“LinuxTag is the largest European Linux event. This year the
show–affectionally abbreviated “LT2K”–had moved from the cramped
confines of the University of Kaiserslautern to the trade show
center in Stuttgart, Germany, and had been extended to a total of
four days, June 29 to July 2. Some 100 commercial exhibitors and 25
Open Source projects occupied more than 6000 square meters of show
floor. What had started out as a few enthusiasts presenting Linux
and Open Source solutions has turned into a professional trade
show, featuring big names like IBM, Compaq, and Siemens. Guests of
honor were Richard M. Stallman, Illiad, and Alan Cox.”
“My talk on Saturday (Room 2, 14:00) went quite well. I gave
a basic introduction to BSD, explaining the differences or lack
thereof as compared to Linux, and generally tried my best to answer
in advance the primary questions Linux people always ask when
confronted with BSD. Competing against Torben Weis’ KOffice
and Anselm Lingnau’s Tcl/Tk presentations, I saw some 300 people
show up.”
“Subsequently (Room 3, 16:00), Thomas Graichen presented a
performance comparison covering Linux 2.2/2.4, Solaris 7/8,
FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Thomas had done painstaking work to
ensure that the results were reproducible and to avoid a variety of
typical pitfalls. Still, the findings turned out to be highly
questionable. For example, nobody believed for a second that the
*BSD’s I/O throughput as measured with the bonnie benchmark is
really an order of magnitude better than Linux’. Obviously, more
work is needed. Thomas is still to be lauded for what was very
likely the largest investment of time and effort of all speakers
and his courage to present such a flame-triggering topic.”