LinuxTag was an annual Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conference and exposition with an emphasis on Linux but also BSD descendants located in Germany. The name is a compound with the German Tag meaning "Day", as it was initially a single day conference, but soon extended to multiple days, then always including a weekend. LinuxTag was the world's largest FLOSS conference and exhibition for years and aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the Linux and Free Software market as well to promote contacts between users and developers. With this broad approach LinuxTag was one of the most important events of this kind.
LinuxTag's slogan, "Where .COM meets .ORG", refers to its stated aim of bringing together commercial and non-commercial groups in the IT sector. Each year's event also had its own motto, often reflecting a specific topic which was focused in that year.
Promotion of free software LinuxTag regards itself as part of the Free Software movement and hence promoted this community by an extraordinary degree through supporting numerous Open Source Software projects. LinuxTag offered these projects to promote their software and their concepts, and thus present themselves to the public in an appropriate manner, with their own booths, forums and lectures, free of charge. The goal is to encourage projects to share concepts and content to the benefit of other groups and companies, and to provide forums for in-depth discussions of new technologies and opportunities.
LinuxTag e.V. The non-profit association "LinuxTag e.V." was founded in preparation for LinuxTag's move from Kaiserslautern to the University of Stuttgart in 2000. The association plans and organizes the LinuxTag event by volunteer work and guides its ideological development. The association LinuxTag e.V. is registered in Association Register VR 2239 of the Kaiserslautern District Court. The association manages the LinuxTag name and word mark. The purpose of the association, according to its bylaws,german Bylaws of the LinuxTag e.V. as of 2013 https://www.linuxtag.org/2013/de/der-verein/satzung.html is "the promotion of Free Software", and is pursued primarily by organizing the LinuxTag events.
The association is represented by a three-person executive board, supplemented by several representatives with delegated authority. All members of the LinuxTag association are volunteers and receive no remuneration for their service, with the sole exception from 1 April to 31 July 2005 when the First Chairman and CFO were employed and remunerated by the association. Surpluses resulting from the LinuxTag events or sponsorship are reinvested in the association's non-profit activities.
History LinuxTag was launched in 1995 by a handful of active members of the "Linux project group (PG Linux)" of the Unix-AG,german PG Linux der Unix-AG Uni Kaiserslautern https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/ a student's workgroup at the University of Kaiserslautern. They wanted to inform the fellow students and the public about Linux and Open Source Software, which both were in their early stages at this time. However, since then the event has changed venues several times to keep pace with rapidly growing numbers of speakers, exhibitors and visitors.
Kaiserslautern The first couple of LinuxTag events were held at the University of Kaiserslautern and organized under the auspices of its Unix-AG PG Linux.german LinuxTag-Seiten der Unix-AG (PG Linux) https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/linuxtag.html
LinuxTag 1996 The very first LinuxTag in January 1996 was a theme night on Linux attended by 70 participants, comprising six talks and a "Linux install party".german Geschichte des LinuxTags: https://www.linuxtag.org/2008/de/linuxtag/geschichte.html
LinuxTag 1997/1 and 1997/2 In 1997 was the only year in which two LinuxTag events were organized; the talks of these and consecutive LinuxTag events are still online.
LinuxTag 1997/1german Vorträge auf dem LinuxTag 1997/1 https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/linuxtag97-1/ was attended by 150 participants, despite being disturbed by freezing rain which brought most private and public transport to a halt. Hence the LinuxTag team decided to move the LinuxTag events into the summer and to organize another LinuxTag for 1997.
LinuxTag 1997/2german Vorträge auf dem LinuxTag 1997/2 https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/linuxtag97-2/ had a couple of hundred visitors and brought some firsts: Two tracks with talks running in parallel, occupying two days, tutorial sessions for acquiring a deeper understanding of a topic and a small exhibition at which Open Source Software projects presented their goals and achievements.
LinuxTag 1998 The LinuxTag 1998german Vorträge auf dem LinuxTag 1998 https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/linuxtag98/ conference and exhibition was attended by circa 3,000 visitors. For the first time external exhibitors were present, e.g., the KDE project.
LinuxTag 1999 The LinuxTag 1999german Vorträge auf dem LinuxTag 1999 https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~linux/linuxtag99/ was announced nation-wide for the first time and hence drew some 7,000 visitors. Due to the ".com" boom which also triggered many major players in the IT industry to embrace Open Source Software, the booths from companies filled a whole building of the university, among then Hewlett-Packard, IBM, SuSE etcetera. The booths of non-commercial projects occupied another, smaller building, while the talks used all major lecture rooms. It was also the first time an opportunity to take the LPI Exam 101 was offered. This was the last time LinuxTag was held in Kaiserslautern, because the number of attendees equalled the number of students at this time at the University of Kaiserslautern and there was no space left to grow.
In the aftermath of this event, the LinuxTag association was founded.
Stuttgart In 2000 and 2001 LinuxTag was held in Stuttgart.
LinuxTag 2000 LinuxTag 2000 took place at the Stuttgart Trade Fair from 29 June to 2 July (i.e., four days) and was attended by approximately 17,000 visitors. The conference included a business track for the first time, devoted to such topics as IT security, legal aspects of Free Software, potential applications of Linux and Open Source Software in commercial applications. IT decision-makers presented case studies of applications of Free Software.german Golem.de https://www.golem.de/0007/8524.htmlgerman Heise online https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/LinuxTag-2000-in-Stuttgart-21805.html Among the speakers were J. D. Frazer Illiad, the creator of User Friendly, Rob "Cmdr Taco" Malda, initiator of Slashdot and keynote speaker was Richard M. Stallman.
