Well, it’s finally over.  Today it all comes to close at 4:00.  I am both sad that it's over, and really glad that it's over.  I have one session early in the day and plan on staying on the exhibitor floor the rest of the day.

    As it turns out, after my first session I joined an impromptu “march on City Hall” with Michael Tiemann (CTO of Red Hat Linux) and Bruce Perens (of various endeavors, but notably the Open Source Manifesto).  They’re going to walk to city hall to talk about the DSSA and how California can benefit from OpenSource code.
    Sadly, this was a poorly planned event - seemingly last minute to me.  It was spurred by Tiemann getting up in the presentation area of Red Hat's booth and talking about it.  There were no flyers.  There was nothing in any of the event schedules.  There was not even a lousy announcement on the PA overhead - so turnout was very lame - mostly press and whoever happened to be in the booth at the time - which included me.
    The idea was great, but Tiemann wanted to put to much emphasis on Red Hat - trying to compel everyone to wear a Red Hat cap for the walk.  I was given a hat in the booth, but returned it immediately after his preparatory speech, explaining that because they had chosen to embroider Dell on the side of it I could not wear it - I like my hardware as open as my OS.  I would have to refuse to wear a cap 4 more times before we got to city hall.
    Most of the walk was dominated by the media tagging along, with Tiemann and Perens alternately tag-teaming at stops along the way to give small, rousing speeches.
    The copious quantities of homeless along the way found it all very interesting.  I was saddened that we didn't select one of the "Adult Bookstores" along the route as a venue  for one of Tiemanns little pep talks.
    Eventually, we made it to City Hall and Tiemann read the entire DSSA to the small crowd gathered there.  When the speech was all over and Tiemann had his moment with the press, the group kind of fell apart as Tiemann had what he wanted.
    Those of you that think you know me as a Red Hat zealot will be surprised by my following comments, those of you that really know me will understand.
    I am continually being disappointed by the decisions that Red Hat is making as a company.  They are, in fact, becoming the pompous, self-serving Linux version of everything I hate about Microsoft business practices.  After a few minutes into this little march it became sort of apparent that Mr. Tiemann really didn't want a large gathering to march on city hall - he wanted just enough people to get the press there.  While his plea certainly had a broader scope in spirit, I got the feeling that he was really looking at this event as an opportunity to get the phones ringing in Red Hat HQ with California looking to replace MS with RH.  A larger demonstration with more notable figures would likely have taken too much of the spotlight off RH.
    I really like the OS - but I also have to believe that the programmers making that OS what it is have higher ideals than Mr. Tiemann and may eventually look for pastures greener than those at RH.  If / when that happens, Red Hat is screwed - and good riddance to them.

    While all the press brouhaha was going on I decided to pull out my laptop and start writing.  Next time I looked up everyone was just gone.  About 2 minutes later a guy comes over and asks me where is everyone.  I told him long gone, and he went on to tell me that he had some kind of deputy from the Mayors Office coming out to talk to Tiemann and address the group.  Too funny - Tiemann wanted notoriety for "the cause" and didn't even bother to check with City Hall to see if he was gonna get it - and then left before it showed up!
    This same guy went on to tell me that he was an architect, and that he had some experience in dealing with City Hall.  He was trying to propose portable housing for the homeless that fit into a single parking space - something not too far below what was provided after that really bad quake in the early 90's.  I did not bother to share with him my view on supporting the homeless (by choice) of SFO.

    About the same time a young kid comes up to us both (seeing the laptop and the badges) and ask where the marchers are.  I again tell him "long gone" at which point his girlfriend smacks him in the arm and says "See - I told you so you moron".  He is wearing a Red Hat cap and a Debian T-Shirt.  I say - "Wow - don't see that often; a Red Hat cap and a Debian T-Shirt" to which he immediately replies (in good-natured manner) "Hey man - it's not DistroWorld - it's LinuxWorld".  Pretty smart kid.  He does not have a greasy pony tail or a goatee full of food and appears to have decent posture so I know he just got the Debian T-Shirt for free and is a Red Hat user (there - happy?  I said something mean about Debian)

    Sadly, most of my photos from this little venture did not come out - seems my camera is stuck macro mode and cannot focus correctly beyond several feet - but it still takes awesome macro shots!

    After all this fun it was time to yet again hop on the "F" and get back to show.  Things were really winding down now.

    Following a late lunch (sitting on the lawn in the park by Metreon) with Intel folk I made my way back to the hotel, really looking forward to my morning flight.........