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Day four of the conference opened with a keynote entitiled “Hackers at the End of the World” by Glyn Moody. Glyn explored the history of sharing in science and art as inspired by the open source movement, and contrasted this with the anti-sharing ‘my gain is your loss’ culture of the global financial community. Glyn postulated that the sharing and indeed sharing of sharing that characterises the FOSS community held a tantalising glimpse of a solution to the global financial and environmental crisis.

Jeremy Allison brought forward an extremely provocative look at Microsoft’s overtures to the open source community with “The Elephant in the Room - Microsoft and Free Software”. Jeremy took the audience through Microsoft’s duality in recent times in attempting to reconsile with the open source community at the same time working against them in the political and regulartory arena.

Jonathan Oxer delighted attendees with a talk on “Tux on the Moon”, showcasing the Lunar Numbat project and it’s efforts to partner with the Google Lunar X-Prize team White Label Space to “… put a Linux powered robotic Australian marsupial on the moon”.

The day was concluded by a Professional Delegates Networking Session at the Wellington Opera House. The final day of the conference will open with a short keynote by Nat Torkington and a series of lightning talks, with the conference Penguin dinner closing the evening activities.

The glorious weather that had punctuated the first two days of the conference held, heralding in the third day in a blaze of sunshine. The conference proper was introduced by a keynote by Benjamin Mako Hill on Antifeatures: Why your software works against you and why software freedom offers hope of a better future. Mako explored the concept of anti-features as deliberately included functionality or a lack of functionality that users hate so much they will pay to have them removed. Some classic examples included the gator spyware that was included with free version of p2p software on the windows platform - with a spyware-free version available for a fee.

Mako took the audience through why anti-features exist to further profits, and showed how in an environment dominated by free and open software they would be unable to survive.

Fowllowing the keynote session, Jonathan Corbet gave his traditional Kernel Report, covering major milestones in kernel development since last year’s conference, and addressing the challenges the kernel development team face in the year to time. Those of us with massively parallel-processing netbooks will be pleased to know the Linux kernel now scales to 4096 cpus.

Matthew Carretts talk on social Success in (and for) the Linux community covered many of the reasons that the Linux community can be a hostile and toxic place for new contributers to enter. He covered how aggressive and confrontational behaviour is rewarded and how as a community Linux will need to learn to welcome and retain new members.

As comic relief I caught Paul Fenwick’s engaging presentation on the World’s Worst Inventions. Covering such gems as cocaine cough-drop marketed to children and the recent children’s bead product that metabolised to GHB when ingested, Paul went through a few hundred years of misguided and downright dangerous inventions.

The fourth day of the conference will feature a keynote by Glyn Moody, provocatively titled ‘Hackers at the End of the World’, and also the Professional Delegates Networking session.

First published on LinuxJournal.com

The second day of the conference dawned just as bright and sunny as the first. The opening keynote was delivered by Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. She spoke on the history of the FOSS movement as birthed by Richard Stallman and it’s paradoxical growth during the same period that governments and corporate bodies were pushing their agenda for stronger IP and copyright control. Gabriella took the audience through the wrangling that forever forced the FOSS community into the political arena and created the biggest threat to the traditional concept of IP that exists today.

Tuesday is traditionally the second day of miniconfs at LCA, with the lineup including:

System Administration Miniconf
Bridging the gap
Open and the Public Sector
Education Miniconf
Data Storage and Retrieval Miniconf
Multicore and Parallel Computing Miniconf
Multimedia Miniconf

For me, the highlight of the day was the talk by Paul Gunn of Weta Digital, who explored the ‘Challenges in Data Centre Growth’ inherent in the demanding task of rendering movie frames. With some limited personal knowledge of the makeup of the infamous Weta render farm, it was fascinating to get a closer look.

This year, Linux.conf.au is hosting a photography competition for delegates and speakers, with four sections breaking the stunning Wellington city sights into quadrants. Entries are accepted for Lambton, Cuba, Courtenay and the Waterfront, roughly delimiting four areas of interest in Wellington’s compact CBD.

The first round of competition entries have been judged with the finalists announced - disclaimer, I was one of them - you’ll all just have to believe me that I intended to mention the competition before I knew!

