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InnoTech Austin '07

InnoTech Folks

Yesterday I was at the InnoTech conference in Austin. It was a nice time, and there were several fun folks — several pictures above, thanks to John Willis — to hang out with.

I was on a panel on the topic of Navigating the Open Source Community in which fellow panelists and I answered the question “how do I jump into this open source world and start using it?” At least, that’s the take away I had.

There’s an interesting trend in open source conversations now-a-days, which came up during the panel many times: open source software isn’t really that different than closed source software. Sure, there’s some operational differences — which we’ll actually highlight in an upcoming RedMonk paper — but from a user’s perspective so much of the discussion now-a-days revolves around saying “open source doesn’t mean free.”

Luke and Thomas

I got to spend quite a lot of time talking with Luke Kanies of Puppet fame, which was nice. Next week I should have the video interview I did with him on the topic of Puppet and making a business out of an open source project.

Also, John Willis and Mark Hinkle were nice enough to spend some time on camera on the topic of IT management, Eclipse, and customization. Mark jimmied in an update on Zenoss at request as well.

On the way out, I ran into Spiceworks‘ Jay Hallberg who was carring a newly won award for best demo at the Beta Summit.

So, thanks to InnoTech for the conference, and whurley for the invite to his panel.

Disclaimer: Zenoss and Spiceworks are clients, as is whurley’s employer, BMC.

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Categories: Conferences, Systems Management.

Comment Feed

4 Responses

  1. Found you! just wanted to say Hi!

    I was on the panel right before yours on OS, govt and Npo's and we met ever so briefly.

    I saw this on messina's twitter https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub
    and tada – hey I know that guy!

    Howdy and thanks for visiting Austin!

  2. Hello, thanks for leaving a comment. I actually live in Austin, so I enjoy visiting on a daily basis 😉

    I enjoyed ya'll's panel as well: I always like "how we're using it" centric discussions 😉

  3. Bill: well formed butter indeed. I hear nothin' but good things about Puppet, and the huge growth of it of late is probably testament to it. Tell us how it goes if you end up using it.

  4. dude, look at you – butter wouldn’t melt!

    looking fwd to the Kanies interview; puppet is on my “adopt?” list (along with smartfrog); what i’ve seen is very very impressive.