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Greg and Linus sat down for an open discussion about Linux and its 20th anniversary. They even take questions from the audience. This is from the LinuxCon Japan 2011 held in early June. They had a very similar discussion in August at LinuxCon North America but the video for that hasn't been released yet. Having seen both, I think this first one actually covers more stuff. Unfortunately the introducer takes a few minutes before we get to see Linus and Greg. In webm format.

If you can't view it in your browser or would like to download it, here's the link:
20_Years_of_Linux-Linus_and_Greg.webm (170 MB, ~51 min)

Jon Corbet did another of his Linux Kernel talks at the LinuxCon Japan 2011 in early June. This is his Linux 20th Anniversary edition where he goes into a lot of the history of Linux so this talk is a bit different than his previous ones. Here it is in webm format.

Can't play it in your browser or want to download it? Get it here:
linux-kernel-report-age-20.webm (166 MB, ~50 min)

If there is any interest in a LUG in Billings this month please reply. My conference room is available each Thursday evening on the condition that there are a few people already planning on attending. rsvp. thanks

google maps link

NPR's This American Life did a feature entitled, "When Patent Trolls Attack" and it is something I think all technology folks should listen to so I embedded it below. Sorry for the limited media format choice provided.

In the interview I did with Troy Dawson of Scientific Linux, I mention that my prediction for CentOS 6.0 is July 11th... but that interview is dated June 6th. Not so prophetic really... but I know I had been saying that for a while. Well, it looks like CentOS 6.0 is coming out on July 11th... or maybe the 12th... depending on when they do he bit flip.

I decided to search my IRC logs for "July 11" to see how far back I originally guessed. I knew that it has been at least a couple of months earlier than June. here's what I found:

[Monday, April 04, 2011] [04:52:57 PM]
<dowdle> bodhi_zazen: And then the plan is for 2-3 weeks after 5.6 is out, 6.0 will be released. I'll believe that when I see it. My guess for CentOS 6.0 is July 11.

[Friday, July 08, 2011] [01:21:29 PM]
<dowdle> kaptk2: But of course the dir perms are too restrictive so it'll probably be a few days before they do the bit flip. I want a prize if my July 11th prediction is correct. :)

Update: Looks like they did something unusual and flipped the bit (where the directory is publicly readable) today... on a Sunday... so I was off by one day.

After looking around for a good introduction video to GNOME 3 I found this one. It is the best one I've found so far. Unfortunately it seems to only be available in flash format. Since Fedora 15 was one of the first distros to ship GNOME 3, it also covers Fedora some. Enjoy.

When I can, I try to participate in The Linux Link Tech Show when it is streaming LIVE... but even when I can't I often listen to the archived recordings. When I find something interesting I'll sometimes shoot Dann Washko an email with my thoughts. This morning I found myself writing a long email to him on a subject they covered on their June 15 episode (#407). I thought I'd post it here too.

It just so happens that several of TLLTS regulars had attended the Southeast Linuxfest the weekend prior and one of the conversations that Dann encountered there was about Canonical and Ubuntu. Dann spoke about the questions and opinions he heard raised and asked for everyone else's opinions but he didn't get a whole lot of feedback so I thought I'd provide him with some.

I'll admit yet again... I'm a big Red Hat and Fedora fan and I am biased... and I sometimes even serve as an apologist for them. While I think everything I say below is "fair and balanced"... I'm sure there are plenty of folks who disagree with me... and maybe one or two who agree... I do encourage feedback and comments from all sides. Read on at your own peril. :)

Troy DawsonRed Hat Inc. rules the "enterprise" Linux market with their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product line. Novell Inc. (now owned by The Attachmate Group) is second with their SUSE Enterprise Linux product line. To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any free SUSE Enterprise Linux clones but there are a number of free RHEL clones. CentOS is the most well known RHEL clone but with the seeming unending delay of the 6.0 release (July 11th is my guess), CentOS has received quite a bit of criticism leading some users to investigate alternatives. As a result, Scientific Linux is getting a lot of long overdue attention given the fact that it too is a solid enterprise clone... that has been around for a long time... that has a lot of support behind it.

MontanaLinux is proud to present an interview that was conducted via email with Troy Dawson who is a long-time Fermilab employee and Scientific Linux developer.

About Troy Dawson

Montana Linux: Please tell us about yourself... as much as you feel comfortable with... as open or as closed as you want to be... family, education, work, hobbies, etc.

Troy Dawson: My name is Troy Dawson. I have a Bachelors degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Computer Science. I have worked at Fermilab since 1993. I was initially an accelerator operator, and then transferred over to computing in 1999.

I've been working with Linux since 1999.

I am married with two kids. I am very active in my church. I think my main hobbies are family, church, and computers.

Dan Walsh gave a presentation at the Red Hat Technical User group Netherlands (RHTUGNL) entitled something like, This isn't your grandfather's SELinux. I'm one of those who uses SELinux on my Fedora desktops.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3-ish:

Here's a video for all of you Ubuntu fans... Mark Shuttleworth's Keynote from the Ubuntu Developer Summit.

Sorry it is Flash-based. If anyone can give me a link to an alternative format or something I can download and convert, I'll repost.