linux.conf.au (often abbreviated as lca or LCA) is Australasia's regional Linux and open source conference. It is a roaming conference, held in a different Australian or New Zealand city every year, coordinated by Linux Australia and organised by local volunteers.

Last day of Linux.conf.au 2003
Rusty Russell speaking at Linux.conf.au 2011

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.

Although several online events were ran post-COVID, since 2023 Linux Australia has instead auspiced Everything Open. This is a shorter three-day conference that follows a similar format - but without the additional two days of Miniconfs.

Conference history

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In 1999, Linux kernel hacker Rusty Russell organised the Conference of Australian Linux Users in Melbourne. The first conference held under the linux.conf.au name was held two years later in Sydney. The conference is generally held in a different Australian city each time; although from 2006 onward, New Zealand cities have also been hosts.

Event Date Venue and host city Keynote Speakers Resources
CALU 1999 Jul 9 – Jul 11 1999 Monash University
  Melbourne
Victoria
Jon 'maddog' Hall 1999
linux.conf.au 2001 Jan 17 – Jan 20 2001 University of New South Wales
  Sydney
New South Wales
Alan Cox,
David Miller,
Andrew Tridgell
2001
linux.conf.au 2002 Feb 6 – Feb 9 2002 University of Queensland
  Brisbane
Queensland
Andrew Tridgell,
Jeremy Allison,
Michi Henning,
Theodore Tso
2002
linux.conf.au 2003 Jan 20 – Jan 25 2003 University of Western Australia
  Perth
Western Australia
Rusty Russell,
Bdale Garbee,
Andrew Tridgell
2003
linux.conf.au 2004 Jan 12 – Jan 17 2004 University of Adelaide
  Adelaide
South Australia
Bdale Garbee,
Jon 'maddog' Hall,
Havoc Pennington
2004
linux.conf.au 2005 Apr 18 – Apr 23 2005 Australian National University
  Canberra
Australian Capital Territory
Andrew Tridgell,
Andrew Morton,
Eben Moglen
2005
linux.conf.au 2006 Jan 23 – Jan 28 2006 University of Otago
  Dunedin
New Zealand
Mark Shuttleworth,
Damian Conway,
David Miller
2006
linux.conf.au 2007 Jan 15 – Jan 20 2007 University of New South Wales
  Sydney
New South Wales
Kathy Sierra,
Andrew S. Tanenbaum,
Chris Blizzard
2007
linux.conf.au 2008 Jan 28 – Feb 2 2008 University of Melbourne
  Melbourne
Victoria
Anthony Baxter,
Bruce Schneier,
Stormy Peters
2008
linux.conf.au 2009 Jan 19 – Jan 24 2009 University of Tasmania
  Hobart
Tasmania[1]
Tom Limoncelli,
Angela Beesley,
Simon Phipps
2009
linux.conf.au 2010 Jan 18 – Jan 23 2010 Wellington Convention Centre
  Wellington
New Zealand
Benjamin Mako Hill,
Gabriella Coleman,
Nathan Torkington,
Glyn Moody
2010
linux.conf.au 2011 Jan 24 – Jan 29 2011 Queensland University of Technology,
  Brisbane
Queensland[2]
Mark Pesce,
Eric Allman,
Geoff Huston,
Vinton Cerf
2011
linux.conf.au 2012 Jan 16 – Jan 21 2012 University of Ballarat,
  Ballarat
Victoria[3]
Karen Sandler,
Bruce Perens,
Paul Fenwick,
Jacob Appelbaum
2012
linux.conf.au 2013 Jan 28 – Feb 2 2013 Australian National University
  Canberra
Australian Capital Territory
Andrew Huang,
Radia Perlman,
Bdale Garbee,
Tim Berners-Lee
2013
linux.conf.au 2014 Jan 6 – Jan 10 2014 University of Western Australia
  Perth
Western Australia
Suelette Dreyfus,
Kate Chapman,
Matthew Garrett,
Jonathan Oxer
2014
linux.conf.au 2015 Jan 12 – Jan 16 2015 University of Auckland
  Auckland
New Zealand
Bob Young,
Linus Torvalds,
Eben Moglen
2015
linux.conf.au 2016 Feb 1 – Feb 5 2016 Deakin University
  Geelong
Victoria
Genevieve Bell,
Catarina Mota,
Jono Bacon,
George Fong
2016
linux.conf.au 2017 Jan 16 – Jan 20 2017 Wrest Point Convention Centre
  Hobart
Tasmania
Robert M. "r0ml" Lefkowitz,
Nadia Eghbal,
Pia Waugh,
Dan Callahan
2017
linux.conf.au 2018 Jan 22 – Jan 26 2018 University of Technology Sydney
  Sydney
New South Wales
Karen Sandler,
Jess Frazelle,
Matthew H. Todd,
Hugh Blemings[4]
2018
linux.conf.au 2019 Jan 21 – Jan 25 2019 University of Canterbury
  Christchurch
New Zealand
Rory Aronson CEO FarmBot,
Dana Lewis OpenAPS,
Shannon Morse,
Rusty Russell
2019
linux.conf.au 2020 Jan 13 – Jan 17 2020 Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre
  Gold Coast
Queensland
Dr Sean Brady,
Donna Benjamin,
A/Prof Vanessa Teague,
Lizzie O’Shea
2020
linux.conf.au 2021 Jan 23- Jan 25 2021[5] Virtual event Limor Fried,
Omoju Miller,
Cory Doctorow
2021
linux.conf.au 2022 Jan 14 – Jan 16 2022[5] Virtual event Liz Fong-Jones,
Jono Bacon,
Kathy Reid,
Brian Kernighan
2022

