Well one of the best ways is just as it is here. Join in on the forums, many people will make new posts about up and coming or new methods of doing things.

Along with that conferences or seminars...

haven't used the first, have used visual source safe and just really didn't care for it

i use subversion, very easy to setup, very robust and the client apps are good as well, the developers are...

I don't necessarily know where to start for a complete OS, but I have made drivers before.

You can find a forum, and articles and what not at
www.osronline.com

This is a primarily windows...

I agree, def not as good visio, but for free, definitely can't complain.

Here's a free one I have used before. Covers a large set of the visio like features.

http://live.gnome.org/Dia

VNC is a good solution

You can set it to where you can connect with no password, or with a password, but only from the person doing the logging in. You can then observe the desktop and interact...