Torvalds lands in Adelaide

To meet some of the delegates and speakers at this years' developer conference, Torvalds has arrived as a guest at the event.

Asked why he decided to come to Adelaide, Torvalds told ZDNet Australia it was about the developers who are speaking and attending the conference rather than the commercial interests at the event.

"This conference is one of the three conferences where it is still completely technical. There is hardly any commercialisation here.

It is basically the geeks coming together"

"The reason I come here is mostly to meet people. It is not so much about learning the technical details as much as it is learning what people are working on, along with the social side" Torvalds added.

However delegates will not get to see Linus speak, as he will be strictly here to attend sessions and meet developers face to face.

"I don't like public speaking, I used to have to do it because I was the only person doing Linux, but now there are now a lot more people who do it and I'd leave it to them," he said.

One of the chief organisers of this year's event, Michael Davies, has claimed a 30 percent increase in numbers from last year's conference, with 520 out of a possible 600 places already taken.

Davies added that on Saturday, Torvalds could be dunked for what is claimed the first time. Conference organisers will auction off three balls, which successful bidders get to throw at a target. Each time the ball hits that target, Linus will be dunked into water. All proceeds from the event will go to charity.

The Linux.conf.au 2004 conference is Australia's largest Linux conference. It is being held at the University of Adelaide.