Catch me at Ohio LinuxFest (OLF): Dissociated Press

Ohio LinuxFest (or OLF these days) is returning to Columbus, Ohio on September 8th and 9th. Happy to announce that I’m going to be doing the Friday keynote, “Open Source Can’t Win.” Wait, you might say, hasn’t open source already won? It’s popular to say that open source has won – but the truth is that open source can never win. Not permanently, at least.

Open source is mainstream, and a popular choice with developers, users, admins, companies, and government. But as open source has grown in popularity, complacency has crept in. Many people have forgotten, or never knew, the “why” of open source and open computing.

Open source communities can’t stand on past success, stand down from educating newcomers, or evolving to meet new challenges. And we certainly can’t give an inch on what it means to be open source and not merely source available.

So that’s what I’m going to be talking about. I’m also excited to see Jon “maddog” Hall and Catherine Devlin giving keynotes on Saturday, and some other fantastic speakers like Scott McCarty and Steven Pritchard.

Please join us if you can!