SCaLE 6x 2008 - Linux in LA

I attended the 6th annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 6x) this weekend at the Westin hotel on Century Blvd near LAX. It was my second year in a row. This year again, I used a promo code mentioned in a podcast ad which brought the registration fee down to only 30-something bucks, a really great price.

The first thing I noticed this year was that the attendance seemed a lot higher, maybe even double what it was last year. The Jono Bacon keynote on Saturday morning was packed and since I got there a little late, I was told to go to the overflow room. Unfortunately there were some technical problems in the overflow room and the video shut off before the presentation was over so I missed the end of it.

The exhibit floor was again full of vendors related to Linux, Linux distros, networking and monitoring tools, and open source software in general. This year I enjoyed visiting the booths of Foresight Linux, Splunk, and LinuxFund. I got some decent swag like a red hat (baseball cap) from RedHat, a water bottle from Sun Microsystems, and a purple stuffed octopus from Plain Black. The latter I gave to my 4-month-old son.

I attended the following sessions this year:

• PostgreSQL 8.3: Latest Features of the Most Advanced Database - Josh Berkus
• GNOME: Ten Years of Freedom - Ken VanDine
• GIMP Demystified - Akkana Peck
• Linux Entertain Me! - Cecil Watson
• The Ubuntu Desktop: Bling for Usability - Ted Gould

The conference had a "try it" room where various tutorials were offered every hour. I wish I could have attended one of the sessions on Inkscape, but I found out about it too late.

Overall, I had a great time and will definitely attend again next year if I can. I love the fact that the conference is low-cost, close by, and on the weekend so I don't have to get permission at work to attend.