Back in Portland again for this week’s open source convention. This will be my third, second as a speaker, but my first as a journalist. Early this year I took over the TUX Magazine Editor in Chief position from Nicholas Peterley. TUX Magazine is the first and only magazine for the new Linux user. It’s been an exciting and new change for me. This job has been a reset (of sorts) in my life, as I initially started my career by studying journalism before switching to computer science. I feel fortunate that the trajectory of my life and career has brought me back to journalism. Although I still haven’t gotten used to thinking of my self as a journalist. I love computers, software development, Linux, and open source so much it is a real privilege to actually write about what I’d be doing anyway.

Since, I’m registered for the convention as a journalist, I’ve been getting many invitations and announcements by email. With the deluge of spam we all get, you’d think I might find that annoying, but I don’t. I really respect these companies’ support of the community by sponsoring or exhibiting at the convention. I’d really like urge everyone who is attending to stop by all of the exhibitors booths and learn about the companies and their products. These companies are a big reason why the open source community continues to blossom and grow. Just to mention a few of the companies I received announcements from are: Lazlo, Sun, MindTouch, Pentaho, No Starch Press, and solidDB. A few have been gracious enough to coordinate interviews and I’m looking forward to meeting more of them in the exhibition hall.

Between catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, interviewing open source leaders, and speaking there isn’t a lot I can look forward to with any certainty that I’ll be able to see. it;s only Sunday evening and I’m already feeling the spin and confusion that somes from having so many things to do and people to mee. One of the first things that has caught my attention is that there will be werewolves loose at the Oregon Convention Center. Monday, after the first day of tutorials, Artur Bergman, of Six Apart, will lead everyone in a game of Werewolf. The game looks like something that will be real brain friendly and give us all some great first memories of the eighth O’Reilly Open Source Convention. I’ve never played, so I hope I get to play and I’m not lynched or mauled first, just because I’m a journalist.

I’m really hoping while I’m here that readers of TUX will stop me and say hello. I’m always interested in hearing article suggestions and gaining valuable feedback. If you’re not a reader, then I’d really like to encourage you to give us a look. Whether you are just curious about Linux, a relative new comer to Linux, or a hard-core advocate, we deliver great reviews and tutorials on the plethora of applications that make the Linux desktop exciting.