Linuxforum 2006 here in Copenhagen was great. There’s a report at Groklaw.
In my view, the highlight was Simon Phipps‘ presentation. My favorite quote: “If you don’t join the network, you don’t get the effects”. It’s exactly the network effects that counts, and what make open standards so valuable.
Phipps announced the launch of the ODF Alliance, less than four hours after the official press release was launched. For coverage of the alliance news, see my OpenDocument tag, where I have collected reactions in press and blogs. The alliance launch is (further, as if we need more) proof that ODF has crossed the chasm.
I chaired a jam session with Louis Suárez-Potts, where he talked about the community of and around OpenOffice.org. The more I learn about OOo, the more impressed I get. I’ve now used OOo for almost four months, and am very happy with it. Sure, Calc could be better, but it does just fine for almost everything. Writer and Impress are actually better than their Microsoft counter-parts, IMHO. But the really cool thing about OOo is that it uses ODF natively, so I can go somewhere else if I want to.
