I’m doing a lot of things this year – and for the hundredth time, I find myself discarding my previous life and blogs and starting anew.
Last October, in a chocolate-induced haze of post Halloween self-satisfaction, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to volunteer to run the Linux Plumbers Conference in 2009. Portland continues to host the event, which makes it possible for me to help out, along with an extraordinarily strong local Linux development and business ecosystem. Last year’s crew did a heck of a job creating the event for the first time. We’re coasting on their toil and troubles, this year, frankly.
Despite the continual incoming dripdripdrip of somber economic news, tightening budgets, market collapses, layoffs, disappearing finances and individual anxieties, we are somehow crafting together what will be a rather interesting and productive conference.
The outstanding news today was we got a lot closer to signing up another big name for our keynote! It won’t get announced anytime soon, unfortunately, but it will be fantastic if we can get them. We have already lined up Keith Packard, X Window genius and all round great guy to give one of the keynote addresses.
We will also have Linus giving an advanced tutorial on git. It pains me to impose on Linus, but I’m personally very grateful that James Bottomley did the heroic arm-twisting for us. After losing the video of Linus’s git tutorial in 2008, we badly wanted a chance to reassemble our dignity and geek cred.
If you’re a Linux developer in Portland, OR (or for that matter, anywhere else), what are you waiting for? Register already!
Linux Plumbers Conference will run from Sept 23-25 in 2009 at the Downtown Portland Marriott.
