Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier was a regular name in Linux not so long ago. He first appeared on my radar writing for the different websites I visited. It seemed like he wrote for them all, even the ones I eventually began writing for myself. Later, he really solidified his hero status in my book by actually becoming a full-time Novell employee as community manager for openSUSE. But now, after a bit of a sabbatical, he’s traded in all his green t-shirts for red hats.

I almost lost track of Zonker after he left openSUSE. I did see some articles by him in the interim, but I finally heard what’s he doing now. In a post on his personal blog, Brockmeier said, “Today, I’m going to have the privilege of joining [Red Hat] – and I’m really excited and optimistic about the possibilities.” But that was it. I had to find out more. So, in an email interview Brockmeier said he actually started this past Monday. Monday and Tuesday were new-hire orientation in Raleigh, but Brockmeier says he will be telecommuting from his current residence in St. Louis.