Ottawa Linux Symposium and CE Linux Forum

1. Ottawa Linux Symposium and CE Linux Forum Tim Bird Sony Electronics, Inc.

2. Ottawa Linux Symposium • What is it? • Premiere technical conference for Linux kernel developers • Held annually in Ottawa, Canada, in July • This year it’s July 20-23 • Important gathering of many important Linux developers, maintainers and users • Why does it matter? • It is a place for people to meet face-to-face to discuss roadmap of Linux kernel

3. Other similar conferences • FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting) • LinuxConf Australia • CELF Technical Conferences?

4. CELF involvement with OLS • CELF is a sponsor of the event • CELF donates prizes to be handed out at the final keynote • In the past, CELF has given presentations, Bird’s of a Feather (BOF) sessions • Currently planning to show demos of CE projects at the conference

5. How does CELF benefit from OLS? • CE Linux developers can attend the event • Good for developers and their companies • More importantly, is a place to influence other kernel developers • CELF can also influence kernel developers during the run-up to the conference… • So, even if you can’t attend, you can help!

6. Attending OLS – tips • OLS is about personal networking • Many presentations are not focused on embedded • A word of warning: expect flames, but BE NICE

7. Networking • Should try hard to meet people in your area • Attend presentations, make note of who is presenting, and who is asking questions • Ask questions yourself! • Talk to people in the hallway • Introduce yourself!! • Attend BOFs (Birds of a Feather Session) • Don’t just go back to the hotel room • Find people for meals • Tag along if you have to

8. Networking (cont.) • Seeing someone in person helps with your comfort level on mailing lists • Very simple request: • Just talk to people about CE issues

9. Quick comment on Flames • Most developers are nice and courteous • Some developers have deep anti-commercial bias • Best way to defuse a flame is say “I’m here to learn how to participate better.”

10. If you are not attending… • Papers are published after the conference • See proceedings at: • http://www.linuxsymposium.org/proceedings.php • Don’t just read papers, but also note authors and their writings on web and on LKML • Send comments!! • Especially send patches, if you have them

11. Preparing for OLS • Tim’s evil plan… • Extra hard push in next 4 weeks to: • Discuss CE issues on relevant mailing lists • Send patches • Even if the patches are not ready, you can send a “Request for Comment” • Prepare good demos for OLS • Try to flood community with CE-related discussions and code

12. What makes a “good” OLS demo? • Must NOT be a sales pitch for a product • But it’s good to show a product or board and describe how Linux was adapted for or it • Code should be available • Demonstrate something interesting or surprising from CE space • Purpose is to raise awareness of CE issues, and help change perspective of non-CE developers

13. Examples from this Conference • Very good issues raised at conference: • Special needs of embedded that influenced design decisions for Qt Embedded and DirectFB • Big issues with cross-compilation of packages (which DeviceLinux and OpenEmbedded handle in different ways) • Great list of specific issues adapting Linux to a cell phone

14. Let’s have fun! I’ll see you out on the community lists!