A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going  to Ohio Linuxfest.  A yearly event in Columbus, it's really a great place to see some talks, and get to know more people in the Linux community.

After a many-hour trip to get to Columbus marked by flooded roads and long detours,  I got in to Columbus at about 6am.  The Drury, the official hotel for the convention could not have possibly be more accommodating.    I have to give them all the credit in the world, they have all of the amenities that you might want for a convention, like free breakfast, and free networking in the rooms, and on top of it, they were very generous, letting me check in in early after a long drive.

The convention itself was great, I particularly like the Friday keynote by Jon "Maddog" Hall on the 20th anniversary of the Linux kernel.  His perspective on the events that lead us to where we are today is always fascinating.

I also particularly like the Saturday Keynote by <a href="http://faif.us">Bradley Khun</a> on the issue of Free software in a "Cloud" services world.  It brought a lot if issues regarding loading proprietary software from service providers through your browser in an otherwise Free Software desktop.  

I attended many other talks, but I'm going to leave the details to all of you, as the audio from the talks should be available from <a href="http://ohiolinux.org">ohiolinux.org</a> in the near future.

I also made it a point to be a bit more social, and not try to attend EVERY talk that I found interesting, and try to get out and talk to more people.  I always like getting together with the<a href="http://tllts.org"> Linux Link Tech Show</a> crew, of whom Allan, Joel, Linc and Dave Yates were in attendance.  I also got to meet  Tracy Holz and Steven McLaughlin (aka Door-to-Door Geek)  There were also a number of people like Klaatu, and monsterb who I know from conventions and online,  but whose real names I don't know.

All in all, the convention is a great time,  my only regret is the lack of time to catch up with everybody, I had a commitment for a motorcycle run on Sunday, so I had to leave far too early.

If anyone has questions about the convention, please email me, or bring it up at the meeting this Wednesday!