By Matthew Wright,
Australian Correspondent
It wasn’t your usual paid up advertisement, perhaps an accident
on the part of Australian Exhibition Services (AES) that would get
blood rushing to the fingertips of Linux advocates Australia
wide.
AES has mailed out more than 20,000 free tickets for the
Interact/PC IT99 trade show & fair in Melbourne, Australia.
Every ticket features a blurb about Linux (1/8 of the page) and a
picture of none-other than a glitzy Perlescent Green Tux Penguin.
The blurb reads: “More than an alternative, Linux is now the
fastest growing operating system in the world. Talk to the experts
at the Linux pavilion and find out why Linux is taking off.”
The Linux blurb was accompanied by others on such topics as
e-Commerce, Networking, Recruitment, Multimedia, Software and
Communications. One must ask: “why does Linux feature so
prominently?”.
PC IT, Australia’s longest running IT event, and Interact have
combined to become the country’s largest single IT event. The event
will be held over 4 days at the Melbourne Exhibition centre. Linux
vendors did not even appear at last year’s event – which features a
trade show and seminars. However, 1999’s Interact/PC IT is going to
be huge for the progression of Linux in Australia, with many
exhibitors present in the Linux Pavilion, and the inclusion of
three Seminars devoted to Linux.
Adding to the excitement, more than 40 thousand people are
expected to parade through the doors and all of them should pass
the Linux Pavilion, hopefully raising eyebrows of IT managers and
System Administrators alike.
The Linux pavilion will include exhibits from: Linux Users
Victoria (Australia’s Largest Linux User Group), Everything Linux,
Netcraft Australia, LinuxHelp and Custom Technology.
On Thursday (September 2) there will be 3 morning seminars on
Linux. They are: Introduction to Linux – A Beginner’s
Guide (Netcraft Australia), Mission Critical Linux – case
studies of critical Linux use in Australia (LinuxHelp) and
finally Linux for Business (Custom Technology). So, if you
are going to be in Melbourne between August 31 and September 3 then
register and get down to the Linux pavilion and show your
support.
To apply for free tickets to the show register
here.
Matthew Wright Australian Correspondent (matt@linuxtoday.com)
with the assistance of Jeremy Rann