The first round of finalists were:

Dustin Kirkland
Tim Potter
William Gordon
Jes Fraser

With Dustin Kirkland having entered two winning entries.

Day 3 will usher in the conference proper, starting with a keynote by Benjamin Mako Hill.

First posted on
LinuxJournal.com

January brings with it the southern-hemisphere’s summer and Linux.conf.au. This year, the conference is being held in Wellington, New Zealand thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Capital Cabal, a team of volunteer organisers lead by Susanne and Andrew Ruthven.

After a grey and wintery weekend, Wellington was all smiles for the first day of the conference. Situated at the Town Hall and Wellington Convention Centre close to the waterfront, sunshine, blue skies and balmy temperatures saw quite a few conference goers spending time outside exploring today.

This year’s volunteers are numerous and helpful, and have done an amazing job of making the first day of LCA smoother than any other in memory. For the first time, the conference is being streamed live and streams can be accessed from the schedule on http://lca2010.org.nz. For me, just having the wireless working on day one was impressive enough.

The conference format is the same as previous years, with two days of mini-confs and then three days of conference proper. Monday’s line up included:

Business of Open Source Miniconf
Open Programming Languages Miniconf
Wave Developers Miniconf
Haecksen and Linuxchix Miniconf
Libre Graphics Day
Arduino Miniconf
Distro Summit

I have always enjoyed the first day at LCA, catching up with people I’ve met at previous years and making new connections. Registration is always exciting with the traditional goodie bag to rifle through. Tuesday is when the sessions that pique my interest most start, with talks on systems administration and high-performance computing. I’m really looking forward to it, and from looking at how it’s started, I really think this year’s conference is going to be one of the best.

It’s Linux.conf time of year again, and I’m starting to get that night-before-christmas feeling. This year the conference is being held in my home city of Wellington, New Zealand. Thanks to the generosity of my employer, Modica, I will be spending the entire week at the conference.

I’m going to be blogging the conference here and on LinuxJournal.com which will be a nice motivation to start writing regularly again. I’m looking at the schedule with a particular eye toward kernel and systems administration talks, and anticipating catching up with people I’ve met in previous years.

More than that, every year I return from LCA fired up by feeling a real connection with the community and armed with new knowledge that gives me a direct benefit in my day-job as a Linux systems administrator. I’m looking forward to experiencing this for my third year in a row.

Jes Fraser (née Hall)

A very quick note to mention that I will be known from now as Jes Fraser, having recently entered into a civil union and taking my partner’s name. Given my previous history of Open Source contributions and writing for Linux Journal that can be found on the internet under the name of Hall, it was a hard decision.

Of course, almost as soon as I had officially taken the new name, someone on the internet mentioned some of my Open Source contributions under my old name. It was going to happen, right? :)

While cleaning through some data to free up an external drive I found a collection of screenshots from around 5 years ago. I spent a pleasant few minutes paging through them, remembering what my desktop and workflow used to be like.

Then

Then I used Slackware Linux, running Fluxbox. I used Eterm as my terminal emulator, primarily for it’s transparency and other graphical effects. Mozilla was my browser - I suspect this may have been before Firefox was included in most Linux distributions. At this stage, I was compiling Mozilla from source to get a later version than was included in the Slackware 8 distribution.

The entries in my menu launcher were hand-written, and I used XMMS as it could directly output to /dev/dsp without insisting on a sound server. I used very few graphical applications - XMMS, Mozilla, Gaim and Eterm. I had a lot of spare time to tweak my desktop.

I was surprised to remember how appearance focused most of my older workspaces were. I’m definitely guilty of prioritising eye-candy over usability here - although, who knew IceWM was capable of looking this gorgeous?

Now

Now, when I run Linux I run Ubuntu. I use Gnome desktop environment and Firefox as my browser. I don’t compile from source any more unless I really need to for an obscure utility. My usual software set has grown to include KeepassX, Dropbox, Tweetdeck, , and VMware Workstation. I’m still using a Mozilla-based browser (Firefox) and a Gaim based IM client (Pidgin). One thing that hasn’t changed is that I’m still running my IRC under a screen session on a remote server with IRSSI. Some habits will never die.

