Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) LTS will be formally released on April 24, 2008 and I’m excited.

Aside from some of the new and updated features, I’m thrilled that it’s a Long Term Support release, which means Canonical will support it for 3 years on desktops and 5 years on servers.

Since the quality of Linux distributions has increased tremendously over the last few years, I’ve been growing out of my distro hopping tendencies and want a release that I can stick with for a long time. For now, Ubuntu is it.

I attended Linux Fest Northwest 2007 at the end of April and, boy, am I glad I did.

Highlights

Even though I’m no fan of crowds, it’s fun to get out and meet fellow geeks. There were a lot of impressive displays and cool things to learn and discuss.

Some of My Favorite Geek Moments:

• The ActiveState guys gave me a demo of their Komodo development IDE, which I’ve been playing with on Ubuntu and really like.
• Chatted with a Free Software Foundation rep about the FLOSS movement and what it’s like to work with Richard Stallman. She also gave me some cool stickers. 🙂
• The MythTV display. MythTV is a free & open source PVR, or personal Digital Video Recorder. Thanks to donated hardware from Silicon Mechanics, MythTV’s display of the normal, and HD, recording and playback capabilities was amazing. From what I’ve seen, MythTV puts most PVR/DVR solutions to shame, including Windows Media Center and Comcast’s local DVR service.
• Finally saw Second Life, who also had a display. Pretty amazing, although still mystifies me how people find/make time to spend so much time in a virtual world, when there’s not enough time in my actual world.
• Chatted with the Silicon Mechanics folks about their company, servers, and their commitment to the Open Source community.
• I won a cool raffle prize. 🙂

Server Drool

At Linux Fest Northwest 2007, many of the vendors donated software, hardware, books and other promotional items to be used in a raffle.

Although I’m not much of a gambler, I bought two tickets to support the FLOSS cause and, amazingly, won the grand prize: a Silicon Mechanics R-207C rackmounted server.

Read more…

Canonical released Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, their latest edition of their insanely popular Linux distribution today.

Read more…

Linuxfest Northwest 2007 is coming soon! If you’re a user, fan, or just want to know more about Linux and Open Source Software, this looks like a terrific opportunity to learn and network with like-minded folks.

The eighth annual Linuxfest Northwest takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., April 28 and 29, 2007 at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, WA. Exhibits, presentations, and parking are free. All ages are welcome.

Linuxfest Northwest 2007

I’m planning to be there. Let me know if you’re going too and maybe we can connect.

The only problem is that there are so many cool Presentations that I’m not sure where to start.

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