SCALE Write-up
I had been looking forward to the 17th Southern California Linux Expo ever since I purchased a ticket in early December 2018. I made reservations at a modest motel shortly to avoid the inevitable price surge as March 7-10 date approached.
Sadly, my efforts in frugality failed miserably when my faithful 2002 Toyota Tacoma died three days before my projected departure. Initially, I rented a car to make the trip but later bought a new Honda Ridgeline truck 12 hours before I headed for the Pasadena Convention Center. That decision added substantially to the overall cost of the experience.
Alan Raul and I met in Ballroom A where the two day Ubicon track took place.
The first speaker on Thursday was Dr. Samuel Coleman, a Southern California teacher. He explained how he created a 35 station computer lab with no budget using donated vintage 32 bit laptops, a Linux operating system and many hours of his time.
In the second session, Der Hans spoke on Software Management for Debian and Ubuntu using common software management tools and Snaps to simplify the process.
Next up Dave Chiluk presented the roadmap that a software developer should follow in order to have his or her project accepted for inclusion in the official Ubuntu repository.
Lyn Perrine, who volunteers to help write the users’ manual for Lubuntu, explained how she goes about that task, the software that she uses and the steps that she takes to make sure that she and other collaborators can work together without one over-writing the work of other volunteers.
Richard Gaskin and Nathan Haines closed out the Thursday sessions with a lively Questions and Answers session in which many of the attendees shared their Ubuntu experiences, challenges and solutions.
Friday opened with a historical overview of the Snappy Ecosystem, from patchwork early models to the current model in which the properly created Snap automatically installs the target program along with all of its required dependencies.
Ted Gould illustrated the Snappy process as it applies to Inkscape giving practical examples of how a developer should design a program so that it has full access to the processes that it requires but does not have access to areas beyond its needs.
In s similar vein, Jose Antonio Rey explained Identity Management, the steps taken to validate user credentials and the safeguards in place to enhance security.
The final session opened with Richard Gaskin inviting the audience to come up with suggestions for raising the adoption of the Ubuntu/Linux desktop OS from the current 3% market share to 6%. We offered many suggestions, some practical, some whimsical.
In addition to attending these talks, Alan and I also talked with a variety of vendors in the Exhibit Hall, drank a lot of coffee and revisited some favorite restaurants.
The two of us only scratched the surface in the workshops that we attended. We followed the Ubicon track. It focuses on Ubuntu and runs for 2 days. The overall SCALE convention runs for four days and includes 14 additional tracks for a total of 219 presentations and 125 vendor booths. I’ll be back next year.
Ralph Sutter
