrich, inventor of the KDE Desktop, and Larry Ewing, developer of GNOME and creator of the well-known Linux mascot Tux.
In addition to 47 commercial exhibitors the trade show at this year?s Linux also featured a total of 80 developer and user projects from more than 40 countries, including the USA and Canada, as well as from India, Iran, Japan and Mozambique. Compared with last year?s event, the current LinuxTag convention was even larger, with over 200 papers in 30 conference blocks.
The official sponsors of LinuxTag 2007 were IBM, Novell, Sun Microsystems and T-Systems.