Linux Australia is the national,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Free and Open Source Software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

Community organisation. It was founded in 1997 and formally incorporated in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

as a non-profit organisation in 1999. Linux Australia aims to represent Australian Free and Open Source Software communities and to support and collaborate with related groups, including Linux User Groups in Australia.

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 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 Australian or New Zealand city every year, coordinated by Linux Australia and organised by lo ...

). Over progressive years the organisation has steadily matured in its operation and today its major activities include the successful annual

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

conference, a grants program that seeds and supports relevant

projects, and regular participation in public events such as conferences and exhibitions. Public relations activities include lobbying to government and corporate entities on

issues and comment and opinion to the media.

Office holders

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.

Presidents

* Terry Dawson 2001 *

Anand Kumria Anand may refer to: People * Anand (name), a surname and given name (including a list of people with the name) * Anand (actor), Indian actor * Anand (Maoist), Indian communist * Anand (writer) (born 1936), Indian Malayalam writer Places * Anand ...

2002 *

Pia Smith Pia Andrews (née Pia Smith, also formerly known as Pia Waugh), born 1979, is an open government leader and the ''Special Advisor, Digital & Client Data Workstream Lead'' for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Andrews spearheaded ...

2003, 2004 *

Jonathan Oxer Jonathan Oxer (born 26 July 1970, London, England) is a computer programmer, Debian developer, author, entrepreneur, and Free Software activist. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and their two children. Early life and education ...

2005-2007 * Stewart Smith (Australian) 2008, 2009 * John Ferlito 2010-2012 * Joshua Hesketh 2013-2015 *

Hugh Blemings Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

2016 * Kathy Reid 2017-2019 *

Sae Ra Germaine SAE or Sae may refer to: Science and technology : * Selective area epitaxy, local growth of epitaxial layer through a patterned dielectric mask deposited on a semiconductor substrate * Serious adverse event, in a clinical trial * Simultaneous Auth ...

2019-2021 *

Joel Addison Joel or Yoel is a name meaning "Yahweh Is God" and may refer to: * Joel (given name), origin of the name including a list of people with the first name. * Joel (surname), a surname * Joel (footballer, born 1904), Joel de Oliveira Monteiro, Brazili ...

2022- 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 Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havin ...

), and Paul "Rusty" Russell (Linux Kernel, notably Netfilter and the 2.6 modules rewrite), and

Mary Gardiner Mary Gardiner is an Australian Linux programmer who was director of operations at the Ada Initiative, described as a "non-profit organization dedicated to increasing participation of women in open technology and culture". She was a council mem ...

founder of the

Ada Initiative The Ada Initiative was a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in the free culture movement, open source technology and open culture. The organization was founded in 2011 by Linux kernel developer and open source a ...

The Rusty Wrench award

The Rusty Wrench at Coogee Beach, Feb 2013

The Rusty Wrench is an award presented annually at

since 2005 for service to the free software community in Australia. It is named for its first recipient,

Rusty Russell Rusty Russell is an Australian free software programmer and advocate, known for his work on the Linux kernel's networking subsystem and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Software development Russell wrote the packet filtering systems ip ...

Past recipients

* 2022

Dave Lane Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

* 2021

Ryan Verner Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an electo ...

* 2020

* 2019 Joshua Hesketh * 2017 Michael Davies and

Michael Still Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

(joint winners) * 2015 Steve Walsh * 2014

Andrew Tridgell Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell (born 28 February 1967) is an Australian computer programmer. He is the author of and a contributor to the Samba file server, and co-inventor of the rsync algorithm. He has analysed complex proprietary protocols and a ...

* 2013

Donna Benjamin Donna Benjamin is an Australian open source community contributor, commentator and advocate. She has served in board positions with community organisations including Open Source Industry Australia, Drupal Association and the Ada Initiative, an ...

* 2012

* 2007

Kimberlee Weatherall Kimberlee "Kim" Weatherall (born 1974) is an Australian intellectual property lawyer and Professor of Law at the University of Sydney Law School specialising in issues at the intersection of law and technology, as well as intellectual property ...

* 2006

Pia Waugh Pia Andrews (née Pia Smith, also formerly known as Pia Waugh), born 1979, is an open government leader and the ''Special Advisor, Digital & Client Data Workstream Lead'' for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Andrews spearheaded ...

* 2005

The Rusty Wrench award was not awarded between 2008 and 2011. It was awarded again at

2012 based on nominations from the free software and open source communities.

References

{{Reflist

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 Linux user groups Non-profit organisations based in New South Wales Internet in Australia