Highlights from past conferences include:

  • 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: the first conference held under the linux.conf.au name.
  • 2006: the first conference to be held outside Australia, recognising the importance of the New Zealand Linux community.
  • 2007: a new feature was an Open Day for non-conference attendees, in which community groups, interest groups and Linux businesses held stands and demonstrations.
  • 2008: the second time the conference was held in Melbourne. 100 OLPC machines were distributed to random attendees to encourage development.[7] 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.
  • 2009: during the Penguin Dinner, a substantial sum of money was raised for the Save Tasmanian Devils fund – and a pledge made to replace the Tux Logo with the conference mascot, Tuz, to help raise awareness.[8]
  • 2010: over $33,000 raised for Wellington Lifeflight Helicopter Ambulance service.[9]
  • 2011: the event was almost washed out by the floods that devastated southern Queensland.[10]
  • 2016: preparations almost derailed by a massive storm just before the conference opened.[11]
  • 2021: in May 2020 Linux Australia announced that the planned 2021 conference in Canberra was postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lightweight virtual conference would be held in 2021 instead.[5]

Miniconfs

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Since 2002, a key feature of the conference are the associated "miniconfs". These are half – 2 days streamed gatherings run before the main conference. They have their own programme, but are open for any conference attendee to participate in.

The first event to have a miniconf was in 2002, with the Debian Miniconf, organised by James Bromberger. This was based upon the idea that DebConf 1 in Bordeaux was a "mini-conf" of the French Libre Software Meeting. The concept grew in 2004, with the Open-Source in Government (ossig) miniconf, EducationaLinux, Debian Miniconf and GNOME.conf.au. In 2010 the Arduino Miniconf was introduced by Jonathan Oxer, the author of Practical Arduino.

Miniconfs have included those devoted to computer programming, education, security, multimedia, arduino and system administration.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Hobart to host 2009 Linux conference". ITWire. 1 February 2008. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
  2. ^ "LCA2011 – Follow The Flow!". 22 January 2010. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  3. ^ "Ballarat wins Linux.conf.au 2012 bid". 28 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  4. ^ "linux.conf.au 2018 | News". Archived from the original on 27 January 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Germaine, Sae Ra (6 May 2020). "Linux Australia Community Update & LCA2021 Information". Linux Australia. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  6. ^ Corbet, Jonathan (17 January 2004). "The great dunking". LWN.net. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  7. ^ Corbet, Jonathan (30 January 2008). "A moment from LCA2008". LWN.net.
  8. ^ Kernel gets a new mascot Archived 2014-12-20 at the Wayback Machine – Linux Foundation – 19 March 2009
  9. ^ Linux Enthusiasts raises over $33,000 to help save lives Archived 2010-05-21 at the Wayback Machine – Life Flight Trust – 8 February 2010
  10. ^ Kidman, Angus (24 January 2011). "LCA 2011 Replanning shows importance of backup plans". Lifehacker.
  11. ^ Crane, Courtney (27 January 2016). "Flash floods, hail and damage as wild weather batters Geelong". Geelong Advertiser.
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