Debconf 10

From my observations of systems running on attendee's laptops most of the attendees were running Ubuntu; the much vaunted hatred of them as a competitor was very difficult to find in actual practice. Indeed when Mark Shuttleworth, the leader of Ubuntu, spoke at the event it was one of the most attended conference sessions. This was very refreshing to see as I've never believed Ubuntu's goals to be in conflict with Debian's. I believe the end-user focus of Ubuntu is essential to Debian's future success. Such a focus is impossible to accomplish in the extremely democratic Debian community structure, a construct which is great at creating a rock solid base but results in too many conflicting user interface choices. A great user interface needs a visionary dictator to mandate a coherent design.

I had tried packaging for Debian in the past and encountered a lack of sponsor interest. That wasn't a problem this time, no doubt in part because I was fixing an existing package with an established user base. My backup plan of kidnapping a Debian Developer in attendance until they sponsored the package was fortunately not necessary.

Particular sessions I found interesting included the status of Java in Debian, the usage of Debian in Science, and Debian in Enterprise; tips from many of these have already proven useful at work. Thanks to the video team for providing videos for Debconf10 sessions, a resource I have found useful for reviewing both what I attended and the other sessions.

Check out the group photo for the event, a particularly useful resource for me as I often remember faces and not names.