Reports from Brazilian Open Software Conference 2003 (long)

[Helio Chissini de Castro]

Hello all..

I'm just back from my journey ( closed airports, delay, no lunch, etc.. ) to 
Open Software Conference at Rio Grande do Sul, where i did a speach about 
Corporate Desktop and KDE approach.

First, a little excerpt from what this conference represents to Brazil itself.
This conference become the major computer conference in Brazil, since the down 
of Comdex Brazil and Fenasoft, and in last two years they earn a strong 
political side, since Brazilian government is strong turned to Open software.
It happen's every year in the same place, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 
where is a strong GNU/Linux nest, and barelly all Gnome centric. To finish 
excerpt, just mention that the guy who leads Rio Grande government software 
project, Marcelo Branco, is now invited to assume all Brazilian government 
software project, antd he is a "just Gnome" guy indeed.

So, after 4 hours delay in my flight, a arrived at Porto Alegre and barely 
have time to eat something and goes to conference. Today, the last day, is 
considered the "Gnome Day", since Mr. Icaza was going to do two speachs in 
the main room ( 600 places ), and the first one was happen just an hour 
before i arrived. To mention, no seats are empty. A comment: Icaza is kind of 
a mytical God there. Is really a star to this people. 
When i got my id's, i just go to V.I.P. room, closed to speach guys. After i 
just turn on my notebook, and start read mail., Mr. Icaza comes to my 
surprise and seat aside me to do the same. I tried, i really tried change 
some words with him, but you know how must be hard speak to a God must be, 
hardly when the guy REALLY act as one.. For a few moments i'm feeling a bit 
unpleased with everything, despite the good treatment gave me by the staff.
After harsh talk with Miguel ( KDE is not interesting, Gnome will be won in 
the next version, Mono i seven times better than pnet, yada, yada, yada ), 
was the time to front the real treat, Mr. Marcelo Branco ( from government ). 
I barely talk with him, but after some talk, i figure out that to put our 
beloved KDE in, we will need do things from a different way..
That's what i start to did in that moment..
I was prepared a small old notebook P2-300 Mhz, 64Mb , with new Conectiva 
Linux, to prove to everyone that's be  possible run our distro, and most of 
all, KDE in a simple machine.
And to show new features, package fom CVS HEAD 4/06/2003, including Gideon and 
Quanta.
So, when i arrive at my speach room, how surprise i'm am about having almost 
all seats ( 100 ) full, and after i start, just a few leave during the 
speach. So, hard responsibility, things must work and i had to be delicately 
about talk with many Gnome Hun Hords in the room too, showing just KDE 
itself, and avoiding any comparison. Thanks God, evrything goes allright, and 
no Krash appears during the 1 hour speach, despite some slowness due a little 
mem, and surprisely, i got some of crowd to participate from the speach.
But, what i really mention above about which steps we ( at Brazil ) will need 
do to put KDE in our gov. i did in the early beginning and the end of my 
speach.
In the beginning, when i'm introducing myself, i spoke about the three only 
Brazilian KDE developers ( me, Roberto and Thiago ), and mention that we have 
a lot of difficult to reach developers here to help. I really touched some 
guys in this moment, but the "piece of resistance" comes in the end Questions 
time.
A corporate guy that watching my speach ask me this question:
- "In this conference government stated that 2004 will be the Open Software 
year to Brazil. I want to know if KDE will be there at this time.."
- This is the clue that i was waiting. My response was directly. We want, we 
really need, but now, we are three and some translators. We will do all 
efforts to walk with this moment, but if we didn't have more local help, will 
be dificult...
After, many people come to me to ask some more directly question about speach 
talks, but i really earn the day when i walked on the conference showrooms, 
and listening a lot of people talking well about my speach, and more, i 
believe that i earn one or two newest possible developers.. My first move 
will be completly done when the hears of KDE speach reach in the Gov. guys 
ears.. And more, i reach this without using any usual Win/Gnome attacks that 
some guys usually use.
Just to mention, at the end of my speach, this guys ( Gov. guys ) are at main 
room conference again with Miguel de Icaza in a really boring Mono speach, 
for about 500 people :-P

I really don't know if i'm a little emotive now, but in the plane backing home 
i really felt that had a great day to both Conectiva and KDE project.. More 
days like this must come :-)

-- 
Helio Castro
KDE Developer
Development Conectiva S.A.