I’m going over my notes from LCA 2008 as I write a feature on open source for MIS magazine, and this quote from Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s chief technologist for open source, still stands out to me:

“Next time you buy hardware, think very hard about a way that you can signal to the vendor that you don’t want Windows. The message gets passed on as soon as its loud enough.”

He was talking about desktop computers, but of course it’s equally applicable to servers and other hardware.

Bravo to the vendors who do offer alternative operating systems on their desktop PCs and laptops – including Dell, HP (later this year) and ASUS.

If you think this post is just a way for me to justify buying an Eee PC, shame on you.

My writeup of Linux.conf.au (LCA) 2008 has appeared in the international Linux Magazine. I googled and found it for your reading pleasure – you’ll need to open it in PDF format, but it’s a fun little read (if I do say so myself). The guys at Linux Mag did promise to send me a copy, but I haven’t received it as yet – the only reason I knew my story was out was through bumping into Paul Fenwick (of Perl Training Australia) at the launch of the Waugh Partner’s Australian Open Source Community and Industry Report the other week. So thanks, Paul!

Penguin’s Big Day Out [Linux Magazine]

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Senator Kate Lundy’s pre-2020 Summit event, the Foundations of Open, last week. I was the only media representative there, and it was a fascinating event.

The day covered a range of topics about open source tech and its potential for the government and community/not-for-profit sectors, as well as open standards and open access to information. I couldn’t possibly hope to cover everything that was discussed but I hope to tease out a few more stories from the event over the coming weeks. Here’s the first story, anyway. It was published at ITNews:

Open Source the biggest potential game changer for government: Lundy

Senator Lundy asked all participants to create submissions to be taken to the PM’s 2020 Summit which is happening at the end of this month. It would be great to see more systemic use of open source tech – and particularly its ethos of sharing information and tech solutions – across government.