Linux Australia is the national, Australian

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

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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). 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 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 2002 * Pia Smith 2003, 2004 * Jonathan Oxer 2005-2007 * Stewart Smith (Australian) 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 2016 *

Kathy Reid Kathy is a feminine given name. It is a pet form of Katherine, Kathleen and their related forms. Kathy may refer to: In sports * Kathy Bald, Canadian freestyle swimmer *Kathy May, American tennis player *Kathy Radzuweit, German volleyball player ...

2017-2019 * Sae Ra Germaine 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. Havi ...

), and Paul "Rusty" Russell (Linux Kernel, notably Netfilter and the 2.6 modules rewrite), and Mary Gardiner founder of the Ada Initiative.

The Rusty Wrench award

The Rusty Wrench at Coogee Beach, Feb 2013

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 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 * 2021 Ryan Verner * 2020 Jonathan Oxer * 2019 Joshua Hesketh * 2017 Michael Davies and Michael Still (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 ...

* 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, and wa ...

* 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 * 2005

The Rusty Wrench award was not awarded between 2008 and 2011. It was awarded again at linux.conf.au 2012 based on nominations from the free software and open source communities.

References

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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