linux.conf.au
linux.conf.au (often abbreviated as lca) is Australasia's regional Linux and Open Source conference. It is a roaming conference, held in a different city every year, coordinated by Linux Australia and organised by local volunteers.
The conference is a non-profit event, with any surplus funds being used to seed the following year's conference and to support the Australian Linux and open source communities. The name is the conference's URL, using the uncommon second-level domain .conf.au.
The conference is one of three major, international, grass-roots open-source conferences worldwide. The other two are the Linux Symposium (commonly known as OLS) and Linux Kongress.
Conference history
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In 1999, CALU (Conference of Australian Linux Users) was conceived, bankrolled (via his personal credit card) and executed by Linux kernel hacker Rusty Russell. It laid the foundation for a successful, strongly technical, eclectic and fun conference series.
2001 was the first the conference had been held under the linux.conf.au name, in 1999 it was called CALU.
A major highlight of the 2004 conference was Linus Torvalds, originator of the Linux operating system kernel, being dunked in a dunk tank to raise money for charity.
The 2006 event broke new ground, being the first conference to be held outside Australia, recognising the importance of the New Zealand Linux community.
At linux.conf.au 2007 in Sydney, a new feature was an Open Day for non-conference attendees, in which community groups, interest groups and Linux businesses held stands and demonstrations.
The 2008 event was the second time the conference had been held in Melbourne. 100 OLPC machines were distributed to random attendees at the conference to encourage development on the platform.[4] The Speakers dinner was held at St Paul's Cathedral Chapter House, and the Penguin Dinner was held in conjunction with Melbourne's Night Market, playing on the title of Eric Raymond's book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
During the Penguin Dinner in 2009, a substantial sum of money was raised for the Save Tasmanian Devils fund. One of the charity pledges made that evening was to replace the Tux Logo with the conference mascot, Tuz to help raise awareness.[5]
The conference charity in 2010 was the Wellington Lifeflight Helicopter Ambulance service.[6]
linux.conf.au 2011 was almost washed out by the floods that devastated southern Queensland. With just ten days to go the organisers were able to re-organise the conference, despite all their conference and social event venues being affected by the natural disaster.[7] Similarly, last minute preparations for linux.conf.au 2016 in Geelong were almost derailed by a massive storm on the Wednesday before the conference opened.[8] While several of the conference venues received minor damage, one venue had to be replaced. Given the conference was located at Deakin University, a replacement venue was quickly found.
Miniconfs
Linux.conf.au 2002 was the first event to have mini-conferences which preceded the main event; it was the Debian Miniconf, organised by James Bromberger and based upon the idea that DebConf 1 in Bordeaux was a "mini-conf" of the French Libre Software Meeting. The miniconfs are half - 2 days streamed gatherings which have their own programme but are open for any conference attendee to participate in. This grew in 2004, with the Open-Source in Government (ossig) miniconf, EducationaLinux, Debian Miniconf and GNOME.conf.au. The Debian Miniconf is no longer run as it has its own conference. As of 2010 the Arduino Miniconf was introduced by Jonathan Oxer the author of Practical Arduino.
Recurring Miniconfs have included those devoted to computer programming, education, security, multimedia, arduino and system administration.
See also
References
- ↑ "Hobart to host 2009 Linux conference". ITWire. 2008-02-01. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ↑ "LCA2011 - Follow The Flow!". 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
- ↑ "Ballarat wins Linux.conf.au 2012 bid". 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
- ↑ A moment from LCA2008 - LWN.net - 30 January 2008 by Jon Corbet
- ↑ Kernel gets a new mascot - Linux Foundation - 19 March 2009
- ↑ Linux Enthusiasts raises over $33,000 to help save lives - Life Flight Trust - 8 February 2010
- ↑ Angus Kidman - Replanning shows importance of backup plans, Lifehacker - 24 January 2011
- ↑ Geelong Advertiser - Flash floods, hail and damage as wild weather batters Geelong
External links
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