Lycoris, the producers of the popular Desktop/LX GNU/Linux distribution announced today that they were withdrawing from the first annual Desktop Linux Summit, of which they were scheduled to take part. The move echoes those made by Hewlett-Packard and DesktopLinux.com earlier this month.
UPDATE (2003/01/30 16:25 EST): LinuxToday has published an open letter to Lindows.com from the Linux Show. A link has been added below.
The controversy causing these withdrawals became public when Rick Lehrbaum, founder of DesktopLinux.com, published a statement noting that Lindows.com had reneged on its plans to make the conference vendor neutral (Open for Business and DesktopLinux.com are both members of the Linux Daily News network). According to Lehrbaum's report, as well as the statement issued today by Lycoris, Lindows replaced the vendor neutral schedule laid out last year with one that placed sizably more focus on Lindows.com. Among other things, the new schedule that appeared on Lindows.com's web site, after DesktopLinux.com withdrew the old site, replaced Open Source Initiative co-founder Bruce Perens' welcome keynote with one by Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson.
In Lycoris' statement from today, the company noted “Lycoris originally joined the conference after assurances of egalitarian control and changes to the conference schedule including the addition of keynote speaker Bruce
Perens and vendors like Hewlett Packard. The recent changes to the conference schedule, the withdraw of Hewlett Packard, and conference management have given a single-vendor too much focus which is no longer in the interest of Lycoris.” The release also commented that the company wished the “now Lindows-controlled event great success.”
The statement, like the one from Lehrbaum, acknowledged Lindows.com's right to make such a move. In it, Jason Spisak, Lycoris' Marketing Director, remarked “Who can blame them for making changes in their favor. This is business, and we're their competitor. Lycoris wouldn't get a fair shake at a conference that's now controlled, funded, scheduled and keynoted by Lindows. We defer our participation for a conference that is as originally promised—vendor neutral.”
The summit, which still includes vendors such as SuSE and Sun Microsystems, will take place on February 20-21. Lindows.com reports that the event is sold out.