Ubuntu Live 2008 cancelled

If you were planning to attend Ubuntu Live 2008 in July, we have some bad news for you: the event has been canceled. Speakers were quietly notified earlier this week and the event’s Web site was updated late this morning.

This was to be the second time Ubuntu held the event that was timed to run concurrently with O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) at the same venue. Canonical remains mum on the reason for the cancellation, except to say that this arrangement “better suits” people planning to attend OSCON. While Ubuntu Live 2007 boasted attendance of more than 750 developers, IT managers, and hackers, there is no word on how many people were preregistered for this year’s event. Much of the content that was to have been presented at Ubuntu Live 2008 will instead be presented at OSCON, though no there is no official word yet about which speakers will be included.

In a statement, Canonical says, “We have decided to replace this year’s Ubuntu Live conference — which was scheduled for July 21-22 in Portland, OR — with added content at the OSCON event, scheduled July 21-25 in the same location, as well as with several regional events in North America and Europe (more to come later). We believe this new structure will better suit people travelling to Oregon for OSCON anyway and also those who could not see us there at that time. All registered attendees, speakers and press have been contacted by O’Reilly with details of refunds or equivalent offers.”