I have a lot less time these days. Full time work and home commitments mean I lean more toward options that will work with little tweaking. I’ve also found, like many people do, that working with a technology every day at work makes me less likely to want to ‘play’ with it at home. Where previously I prioritized having a clean, lean system that I had molded by hand, now I look for a solution that’s going to give me what I need out-of-the-box.

Netbooks. Yeah, I’m moderately obsessed with them. So however is most of the rest of the industry, seeing netbooks as the first small step toward the ubiquitous internet that’s been predicted for most of the time I’ve been alive.

One of the oft-mentioned limitations of the netbook platform as it currently stands is the choice of operating system. While many find Windows XP preferable to the myriad Linux options, Microsoft’s offering is starting to show its age, and can be quite cumbersome for the highly mobile who connect to many networks and devices. While Windows Vista does have an improved networking experience, its draconian hardware requirements leaves its performance on Atom sorely lacking.
Linux is a natural partner to the netbook, if only we can convince the market. For the moment however, buyers seem to be looking to replicate their Windows desktop experience on their netbook - just smaller and more streamlined.

The release candidate of Windows 7 looks like the most promising answer. With Vista’s failings so fresh in the mind’s of consumers, it’s probably not surprising that many netbook owners are unaware that Windows 7 will not only run on a netbook, but perform well.

Aero interface running well on Intel GMA 950

On a clean install of Windows 7, the driver support is simply exceptional. Most netbook hardware is automatically detected and bluetooth, wireless, display and other drivers are already present. Most netbook models will require the Vista or Windows XP version of their touchpad drivers installed to enable full multi-touch/scrolling support, and quite often the manufacturers software will need to be installed to fully enable the use of hotkeys. This is still a far cry from Windows XP, which can sometimes be lacking fundamentals such as USB support on newer chipsets before drivers are installed.

Performance is surprisingly good. On the Intel GMA 950 graphics included on most netbooks, Aero is fully enabled and graphical effects display with a minimum of lag. On a HP Mini 1000 with the standard 1.6Ghz Atom CPU and 1GB memory I am running at the time of writing:

WordPad
Google Chrome, 4 tabs
Windows photo viewer
Psi - one chat, one chat room
PuTTY - one ssh session
Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop

All of this running, and no slow-down yet

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop is a cross-platform email client for the Zimbra mail server, an open source Exchange replacement. There’s unfortunately java involved, and it’s consuming a whopping 300MB of my memory entirely on its own - by anyone’s standards, a fairly heavy piece of software to be running for mail. With all of this running, I was able to play back a YouTube video smoothly without noticing any lag or performance problems at all.

As far as Windows 7’s feature set goes, its improved networking really benefits a highly mobile device like a netbook. Connecting to many wireless networks and having the machine reconnect to the one you actually want is pretty close to seamless. Windows XP has a nasty little habit of connecting to the weakest strength wireless network just to spite me. I was disappointed to find out that I couldn’t enable BitLocker drive encryption due to the lack of a TPM chip in the device I was using. Whole-disk encryption seems like a natural precuation to take on a device that could be so easily lost or stolen.

Many have referred to Vista as ‘XP Service Pack 4′ in the sense that it is simply a visual overhaul rather than a new evolution, and Windows 7 similarly feels like ‘Vista done right’ rather than anything new and revolutionary. Despite this, it’s still great to see that Windows 7 holds such promise for lower-powered devices.

I keep promising myself that I wont do this again. It’s actually getting a little embarrassing, really. I can tell that my friends think I have a problem, but are too polite to mention it. This time I managed to go entire *months*, but I’ve succumbed again, and bought another netbook.

HP Mini 1001TU

CPU: Atom N270 1.6 GHz
Hard drive: 60 GB
RAM: 1024 MB
Screen size: 10.1″
Native resolution: 1024×600
Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g
Bluetooth: Yes
USB ports: 2
Weight: 1.09 kg

The Mini 1001 from Hewlett Packard is easily the most attractive netbook available in New Zealand stores to date. At only 1″ thick with an attractively understated swirl design on the lid, the Mini looks like a far more expensive machine. The notebook’s palm rest and keyboard are a matte black plastic that feels good to type on and avoids becoming greasy with fingerprints. The 92% of full-size keyboard is easily the best keyboard available on a netbook at the moment, with the possible exception of the Vaio P. The layout is standard, and the keys are large and have excellent feedback.

