The first ever Linux Con was held this week in Oregon, USA. I would have loved to attend however due to financial constraints and logistics (I’m presently in Berlin) it wasn’t going to happen, so, I bit the bullet and subscribed to the $99 three day streaming & archive package from Linux Pro magazine.

Admittedly I did have doubts, $99 for a few streaming conference videos? And look, half of them are free anyway? However, after the opening speech by Bob Sutor from IBM I felt I’d already got my money’s worth, straight up.

Aside from the presentation format & quality (which was superb, a credit to the Linux Pro techies) it was incredibly refreshing just to be in the presence (albeit virtually) of such like minds from such reputable sources speaking with such passion about an area which is predominantly my whole life at the moment. I’ve been bashing away at open source awareness myself for a good while now through TooMuchGreen and I must admit there are days when you feel up against it and wonder if anyone out there is taking the blindest bit of notice. The presentations I caught boosted my moral no end and thoroughly reinforced my belief in what I’m doing and why, I knew the community was out there from the forums we all visit daily but seeing and hearing *them* in person (so to speak) was literally something else, I would strongly recommend the service to anyone and I’d have no hesitation whatsoever in signing up for future events, especially Linux Con.

My time here in Berlin is coming to an end and although I’ll thoroughly miss the place (it’s a wonderful city), thanks to Linux Pro and The Linux Foundation I’m returning to the UK with inspiration on full charge (SUPER-charge when Linux Pro publish the on-line archive and I get to watch the sessions I missed, inspiring as it was an 8 hour time difference is still an 8 hour time difference).

This next year really is going to be quite something. I’ll be ensconced in NTI from October 2nd in Leeds City centre, feel free to Tweet me and drop in for a coffee.