Was any work really getting done? Or was it all a big party? I had always been curious what one of these Ubuntu events was like. Recently I had the good fortune of being invited to the Ubuntu Rally in New York City. We packed up our car and drove across the country to attend the event. This is the first major company event since Canonical restructured, announced Ubuntu Gnome would be the future, and laid off many employees. How was the mood? Was any work really getting done? And what groundwork are they laying for Ubuntu 18.04, one of their most important releases ever. As a longtime Linux and open source user/advocate, I was committed to getting answers to these questions. So I drove from the Pacific to the Atlantic to get them.