Linux Foundation’s Annual Collaboration Summit Kicks Off Today in San Francisco

Linux Foundation’s Annual Collaboration Summit Kicks Off Today in San Francisco

Industry heavyweights, Linux insiders meet this week to identify areas for advancing the operating system

SAN FRANCISCO – April 8, 2009 — The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today will kick off its annual Collaboration Summit. The brightest minds in the Linux server, desktop, mobile and embedded communities, among others, are gathering at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, Calif., to translate ideas into the projects that will advance the operating system in the year ahead.

The Summit includes keynotes and panels on the following topics:

• Moblin State of the Union. Host-sponsor Intel will talk about the future of mobile Linux in its Moblin State of the Union keynote and demonstration, presented by Imad Sousou, Director of the Open Source Technology Center, Software and Services Group.

• Linux Foundation, Microsoft and Sun: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? For the first time, executives from each organization will sit down at one table to debate the future of the respective operating systems. Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin will moderate the discussion, which will include Sam Ramji, Director of Platform Strategy, from Microsoft, and Ian Murdock, Vice President of Developer and Community Marketing at Sun.

• Oracle Keynote: Linux in the Enterprise, the Journey, Milestones and What’s Ahead? Edward Screven, Chief Corporate Architect at Oracle, will talk about the company’s unique business model that has Linux at its core.

Also at the Summit today, Al Gillen, program vice president, system software at IDC, will deliver a presentation titled “The Opportunity for Linux in a New Economy.” The presentation is based on a white paper, sponsored by The Linux Foundation and available today, which looks at the impact of the current economic conditions on the computer industry, and how the Linux ecosystem will ride through this disruptive time. The presentation presents IDCs expectation that the Linux ecosystem will be less impacted by the downturn and recover more aggressively than other platforms.

The IDC white paper can be downloaded here.

“Linux is the long-term winner in the OS market and its strengthening position will be molded by the major stakeholders meeting at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit over the next three days,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation.

Other keynotes and panels to be delivered today will come from Linux kernel developers and representatives at IBM, Novell and Red Hat, among others. The agenda for Thursday and Friday will include the ISV Summit, which will focus on sharing the latest advancements in Linux and looking at best ways to work among the community. Other panel discussions and workgroup focus will be on high-performance computing, file systems and systems management, among others.

The filesystem session, for example, will include a review of the Linux file systems and IO workshop and the Linux file system roadmap going forward. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask specific questions about Linux file systems strategy and give feedback on the future direction of file systems development in Linux.

The Summit is in its third year and is heralded as the only place where Linux community developers, distribution and system vendors, ISVs, and end users meet face-to-face and collaborate. While there are a variety of industry and developer conferences, the LF Collaboration Summit is the only one to bridge the worlds of community and industry, while allowing end users to access and influence these two important groups. It is designed to accelerate collaboration and problem solving in the Linux community by bringing key stakeholders together in a neutral setting.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

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Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.