Ubuntu Chicago held their 9.04 release party this afternoon in stormy downtown Chicago. When we arrived it was HOT and HUMID, when we left it was WET and FREEZING. We had quite a few people show up, and the great thing was it was a lot of new faces, not our typical Chicago gangsters who usually show up. We had a lot of fun all while learning about the LoCo team as well as what is new in the 9.04 versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Server.

I want to give a huge thank you to Jim Campbell, Kevin Harriss, and Ilan who is Kevin’s boss. Jim totally set up a really great party and thanks to Kevin and Ilan for hosting us at the Institute of Design. Jim gave 3 presentations, one on the LoCo team and then he briefly covered what was new in both Ubuntu and Xubuntu for 9.04. Kevin, who is typically found with Foresight, but who has replaced his love of freedom with a Macbook, an iPhone, and a Tall non-fat latte, gave a really good overview of what’s new in Ubuntu Server 9.04. Of course I quickly covered Kubuntu 9.04, quickly because my laptop likes to lock up due to a hardware issue that is present in every Linux distro and Windows.

Here are just a few pictures that were taken today for the release party:

Jim pops some bubbly to celebrate the release of Ubuntu Jaunty!

This is what I saw when closing my right eye

This is what I saw when closing my left eye

More pictures can be viewed HERE. I am sure Jim and Nathan will post some pictures as well, so keep an eye out on the planet for more pictures.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and it was really great to finally meet a bunch of new faces, and put faces to those who we have known for a while, but just haven’t gotten to meet.