# Linux.conf.au

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.
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

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 | 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 | Mark Pesce, Eric Allman, Geoff Huston, Vinton Cerf | 2011 |
| linux.conf.au 2012 | Jan 16 – Jan 21 2012 | University of Ballarat, Ballarat Victoria | 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 | 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 | Virtual event | Limor Fried, Omoju Miller, Cory Doctorow | 2021 |
| linux.conf.au 2022 | Jan 14 – Jan 16 2022 | 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.
* 2004: a major highlight was the dunking of Linus Torvalds for charity.
* 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. 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.
* 2010: over $33,000 raised for Wellington Lifeflight Helicopter Ambulance service.
* 2011: the event was almost washed out by the floods that devastated southern Queensland.
* 2016: preparations almost derailed by a massive storm just before the conference opened.
* 2020: $24,342 raised and donated to Red Cross for Australian Bush-fire relief
* 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.

## Miniconfs

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.