Welcome to the Marie Celeste

I’ve been to every Linux World Expo at Olympia in London and each year it gets a little bit more depressing. Earlier events have had such marvels as a giant ice penguin (provided by SGI) that had vodka flowing though its veins and Jon Maddog Hall pointing out how insane it is to refuse entrance to students to a Linux focused event (watching the management squirm was great fun) this year we had… well nothing of any real note.

A slow stroll through the conference hall took about twenty minutes and was more than enough to take in all the sights, from Novells horde of booth girls and desperate looking sales people to the marauding Java people wearing monitors on their backs and looking very confused the day was pretty much a washout. The only highlight of the day was the .Org section which was actually quite busy considering the low visitor turnout on the 6th of October; the day I attended.

It’s worth noting that this year we’ve had two Linux World Expos in the same place, from what I heard on the day it seems like the new owners of the show didn’t want to wait until next year and pushed this one through, was it a mistake? In my mind yes but then again I’ve never organised a show like this so what do I know :)

After spending an hour speaking to some of the .Org stall workers who work their arses off for a couple of days as volunteers it was time to honour the second tradition of the expo and head down the pub. Here’s to a better show next year.