OSCON 2008 officially underway

The Open Source Convention (OSCON) has kicked off yesterday, it's basically a gathering for open source & Linux developers which annually held. And this time it's held on Portland, Oregon, at July 21-25.

Like what O'Reilly explain: OSCON is the crossroads of all things open source, bringing together the best, brightest, and most interesting people to explore what's new, and to champion the cause of open principles and open source adoption across the computing industry.

There are around 2,500 of them that are currently honing their skills on open source and Linux in OSCON 2008, while the big players (like Microsoft, Intel, Google, IBM, Sun, etc.) are eyeing them all and steering the crowds in secret the future of open source's softwares (Linux, Android, QTopia, etc.) & hardwares (MIDP, netbook, etc.).

One of the main event of this OSCON 2008 is Open Mobile Exchange (OMX); a look at the state of open source in general--and Linux in particular--on mobile device. As the Web becomes one of the most crucial components of extending the mobile opportunity, this event explicitly seeks to bridge web apps and mobile functions.

Why mobile, and why mobile devices in particular? Robert Strohmeyer from PC World has a very good perspective why: By most estimates, Linux and other open-source operating systems represent about 1 percent of the PC market. But on mobile devices, Linux is growing fast. As of 2007, more than 18 percent of all embedded devices--from cell phones to PDAs to e-book readers--ran a Linux-based OS, while less than 17 percent ran embedded Windows. So it's no great surprise that this year's OSCON open-source conference is leading off with a new program focused specifically on mobile gadgets.

Thus the program started and presented by Linux Foundation executive director; Jim Zemlin, where in his opening talk Zemlin attributed much of this enthusiasm to a convergence of important technical and business considerations.

Those two considerations have become the basic ideas behind OMX; from a business perspective Zemlin attributes the interest in mobile Linux, in large measure, to the lower development costs of royalty-free code. However, Linux also offers developers a chance to brand, skin, and customize their products in ways that major platform vendors Microsoft and Apple would never allow.

While On the technical side, said Zemlin, Linux presents developers with a flexible platform that makes it easy to launch new software products quickly.

For more new coverage on OSCON 2008, you can follow it on this link. And you can also see some of the live photo shots from the events, that are going on the floors of OSCON 2008 at this link. That is if you're one of the "hankering" Linux fans ~LOL~

While for the rest of us who are not, let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best from OSCON 2008. Who knows, maybe after the convention there might some new and exciting mobile products come out. Till then, we can only hope...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]