[LI] Comdex and what followed

[Raj Mathur <raju@xxxxxxx>]

Since Atul, who promised to let us have the dope about Comdex, hasn't
yet had the time to put pen to paper (metaphorically speaking), I'll
try my best shot at describing what happened at Comdex.  I'll look to
the other members who were there to fill in any gaps I may have left.

Times are very approximate.

13:10  Arrived at Pragati Maidan with Durga of SGI.  Found our
stalwart V Krishnan already there with his boss, Mr Patil.

13:40 Gobbled lunch (Chhola-chawal, in case anyone's interested).

13:50 Tried to catch Jon (Maddog) Hall, but was shooed away by his
protective bodyguard, one of the organisers.

13:55 Leo Fernandes arriveth.

13:56 Kishore and Atul arrive.

14:00 We barge into the conference hall (actually, no one even looked
at us when we were going in, it was very easy).

14:05 Talked to Maddog about Linux-Delhi and told him we wanted a meet 
after his talk.

14:10 - 15:15 Maddog's talk.  What Linux is, what it can do, what it
can't do, etc.  In the interim it was announced that the next speaker
from SCO had cancelled, so Maddog had time till 4pm.

15:15 - 15:30 Maddog answered questions.

15:30 - 15:35 Prakash Advani talked about Linux and Indianisation.

15:35 - 15:45 I talked about Linux-Delhi, what we do and how to join
us.  Put up addresses for Linux-Delhi, Linux-India and the mailing
list on a slide.

15:45 - 16:00 Atul talked about Linux-India and gave lots of anecdotes 
and statistics from the Bangalore IT.COM Linux pavilion.

16:00 Vijay Mukhi spoke on ``Why you shouldn't use Linux''.  Lot's of
FUD, lots of total cra^H^H^Hbullsh*t, but he's convicing, I'll grant
you that.  One of his points was about how difficult he found it to
install Linux.

I talked about a chap I knew who installed Linux from scratch on a
relative's machine and only gave me one phone call during the process, 
to ask if 2GB was a good size for a swap partition (!).  He got
everything to work without any hitches.  Not difficult, you say, until 
I mentioned that this chap was my 12-year-old son and the computer was 
his grandfather's PC.  Mukhi started looking a bit worried.  Later I
stated more categorically, when someone asked whether Linux was
difficult to install, that if a 12-year-old could do it anyone could
do it.  I had no idea why Vijay had been unable to do it.

Atul gave an impassioned speech refuting Mukhi's points and basically
requesting him not to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).

Couple of people (one from the Indian Agriculture Research Inst and
one from a company in Nagpur IIRC) talked about their Linux
experiences and how easy Linux was.  Mukhi looking progressively more
and more worried.

Fairly heated debates followed on Linux, Winduhs, the content of the
Seminar, etc.  asked Maddog about sharing a beer after the convention
and he agreed. Broke for coffee.

17:15 Reconvened for the panel discussion, with Maddog and  Vijay on
the panel.  Apparently we had been quite convincing in our arguments,
as by now Vijay was a total pro-Linux convert and plugging it (Linux)
to the hilt.  Wow!

18:15 Split from Pragati Maidan.  Durga, Maddog and I went off to
Dilli Haat to help Maddog shop for handicrafts while Atul, Kishore,
Leo and VK went off in K's car to hunt down the elusive Beer beast.
We met later at Dilli Haat and purchased two ``Ganesh-ji's'', one each 
for Maddog and Linus.  Presented later to Maddog with compliments from 
Linux-India.

Came over to my place to drink the beer, dine and chat.  Maddog gave a 
lot of pointers on cooperating with Linux Internation (LI), of which
he's the Executive Director.  He suggested that Linux-India be formed
into a local LI, an umbrella body for computer companies who're
interested in Linux.  Apparently steps are already underway to make
linux-India into a Society, and one that is done we can get formal
help from LI in organising seminars, etc.  We can also get affiliate
membership for LI, with voting rights.  This is very exciting and
would be a big step forward in the promotion of Linux in India.  I
believe KD is the person who's handling the registration of
Linux-India, all the best to you, KD!

Some discussion took place about organising a Linux Seminar in Goa in
Fall 2000 with big name speakers whom LI can sponsor and pay for.  I
hope Guru is listening :-)

Broke up about 23:00 since Maddog was already running about an hour
late to catch his flight. I hope you managed to be there well in time, 
Maddog.

Action Points
-------------

The most important thing right now is to formalise Linux-India and
apply for affiliation to LI.  Once that is through we can present a
formal organisation to the hardware, software, training and
consultancy shops in the country and get them to join.  We can also
use the organisation to organise seminars, training courses, events,
stalls in shows, etc. Affiliation to LI will gain us a lot more
respect from the Indian IT vendor community, and we should be able to
leverage that for the promotion of Linux in India.  (Oops, did I just
drop into Corpspeak?  Sorry, 3 years of indoctrination at SGI are
difficult to rid in one shot!)

Atul to put the photos up on the web.

Maddog is at:  maddog@xxxxxxx  He prefers to be called Maddog, not Jon 
or Mr Hall.  Linux International is at:  http://www.li.org/

Regards,

-- Raju
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