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After culling through some of the videos on Google Video, I recommend the following... and most of them are part of Google's engEDU or TechTalk series. All of them can be downloaded if desired with the exception of the OLPC video.

The State of the Linux Kernel - Andrew Morton
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1742374580386548257
1 hr 21 min 37 sec - May 1, 2007
Excellent!

The Linux kernel Roadmap - Jonathan Corbet

Fortune magazine is playing host to Microsoft's latest attack on free/open source software (FOSS). Kind of like Fox News playing host to Dick Cheney attacking opponents of the Bush administration. I like how the title of the article reads, "Microsoft takes on the free world". It sounds like Microsoft is attacking democracy and all right thinking people. Well, now that I think about it, they are. :-) The article itself is not overly biased considering the audience of Fortune.

I found this video on Google Video very interesting and decided to share it.

The State of the Linux Kernel by Andrew Morton
Google Tech Talks - May 1, 2007

The eighth annual Fest was April 28th and 29th. There were almost 900 attendees this year. The biggest yet. This year they added a second day. So, for an additional small percentage of overall trip cost I was able to take in twice as many sessions.

• Load Balancing with Linux Virtual Server
  by Jed Reynolds, Bitrachet
• Hacking you Cellphone
  by Nimret Sandu, Nimsoft/Motorola
• OpenID and the State of Distributed Identity
  by Aaron Klemm, Unripped.com
• Network Management Best Practives
  
  

Linuxfest Northwest has been an annual event since 1999 held at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham Washington which is approximately 90 miles North of Seattle. To allow for the largest participation, it is held on a weekend. Linuxfest Northwest 2007 was held on April 28-29th and was attended by approximately 900 people.

Warren Sanders, Donnie Lunder (BillingsLUG), Ken Dyke (HelenaLUG) and I (BozemanLUG) made the trip.

[Update: Added OpenVZ video!]

Package SetsIf one knows of the hype about Ubuntu, and it is almost unavoidable, one is led to believe that it is the most popular Linux distribution for desktop users. I have yet to see hard data that shows evidence of that claim so that will remain unresolved for now. One of the reasons touted for Ubuntu's popularity is that it comes on a single CD. Debian, upon which Ubuntu is based, also has fans because it too has a very light-weight install option (among other reasons) which will install the base system and allow one to install all the desired software post-install by downloading only what is needed. While Debian is huge, 27 CDs for the full distro or 3 DVDs (not counting the source CDs), virtually no one downloads all of the .iso images.

Since I'm a Red Hat fan (which includes Fedora Core and CentOS), I'm aware of the complaints people have about "having to download multiple CDs" before they can start installing. In fact, the recently released CentOS 5 is 6 CDs (i386, or 7 CDs for x86_64). To counter those complaints, I thought I'd try a single CD install of the recently released CentOS 5 "Debian style" and then add everything in post-install. Join me if you will...

Doc Searls is challenging the big OEMs to think outside the Microsoft PC box. It was three or four years ago that Searls observed that Linux is not a platform. Here he is back riffing on that theme...
Thinking Past Platforms: the Next Challenge for Linux

Towards the end of the article he challenges us in the FOSS community to stop thinking of and advocating Linux as an alternative to Windows/OS X. This is a very good point and one I, personally, should have thought of a long time ago.

Just a quick note to say that CentOS 5 has been released... 6 CDs or 1 DVD. I've downloaded all 6 CDs and am burning now. DVD is about 45% done downloading.

Woohoo!

Official announcement should happen in an hour or so.

Each April computer buffs from across the Pacific Northwest trek to Bellingham, WA for Linuxfest Northwest.

Bellingham, WA, April 4, 2007 — The eighth annual Linuxfest Northwest takes place from 9:30 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.

OpenFiler iSCSII installed OpenFiler on an extra machine the other day. What's OpenFiler? According to the OpenFiler website:

Openfiler is a Storage Management Operating System. It is powered by the Linux 2.6 kernel and Open Source applications such as Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target. Openfiler combines these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy to manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface. Openfiler allows you to build a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and/or Storage Area Network (SAN) appliance, using industry-standard hardware, in less than 10 minutes of installation time.

I've never worked with iSCSI before... but now I want to. The reason I'm looking into it is because RHEL 5 and others can use iSCSI disks to install to... and hopefully it'll work well for XenVMs too. Care to follow me on this, the initial leg, of my journey?