This past weekend, the marketing team flew out to Seattle to attend SeaGL, Seattle’s first Linux conference. It was a completely new show and we had no idea what to expect. We arrived at Seattle Central Community College on Friday morning to set up. As the day wore on, it soon became apparent that the conference itself was small and intimate. The majority of the people who stopped by our booth were students and tech users. The level of knowledge about Open Source software ranged from complete newbies to serious aficionados. There was plenty of interest in both PC-BSD and FreeNAS. Because there were fewer people, we were able to devote more time to each attendee, answer more questions, and have lots of good conversations.
“I spoke extensively with one of our neighboring exhibitors, Lee Fisher, about the future of BSD in the embedded space,” Ben recalls. “We exchanged views about open source licensing and how technology like ARM and UEFI will impact the future of embedded platforms. I learned quite a bit, particularly about UEFI, and several conference attendees got involved in the ongoing conversation.”
Exhibitors lined one wall of the conference and included HP, GSLUG (the Seattle and Linux equivalent of BAFUG), and Extra Hop. We saw and spoke with several well known Free and Open Source community members at the show who were all very friendly and knowledgeable. As it was close to Halloween, the daemon horns we brought were very popular and we were able to give them all away.
On the second day, Ben attended the talk, “Software Defined Storage with ZFS, Deployment Best Practices”, presented by Paul Bibaud. Paul focused on free ZFS options such as FreeNAS and NexentaStor and backed up his advice with real world deployment examples. He gave solid ZFS advice, including the importance of planning ahead in your ZFS deployment and which RAIDz configurations work best. Less people showed up on the second day but based on the attendance at the talks, it seems like the presentations were packed. SeaGL had two presentation tracks going throughout the two days which were attended by most of the people at the conference. GSLUG also held their monthly meeting at the show, so we were treated to several talks in the conference hall.
Ben’s talk was scheduled for the final hour of the conference. People filled the room to listen to Ben speak about the architecture of FreeNAS and how it can be used. The atmosphere was very informal, with people asking questions throughout the talk. Some of the questions ranged outside FreeNAS to touch on ZFS, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, and pfsense. We also handed out BSD Magazines, FreeNAS CD’s, and PC-BSD DVD’s to interested individuals.
When the conference ended, we moved back to the main conference hall where we cleaned up and gave away more schwag to the last of the attendees. After wrapping up, the exhibitors and speakers convened at a nearby restaurant to network and mark the official end of the first SeaGL. We look forward to our next tradeshow, stay tuned for a recap of All Things Open!
Annie Zhang
Marketing Assistant
