LinuxCon North America Convenes in Toronto, Canada

One of the largest Linux and open source events, LinuxCon NA, is happening this week in Toronto, Canada. Jim Zemlin kicked off the event reflecting on the 25 years of Linux. Zemlin said that Linux has proven you can better yourself by bettering it for everyone else.

The event featured keynotes by luminaries from the Linux and open source world, including Jim Whitehurst (CEO of Red Hat), Brian Behlendorf (Executive Director of the Hyperledger Project), Wim Coekaerts (Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Open Source at Microsoft), and Karen Sandler (Executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy).

Popular science fiction author and activist Cory Doctorow talked about the dangers of DRM in his keynote. Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, Science Evangelist and Author, talked about the effect of technology on humans. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, Git, and Subsurface, sat down with Dirk Hohndel (‎VP, Chief Open Source Officer at VMware) and talked about the kernel and open source. To support gender diversity, this year's event included a networking luncheon for women, which enabled women to network and interact with each other.

On-site childcare was provided so working parents could participate in the event. The Linux Foundation partnered with MakerKids and Kids on Computers to host an entire day of workshops for school-aged kids to learn about computer programming. Throughout the event, there were tons of break-out sessions and lectures where developers talked about open source technologies ranging from the Linux kernel to Linux containers.