LinuxTag 2001 LinuxTag 2001 was held at Stuttgart Trade Fair from 5 to 8 July, with 14,870 visitors. The event was held under the patronage of the German Ministry of Economy. Keynote speakers were Eric S. Raymond, Rob Malda of Slashdot and John "Maddog" Hall of Linux International.german Linux-Magazin https://www.linux-magazin.de/Ausgaben/2001/09/LinuxTag-2001german Bild der Wissenschaft https://www.wissenschaft.de/technik-kommunikation/computer/-/journal_content/56/12054/1200596/Fachmesse-LinuxTag-in-Stuttgart-er%C3%B6ffnet/
Karlsruhe
From 2002 to 2005, the LinuxTag conference and exhibition was held in Karlsruhe.
LinuxTag 2002 LinuxTag 2002 happened from 6 June to 9 July 2002 for the first time at the Messe Karlsruhe with about 13,000 visitors. The motto of the conference was "Open your mind, open your heart, open your source!". Approximately 100 booths comprised the exhibition. Keynote speaker was Matthias Kalle Dalheimer. german O'Reilly pro-Linux https://www.pro-linux.de/artikel/2/564/bericht-vom-linuxtag-2002-in-karlsruhe.html
LinuxTag 2003
LinuxTag 2003 was titled Open Horizons and was held from 10 to 13 July 2003 at Messe Karlsruhe.german Heise online LinuxTag 2003 https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/LinuxTag-2003-mit-Coding-Marathon-81739.htmlgerman Golem.de https://www.golem.de/0306/25911.html Along the admission ticket for € 10, visitors received the LinuxTag edition of the initial release of the Knoppix DVD and a Tux pin. With 19,500 visitors, the number of visitors increased by 40 percent over the previous year.
Circa 150 exhibitors, both businesses and non-profit groups were represented. Apple showed Mac OS X running Open Source Software. Other highlights included the release of OpenGroupware.org, OpenOffice.org, a conversion to run Linux of several dozen Xboxes, some by a hardware modification by two solder points, some by utilizing so-called MechInstallers.
There was also a Programming Competition and on Sunday, 13 July 2003 from 13 to 14 o'clock a world record attempt took place: On a server 100 Linux desktop sessions with Gnome and KDE were simultaneously running, which could be used by everyone on the Internet.
Besides the exhibition also sub-conferences were held at which renowned experts discussed a subject. There was, for example, a Debian conference and on Sunday there was a lecture on TCPA, followed by a discussion. The Business and Government sub-conference with 400 participants grew by about 60% compared to 2002. The free lecture program was opened on Friday by the Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour, Rezzo Schlauch. Keynote speaker was Jon "Maddog" Hall.
With Webcams one could take a virtual visit of the fair. The "Pingu-Cam" recorded pictures of Penguin in the Karlsruhe Zoo, which is located right next to the location of the Messe Karlsruhe at that time.
LinuxTag 2004
LinuxTag 2004german Website des LinuxTag 2004 https://www.linuxtag.org/2004/ took place from 23 to 26 June for the third time at the Messe Karlsruhe in 2004. Those who applied on the LinuxTag homepage got in for free. For the regular entrance fee of € 10 one received a Tux-pin, a Knoppix DVD and a DVD with FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
LinuxTag 2004 had the slogan "Free source - free world". 16,175 visitors were counted. A record number of about 170 exhibitors, among them many freelance projects, but also numerous large and medium-sized enterprises attended. Hewlett-Packard was the third time Official Cornerstone Partner. Other major companies at the exhibition were the C & L Verlag, Intel, Novell, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems. For the first time Microsoft was represented with a booth.
On the single-day business and administration sub-conference on 24 June business and government case studies plus success stories of the use of open source software were presented. Among other things, also issues with computer viruses and worms were addressed.
For the free conference, a record of about 350 proposals from 20 countries were handed in, of which 130 could be accommodated in the program. The fundamental threat of software patents for Open Source Software was an important topic. As already in 1999 one could undergo a LPI 101 certification at LinuxTag.german LPIC101 at LinuxTag 2004 https://www.lpice.eu/de/lpi-partner/lpi-ev/archiv-der-pressemitteilungen/09062004-pruefungen-beim-linuxtag-2004.html As at most LinuxTag events, a coding marathon and a hacking contest were performed.
LinuxTag 2005 LinuxTag 2005Website of LinuxTag 2005 https://www.linuxtag.org/2005/308.0.en.html took place from 22 to 25 June at the Messe Karlsruhe. It was the 11th LinuxTag and titled "Linux everywhere". As usual a conference with far more than 100 talks and presentations was accompanied by a large exhibition with booths from more than 160 companies and projects, plus on 22 June 2005 the business and administration sub-conference. Additionally workshops and tutorials were offered.
Keynote speaker Jimmy Wales announced a collaboration between Wikipedia and KDE in his opening speech. Through a web API every program can directly access Wikipedia, which was used by the KDE Media Player Amarok version 1.3 to access the Wikipedia articles of artists.