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.
1999: CALU (Conference of Australian Linux Users) was conceived, bankrolled (via his personal credit card) and executed by
Linux kernelhackerRusty 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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
2010: over $33,000 raised for Wellington Lifeflight Helicopter Ambulance service.[9]
2011: the event was almost washed out by
the floods that devastated southern Queensland.[10]
2016: preparations almost derailed by a massive storm just before the conference opened.[11]
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.[5]
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.