The annual LinuxWorld conference is always a blast and a half for those who attend, especially the crew here at Linux Journal. Sadly, those halcyon days are over, as the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo is no more. Weep not, however, as in its place has appeared a new event, the freshly-christened OpenSource World.

For nearly a decade, the LinuxWorld conference has been a key event for the Linux community, bringing together hardcore developers, everyday users, industry leaders, and everyone in-between. Just one year shy of its 10th anniversary, organizers have decided to re-brand the conference, acknowledging and bringing into sharper focus the greater Open Source community that has become an integral part of the LinuxWorld event. Calling Linux "the most prominent of hundreds of increasingly successful open source projects," OSW VP/General Manager Melinda Kendall explained the decision to change as accepting that "[T]he time is right for us to provide the industry with an event that encompasses not just Linux, but everything under the open source umbrella."

The conference — which will debut August 10 – 13, 2009 in San Francisco — will be preceded in July by the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, which relocates to the Bay Area in 2009 after spending the past several years in Portland, Oregon. OSCON, in turn, is being replaced on the Portland scene by the Linux Foundation's brand-new LinuxCon event, to which some have suggested may fall the mantle of being the premier Linux-only conference.

Additional information on the OpenSource World conference is available from the conference website.