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 ...

n Free and Open Source Software Community 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 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 *

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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) Stewart Smith may refer to: *Stewart Smith (politician) (1907–1993), leading member of the Communist Party of Canada *Stewart Henry Smith (1855–1896), Scottish rugby union player * J. Stewart Smith (1913–2008), New Zealand man who introduced ...

2008, 2009 *

John Ferlito John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

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 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 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.

Past recipients

* 2022 Dave Lane * 2021 Ryan Verner * 2020

* 2019 Joshua Hesketh * 2017 Michael Davies and Michael Still (joint winners) * 2015 Steve Walsh * 2014 Andrew Tridgell * 2013 Donna Benjamin * 2012 Mary Gardiner * 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 propert ...

* 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 Rusty Russell 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