X.Org's XDS2012 Will Celebrate 25 Years Of X11

Some new details have emerged concerning the 2012 X.Org Developers' Summit, which will take place this September and commemorate 25 years of X11.

First of all, while it's not been officially announced on the mailing lists or elsewhere yet, XDS2012 is expected to happen from the 19th to 21st of September. It's been mentioned on the XDS2012 Wiki page and elsewhere and discussed for weeks, like back at FOSDEM, but I believe Egbert Eich will be sending out the formal announcement soon.

As shared back in December, XDS2012 is happening in Bavaria! Specifically, XDS2012 is taking place in Nürnberg. The likely venue is the SUSE offices in Nürnberg, but this should be officially confirmed and publicly announced in the coming weeks.

The 19 - 21 September dates for XDS2012 are also very ideal. On the 22nd of September this year is when Oktoberfest begins in Munich! I'll be there, as always, for my yearly pilgrimage and be there for the duration of Oktoberfest. For any other XDS2012 attendees, I'll happily give tours of Munich and/or the wiesn, along with my often special seating in the Augustiner tent. Nürnberg is just a quick (and cheap) one hour train ride from Munich, not to mention that most XDS attendees will probably likely fly through MUC as the optimal travel approach. Otherwise check out my Oktoberfest 2011 guide and the Oktoberfest 2011 benchmark results.

Added to the XDS2012 Wiki over the weekend by Alan Coopersmith is that, "We will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first X11 release (15 September 1987, but we'll round a bit) during this conference, and look forward to you joining us." The X11 birthday is on the 15th of September, which is a few days shy of the start of XDS2012. Those wanting can read the original X11 release announcement on Google Groups.

With the X.Org conferences happening in mid-September, what I usually end up celebrating as well during the event is the mark of AMD's open-source strategy with the Radeon/RadeonHD developers. The RadeonHD driver was introduced on the 17th of September in 2007 while on the 6th of September that year is when I broke news to the world of AMD's open-source strategy.

There's also talk of a potential X.Org hiking trip the weekend following XDS2012, but those details have yet to be officially figured out (and would collide with Oktoberfest). Those not familiar with the annual X.Org summits, you can see previous Phoronix coverage from XDS2008 Edinburgh, XDS2010 Toulouse, and the XDC2011 Chicago X.Org conference that I had organized.

For XDS2012 happening in the great land of Bavaria, I've already agreed to Phoronix sponsoring at least another beer event. At XDS2011 was the introduction of the popular beer event where Phoronix sponsored beer event for an afternoon of the conference. The developers seemed to enjoy that (as did I), so that will happen again this year, but will likely be expanded. I'm still working out details with Egbert Eich, the lead organizer of this year's event.

Details will be announced in the coming months, but it may be Phoronix-sponsored beer for the duration of the conference and/or free-beer on the hiking trip. With the 2011 Chicago event requiring a bartender for legal reasons when hosted at an American university, for the cost of the beer and bartender in America for one afternoon, at the same general cost can likely provide beer for the duration of the entire three-day event in Bavaria. Not only that, but with a much better beer selection in Bavaria.

Stay tuned for more details surrounding XDS2012 and there will be plenty of live coverage from the event in September as we celebrate 25 years of X11 and Wayland being on final approach for landing on the Linux desktop.