LinuxCon and CloudOpen Media Takeaways

The LinuxCon and CloudOpen 2012 conference held in San Diego last week were an epic success. Three days of keynotes and technical sessions from leaders in Linux, open source technologies and cloud computing sparked new conversations online in the days during and after the event. The information and ideas now circulating through the Linux community presented some new angles on old topics as well as a rare peek at the tools and technologies behind innovative companies and services.  

Here are some of the top takeaways from LinuxCon and CloudOpen as reported by the news media who attended.

– Reckless bus driving will not stop Linux.

The kernel developers panel was one of the highlights of the conference and produced some entertaining tidbits as well as some news to chew over. (See Linux Foundation VP Amanda McPherson’s favorite quotes from the panel.) Reporter Sean Michael Kerner brought up the recurring question: What would happen to Linux if Linus Torvalds got hit by a bus tomorrow? Linus responded with humor: “I wouldn’t care.” Then he gave a serious answer. Unlike other, smaller open source projects, he said, Linux has enough contributors to the kernel that it would survive without him. Kerner blogged about the discussion and its implications on ServerWatch. Linus also gave a timeline for a 4.0 kernel release.

– The open cloud is still emerging and largely undefined.

OpenStack and CloudStack were both represented at the conference and presentations from OpenStack partners as well as Citrix helped illuminate the challenges and victories of the emerging open cloud.  TechCrunch’s Scott Merrill reported on the new SUSE Cloud product and put it into context with news that openSUSE’s Alan Clark will also be the board chairman of OpenStack. InfoWorld also wrote about the young and confusing world of open source cloud.

– Google’s desktop of choice is Ubuntu.

In his LinuxCon presentation Thomas Bushnell gave a behind-the-scenes look at the Linux desktop system Googlers use, known to them as “Goobuntu.” ZDNet‘s Steven Vaughan-Nichols had the story.

– Twitter is built on open source technologies.

Twitter’s Chris Aniszcyk gave an impressive list of all of the open source projects that contribute to the creation of a tweet. Alex Williams reported on them for TechCrunch.

– Open source development is key to enterprise success.

Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin highlighted the power of open source technology in his annual State of Linux speech this year. Companies that want to compete in cutting edge industries, such as cloud computing, recognize that open source software is key to their success. Alex Williams summarizes it well. 

– The hallway track is open source in action.

Sometimes the most useful information at a conference is found in between sessions in the conversations you participate in (or overhear) in the hallway. Scott Merrill points out that these conversations are especially good at open source conferences.  

– It’s too early to focus on APIs in the IaaS vs. PaaS debate. 

 As Alex Williams writes, infrastructure hasn’t yet been determined in the open source cloud so why did the CloudOpen panel talk so much about APIs?