In August 1969, Ken Thompson wrote the first version of an Operating System that would be called UNIX; it’s hard to believe it’s been that long.  Since UNIX is the inspiration for  Linux and the GNU utilities, Ohio LinuxFest chose to celebrate 40 years of UNIX.  What a long way we have come.

It all started Friday afternoon when Ohio LinuxFest presenter, friend and fellow co-host Dann Washko of the Linux Link Tech Show picked me up to meet up with my other  fellow co-hosts, Linc Fessenden, Allan Metzler, and Pat Davila. We had a pre-show chat about how things have been going; we shared and showed off our gadgets while having a great time remembering events of the past year both in our lives and in the Linux community.  Eventually other podcasters like Dave Yates from the Lotta Linux Links Linux User Podcast and others from the Linux Community joined together at the first Podcaster/Podcast Fan event ever at the Ohio Linuxfest.  I was a little under-whelmed by how it went, but hey – it was a first time event.  Hopefully next year’s will be better.

At the end of the podcaster event,  two Linux users – Randy Noseworthy and Janet Edmonson – were joined in marriage.  While it was not a LinuxFest first (another couple was married at Penguicon in 2007), it was still a memorable event and a Ohio LinuxFest first.  Even the great Jon “Maddog” Hall got in the spirit, by a recording that was played at the wedding.  Ohio Linuxfest also provided cake, and Zenoss helped out with the reception at the Ohio LinuxFest pre-party.  The happy couple is pictured below.

Saturday was  a long day for me, as I am now a member of the Linux Link Tech Show, which meant that I manned the booth off and on with the other co-hosts.  We met with many of our fans from the show’s last 6 years.  We also were passing out T-shirts and raffle tickets for a drawing that was held at the end of the Keynote.

We were also able to interview a lot of different people in the Linux community.  I did an interview with a friend, Deb Dyer from Free Geek at CSCC.  This is a program where students in the EET-143 class at Columbus State Community College volunteer time to help refurbish old computers, install Ubuntu Linux on them, and then donate them to a person who needs a computer.  They also help the recipient learn how to use the computer and then provide a student-written manual so the recipient isn’t left trying to figure it out on their own.  It is a worthy cause, since so much of our modern life requires the need of computing resources.

Walking the show floor, I came across Zareason’s booth where they had some of their new systems.  This includes the Terra A20 Netbook and a brand new laptop that looks like it just might be a MacBook Air competitor for Open Source fans.  I was amazed at how thin it was.  I can’t wait to get some more time with one of these notebooks.

I was able to attend a talk by Peter Graner of Canonical regarding the Ubuntu Linux Kernel team.  In this talk, he explained that one doesn’t have to be a kernel developer to help the team at Canonical make a better OS.  Those who aren’t developers can help categorize one of the 7000 open issues in the Linux kernel; they can help the Ubuntu team figure out which issue needs to be worked on first, as well as decide which issues would be show-stoppers with regards to shipping future releases of Ubuntu.  It was a very interesting talk even if you did not know much about the Linux Kernel.

I also got to see a laptop loaded with the latest alpha of Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” boot in 4 seconds.  That is 4 seconds from power on to a usable desktop.  Really great stuff!

The biggest reason I would recommend that you attend Ohio LinuxFest next year is the community.  A LinuxFest is a time to meet friends and hang out with people who are all friends of the penguin.  So if you have the opportunity to go to a LinuxFest, then by all means DO!  You just might surprise yourself by learning something new or finding a new friend.

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4. Open Source Podcasters/Show of the Week: The Linux Link Tech Show
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