This year, Linux fans "marched south" for Linux.conf.au (LCA) in Hobart. Last week, conference organisers told delegates that they would be heading overseas to Wellington, New Zealand for LCA 2010.
The Wellington conference will be the second LCA hosted in NZ — the first was in Dunedin in 2006.
The conference wrapped up on Friday with the announcement of next year's venue and the traditional handover to the 2010 organisers, headed up by Andrew and Susanne Ruthven.
Despite the tough economic conditions, which impacted on attendance numbers and saw around eight speakers pull out of the conference, LCA attracted 530 attendees this year. Attendees also raised $38,000 at a charity auction benefiting the endangered local marsupial and LCA mascot for 2009, the Tasmanian devil.
In addition to individual bidders, a consortium of bidders raised $10,600, which was matched by a $10,000 donation by Linux Australia, the community group behind LCA.
The colourful charity auction took place at Wednesday's conference dinner. Attendees bid for the rights to a personalised licence plate "GEEK" and Linux creator Linus Torvalds promised to shave HP's Linux CTO and open-source luminary Bdale Garbee's beard.
LCA is Australia's largest tech conference devoted to free and open-source software, and is run by volunteers each year.
