Contributed by CHOI Junho <cjh@kr.FreeBSD.org>.
28 May 1999

Translated by Hyun-ju Yang <whitept@nobreak.com>.
7 Jun 1999

Translation revised by Joo-hee Kim <joohee99@hotmail.com>.
14 Jun 1999

The first Korean Linux Conference & Expo was held during May 3-4, 1999 at The Crystal Hall of Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Korea. It was the country's very first open source conference and exposition. Nation's experts presented the business and the technical aspects of the topic.

Korean Linux Conference & Expo was sponsored by Joong-Ang Il-Bo, and promoted by Web Data Bank(WDB), Korea Linux Business(KLB), DACOM and Joong-Ang Il-Bo. Organizing this event was successfully led by Kwang-Yeon-Jae PR, WDB, KLB and DACOM. Korean Linux Conference & Expo was sponsored by about 10 Linux related business and institutions participated. Having their own booth, the representatives were eager to attract people introducing their Linux related products and company prospects. The Korea FreeBSD Users Group (KFUG) was invited to this event and with the support from WDB we had successfully distributed 550 free copies of 3.1-RELEASE to the public. Thanks to WDB, KFUG is extending this offer to the public through on-line.

It was a great experience to work with such talented group of people to prepare each step prior to the event. Sending out invitations through the mailing lists, setting up booths with volunteers, and working side by side were great opportunity to meet new faces in this area. There are so many names I should list through this writing, but limited spaces and time only allow me to thank few individuals today.

It was Seung-young Kim who had prepared the banners and CD installation guides for 3.1-RELEASE. Design on CD was artistically done by Su-mi Hwang, and WDB took its share and prepared CDs and provide description boards for participating companies. I also had a chance to get involved, and had prepared 3.1-RELEASE Linux Expo Special Edition which includes the additional Korean language specific packages and partially translated Korean handbook. Thanks to all volunteers, friends and specially WDB for their sponsorship in the event.

The day before the opening, May 2nd, The Crystal Hall of Lotte Hotel was filled with people. Setting up the booth, 3 meters in width and 2 meters in depth, and displaying banners along with company descriptions on board were all part of the excitement. We also introduced an article about FreeBSD based Rendering techniques used in "MATRIX", a new Sci-Fi movie from Hollywood. Two PCs were setup to show GNOME and KDE Desktop with FreeBSD 3.1-RELEASE installed. Special thanks to Sung-gon Yi and Young-il Cho!

During two days of the event, it was an opportunity for us to introduce what FreeBSD was about and to interact with public as we answered their questions. Common questions among people were: What is FreeBSD? What is the benefit of using FreeBSD over Linux? How many users are there in Korea? (It has not been surveyed properly yet, but we gather 50-100 active users/administrators and there might be around 2000-3000 users. This estimate solely rely on mailing lists and Nownuri user groups.)

It was somewhat disappointing to see not many people know about FreeBSD in the beginning of the event. Contrary, it was exciting to introduce FreeBSD to those who were interested in and to carry out conversations with them. Educating the public about FreeBSD was valuable asset to us, and this event was a corner stone of upcoming events which will be more exciting and beneficial to new and experienced users.

We are looking forward to the next gathering which will provide more information about FreeBSD, reach more people, and enhance the quality of event itself at the same time. KFUG will do our best for these activities and welcome new volunteers for various activities such as translating documents, porting new applications for Hangul (Korean Character System), joining online/offline events, and etc.

KFUG, founded on Oct 28, 1998, is currently providing several types of FreeBSD mirrors including WWW, FTP, and CVSup. We will keep carrying out on localization projects of FreeBSD focused on making application ports and translating documents. And we will support to help people using FreeBSD through online/offline activities. Right now we are very small group, and our activities are limited, but we hope to see more Koreans benefiting from using FreeBSD - good free software - , and share the information of Open Source Software, without any restriction.

I would like to end this with invitations to all of you for upcoming events, and a promise that we will keep you posted. Thanks again.