I am going to start a series of posts here on Gear Diary to let people know about the great Linux and Open Technology podcasts or shows in the podosphere where you can get some great info and also learn more about Free Open Source Software. So if you have any shows I should check out, let me know and if I haven’t listened to them, I will give them a shot.

The first Podcast/Show of the week is a favorite I have listened to since the last Presidential Election. That would be, The Linux Link Tech Show.

It was 2004, and podcasting was in it’s infancy, when I came across this interesting show called the Linux Link Tech show. They started off just talking about Linux and Technology, and things they thought were cool and interesting to those who like Linux and Technology. I added them to my podcatcher and have listened to them ever since.

They also stream the show and after listening to all of the podcasts, I eventually started listening to the stream and have since been a faithful listener week in, week out. When listening to the stream, you can also chat with the hosts via IRC (Internet Relay Chat for the newbies out there).

First, I will start of with one of the two that started it all, Linc Fessenden. Linc is the author and maintainer of Bashpodder, a podcatching BASH script for Linux and other UNIX operating systems. Linc also happens to work on the Korn Shell as well, and is a very nice guy.

One day he and Dann Washko, who started the Lehigh Valley Linux User Group together, decided they wanted to do a Internet radio show about Linux. After a year or two, they finally got their butts in gear and then The Linux Link Tech Show was born. The initial members of the show were Linc, Dann and Allan Metzler. Soon after the start, Pat Davila joined the show, and the current group of hosts is complete.

For a long time, it was mainly just the 3 or 4 guys talking about stuff that interested then from technology, Linux and even non tech subjects like crappy soda and dog farts. It may not have been very informative, but it sure as heck was fun to listen. Perhaps the best episodes were when nothing went right and they just kept on pressing on. Those seem to be the most memorable shows to me.

Anyways, as time went on, all of a sudden they started to actually have guests! Past guests of the shows have included luminaries like Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation), Ian Murdock (Started the Debian GNU/Linux Distro) and Joe Born (Neuros Technoloogy). There have really been too many people on the tech show for me to mention here, but a complete list is kept on the Tech Show wiki.

The biggest reason I chose the Tech Show as my first Linux podcast/show of the week is that they are some of the best guys you will ever meet. I have had dinner with all of them when they came to the Ohio Linux Fest, and I e-mail each of them probably once a week; they are also my friends. I care about all 4 of these guys, and they do a bang up job every week. They have done more for promoting open source then a lot of people I know, and they are one the reasons I have come to love Linux and Open Source technology. Stuff I have learned about on the tech show I still continue to use each day.

So TONIGHT, go and listen to the tech show at 8:30 PM EST; their guest will be Christian Einfeldt from The Digital Tipping Point. For information about how to listen to the show, visit: http://tllts.org