Linux Australia

Linux Australia is the national, Australian Linux organisation. It was founded in 1997 and formally incorporated in New South Wales as a non-profit organisation in 1999. Linux Australia aims to represent the Australian Linux community and to support and collaborate with the Linux User Groups in Australia.

Jonathan Oxer, Past President

History and goals

Linux Australia was co-founded by Terry Dawson and Gary Allpike. From humble beginnings the organisation was formally incorporated to provide legal support for the inaugural Conference of Australian Linux Users (now linux.conf.au). Over progressive years the organisation has steadily matured in its operation and today its major activities include the successful annual linux.conf.au open source conference, a grants program that seeds and supports relevant open source projects, and regular participation in public events such as conferences and exhibitions. Public relations activities include lobbying to government and corporate entities on open source issues and comment and opinion to the media.

Council

The executive council is elected democratically by the organisation membership annually, and therefore changes year to year. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in furthering the goals and objectives of the organisation.

The executive council for 2012 is:

• John Ferlito (president)
• Mike Carden (vice-president)
• Joshua Hesketh (treasurer)
• Peter Lieverdink (secretary)
• James Polley
• Clinton Roy
• Bianca Gibson

Previous committee members and details can be found on the Linux Australia website http://linux.org.au/About/Council

Notable former committee members include Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell (Samba), and Paul "Rusty" Russell (Linux Kernel, notably Netfilter and the 2.6 modules rewrite), Pia Waugh (Software Freedom International), Jonathan Oxer (Australia's Geekiest Man).

The Rusty Wrench award

The Rusty Wrench is an award presented annually at linux.conf.au since 2005 for service to the free software community in Australia. It is named for its first recipient, Rusty Russell.

Past recipients

• 2012 Mary Gardiner
• 2007 Kimberlee Weatherall
• 2006 Pia Waugh
• 2005 Rusty Russell

The Rusty Wrench award was not awarded in 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011. It will be awarded again at linux.conf.au 2012 based on nominations from the free software and open source communities.

See also

• AUUG, the Australian Unix systems User Group
• LUGs in Australia
• Open Source Industry Australia

External links

• Main Site http://www.linux.org.au/
• Linux Conference Australia http://linux.conf.au/
• Planet Linux Australia http://planet.linux.org.au/
• Linux Australia Mirror Project http://mirror.linux.org.au