At SCaLE 7x In Los Angeles, Part 2

Okay, so its a day after the event and I’m sitting at my desk and writing this up. I didn’t, however, want to disturb the precariously balanced relationship between this and the previous article. Having done so could have resulted in a catastrophic event the likes of which have never been seen nor could ever be perceived by human eyes. Of course, that would make my coverage of SCaLE far more important than the show itself, so I shall cease all further self-aggrandizing. (Yay! says the readers .)

Instead, I’ll complete my coverage of SCaLE now. The itself was held at the Westin on Century, which is the main drag leading up to LAX, one of the largest airports in the world. Because of this, a lot of people actually come in from out of state and even travel abroad to attend. That’s pretty amazing, considering its a pretty small, local show. Then again, Linux folk are proud, capable, driven, and loyal and a show like this is just another place to share their love.

When I first hit the show floor I fell immediately upon a small booth staffed by an individual named Blars. The booth was promoting the OpenStreetMap group which is dedicated to offering and completing an open source map of the world. Anyone with some time and a GPS device can assist in adding to and editing the maps. Right now the focus appears to be in the UK and Europe, but there is no limitations on where on the planet can be mapped. I was also informed that someone had recently cracked the Garmin map storage format and the OSM data can now be written to these devices, making the value of used devices a much better deal to someone looking for GPS on a dime and has the wherewithal to get ‘er done. 

My next stop was at the xTuple ERP booth. xTuple is an open source ERP system which means that its software which is designed to automate as much as possible of the business process. You’ve likely heard of SAP or GreatPlains. Well, those guys who charge thousands to millions of dollars for their systems don’t like xTuple because they don’t charge for their systems. You’re free to use it for as long as you like and you can make millions of dollars off of it and never owe anyone a cent. xTuple ERP, however, is part of the open source concept of business which says that the tools should be free, but a professionals time is well worth your money. With that in mind, xTuple offers implementation, installation, and training services through themselves or through service providers. Its well worth it, though, as these systems aren’t anywhere near web browsers and unless you’re a Linux nerd and a professionally licensed CPA, you’ll likely never figure all of it out. It is well worth it, though, and the costs for even large implementations are far less costly than the commercial competition. 

OLPC had a booth, too, so I stopped by to see what was the haps. I spent some time talking to an individual about the new way OLPC is handling its software issues. Interestingly, OLPC is moving to a core competency model where they design and maintain the core Linux-based elements which supports all of the hardware. They are also developing an API for the systems. Since the SugarUI guys took off and formed their own group called SugarLabs, OLPC won’t be mandating an entire OS for the little lappies. Instead, they will offer buyers the option to use SugarUI or a version which has no UI experience pre-installed.

That’s it for now. More to come soon as I compile my collected data.