DebConf 18 – Day 2

Although I have already returned from this year’s DebConf, I try to continue to write up my comments on the talks I have attended. The first one was DebConf 18 – Day 1, here we go for Day 2.

The day started with me sleeping in – having the peace of getting up and one’s own pace without a small daughter waking you up a a precious experience 😉 I spent my morning working on my second presentation and joined the conference for lunch.

After the lunch came a Plenary Talk/Discussion/Round Table on Ignoring Negativity. I tried to follow the discussion but somehow couldn’t keep me awake for more than 30min. For me this was the best sleeping pill ever encountered. The time I could listen to was mostly filled with voluptuous and elaborate verbiage I couldn’t digest. Missing IQ I guess on my side.

Next was a very interesting presentation on git-debrebase, a new tool for managing Debian packaging in git. I was very much impressed by the very tricky usage of git in areas I have never touched. Unfortunately one sour point did remain all through the end – by now it does not fully support collaboration in the sense that it can deal with digressing histories, one of the big features of git. Fortunately I learned after asking in the QA section, problems only arise when some very restricted branches are digressing, but not on normal operation.

After the coffee break I attended Autodeploy from salsa which was technically interesting, but I not directly usable for my own development, so I somehow dreamed through the talk.

The last talk for today was Server freedom: why choosing the cloud, OpenStack and Debian: With more and more services moving into the cloud, the question of lock-in is getting more and more pronounced. In my work environment I am dealing with this and we hope by using Kubernetes Cluster Federation and multi-cloud setups we can avoid the lock-in. Thomas gave a very interesting presentation on his work on OpenStack and the tools around it. Very promising and technically on a high level.

But the highlight of the day came after the dinner – the Cheese and Wine party. I cannot express my gratitude to all those who brought excellent cheese from their home countries. Life in Japan, where micro-slices of good cheese cost up to 10USD and more, is somehow a life of cheese deprivation. Enjoying this huge variety from all over the world was like heaven for me. I myself brought some sake and dried fish and burdock to contribute what I could do.

During the Cheese and Wine party we were also treated to a Kavalan Whiskey which has won some of the most prestigious prices for Whiskey making just this year in May. On my way back home to Japan I was sure to get two bottles for my own collection.

After having tasted countless wines and cheeses, a bit of this wonderful Kavalan, and enjoyed chatting with many of the participants mostly on matters unrelated to Debian, I returned late back to my hotel off campus.

Thanks goes to all the organizers of the conference and in particular the Wine and Cheese party for this spectacular event!