The touchpad is reminiscent of the Acer Aspire and the original HP Mini, with the mouse buttons positioned either side. I’ve read a lot of reviews that criticise this placement, but I found I adjusted to them very quickly. It helps that the buttons are quite large compared to other touchpads of this type, making them an easier target. There’s a hardware switch just above the touchpad that allows you to toggle it on and off. Given the size of the notebook, I find this extremely handy to stop myself from hitting the touchpad with my palm while writing long articles and emails.

The screen is 1024×600, standard netbook resolution, but here the similarities to other models end. The display is similar to that featured in the current model MacBook Pro, recessed behind a glass panel for an edge-to-edge appearance. The colour, contrast, and brightness are exceptional although reflections are high. This is not a netbook that would be easily used outside - glossy screen haters beware.

The Mini features 2 USB 2.0 ports, an ethernet jack hidden behind a small rubber door and an SD card reader. Two proprietary expansion ports are also included. The expansion port on the left can take an optional VGA adaptor for video out, and the storage port on the right is recessed to fit a particular model of HP ’storage module’ - basically a USB stick. Some may be annoyed by needing to purchase accessories to make use of these ports - I consider the expansion port at least a reasonable tradeoff, as including a VGA or DVI connector on the body of the notebook would have increased it’s thickness.

Linux compatibility is a strong point with the HP Mini. The current release of Ubuntu Linux, Intrepid Ibex (8.10) supports the system almost flawlessly. Suspend-to-ram, wireless, bluetooth, and the webcam are all supported. This isn’t terribly surprising given that HP’s own Linux interface for the Mini, the Mobile Internet Experience (MIE) is based on Ubuntu Linux with a custom front-end.

The MIE is the most polished interface of it’s kind so far. Like most netbook specific distributions, it provides a simplified interface to commonly used applications and integrates media playback. A rebranded firefox is used for webbrowsing, with Thunderbird providing email and Pidgin instant messaging. Sunbird and OpenOffice are included for productivity. Media playback is handled by a HP proprietary application with a simple and attractive interface. Skype is included for video calling, although the Mini’s webcam is really quite awful. Don’t get this netbook if you use the webcam a lot.

When the HP Mini Note 2133 was released last year with an underpowered VIA processor that struggled to run it’s pre-loaded Vista, I remember looking at it’s excellent keyboard and wishing for an atom version. HP have gone one better and delivered an atom version that’s lighter, slimmer, and even more stylish. Standardising on Ubuntu and the Mini’s excellent Linux compatibility is just the icing on an already extremely delicious cake. Bravo HP.

I started a new job as a Linux Systems Administrator this week. My backup disk I use for my laptop died on the first day. While I’m not exactly being terribly useful here yet, it’s still been a tense few days while I waited for my new backup solution to arrive. Especially when I realised that my backups have actually been becoming slowly more corrupted for the last two weeks - yay for failing IDE controller.

The old disk and enclosure were PATA. Looking at the prices of SATA disks now, it seemed it was a pretty good time to switch to using SATA for externals as well. I’ve paired the Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock with a Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB.

The NexStar dock takes a less traditional approach to hard disk enclosures, providing a toaster-like slot that allows installation and removal of drives without a single screw. It supports both 3.5″ ‘desktop’ sized drives, as well as 2.5″ laptop drives. There’s a quick-release button to the right that releases the drive from the dock, and a large, easy to press power button on the front that glows with the ever-present accursed blue LEDs. At least it’s relatively easy to ignore in a brightly lit office.

The dock supports both USB2 and eSATA, including a bracket to convert an internal SATA port to an eSATA port on a desktop machine. It’s fairly lightweight but feels sturdy, and becomes heavy enough to not be at risk of being knocked over once you put a hard disk into it.

For the price I’m very impressed with this device. A dual slot version is also available, allowing you to use up to two disks in the enclosure at once. There’s also a slightly more expensive option that includes Firewire. For the sysadmin or technician who tends to swap drives around between devices fairly often, or use enclosures to recover data from failing systems, this device is a life saver.