DebConf9: Satisfying Conclusion

For nearly two weeks, the small town of Caceres in Extremadura became center of the Debian world, around 250 project members from 35 countries attended the ninth Debian conference, with some 80 developers meeting in DebCamp prior to the main event. In over 130 sessions, Debians worked on individual projects and used the time for personal exchanges. “This has been one of the most productive conferences we have ever held,” concluded a satisfied Project Leader, Steve McIntyre. “Our developers and teams achieved a great deal during this short period, and this will surely have a big impact on the upcoming release of Squeeze.”

The keynote concerned the issue of the operating system's release cycle and, as to be expected, the subject was vigorously discussed (Linux Magazine Online reported). Even if the discussion still has a long way to go, it didn't stop developers announcing some Squeeze details. For example, KfreeBSD, Dash and an automatic debugger will be included in the release.

Thanks to sponsors like HP, Canonical and Google and also the local government of Extremadura Province, conference participants paid nothing or very little for food, accomodation and power. Travel costs of a few developers was also covered. Additionally, large parts of the conference were broadcast per video on the web, and can be viewed at the project website. The next DebConf is planned for New York City in 2010.