Michael Meffie

“Freedom is a Feature”. Those were the words of the morning keynote speaker Max Spevack, Fedora Project Leader, at the fifth annual Ohio LinuxFest. Max did not go into details about the fedora project, but rather stepped back and talked about free software more broadly. Max set the stage for a great day in Columbus.

We had a great crew of organizers this year, and most everything when off without a hitch. As one of the organizers, I normally do not get to see as many talks as I would like, but this year, with some extra planning (and experience) I was able to see a number of presentations. I particularly enjoyed the Puppet talk given Luke Kanies, by the creator and maintainer of Puppet.

Bradley Kuhn’s closing keynote was also a highlight of the event. Bradley talked about what was going on behind the scenes at the FSF during the SCO trial. We all know how that turned out, but Bradley cautioned that next time we might not be so lucky.

And after a great day of learning, it was time for the famous Ohio LinuxFest after-party, which I must say was impressive. Several hundred people came to the party to enjoy the food, drinks, and music. NOTACON did a fantastic job with the entertainment. DualCore was brilliant and the games were hysterical. So much fun was had, we had an after-after party at the Drury. A good time had by all.

Well, now it’s time to start getting ready for next year.

The speaker schedule for the fifth annual Ohio LinuxFest has been announced. The line up includes Max Spevack of Fedora and Bradley Kuhn from the Freedom Law Center, and formally the Executive Director of the FSF, as well as numerous other speakers on a variety of topics. The event registration deadline is September 21, so register now to get a seat!

There are only 50 days left until Ohio LinuxFest 2007! We started the Ohio LinuxFest back in 2003, as a interlug meeting, that is to say we invited Linux user groups from all over Ohio and near by states, for an annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The idea was kicked around for more than a year before that meeting. As the event grew in size, we were able to gain sponsorships, first from IBM, then Novell, and Digium, to keep this a low cost event that everyone can enjoy. This year, Silicon Mechanics is our platinum sponsor.

Stay tuned to ohiolinux.org as we announce more information about the speakers and the new training classes.