Australia's leading Linux organisation is mulling over a name that encompasses the broader open-source community.
Linux Australia president John Ferlito has raised the idea of renaming Linux Australia to represent the reach that the organisation has with the broader open-source community. Proposing the move on the Linux-aus mailing list, Fertilo wrote:
"Linux Australia has been around for over 10 years, and we are no longer an organisation focused mainly on Linux and running LCA each year. All of our members use or contribute to open-source projects in one form or another. Linux Australia has also become involved in open-source and open-culture events that are not specifically related to Linux."
Opinion on the change is split: a number of members are supportive of a move to a name like Open Technology Australia; many others disagree with a name change at all, citing the work done and progress made on Linux Australia promotion for over a decade.
Jon "maddog" Hall, Linux luminary and executive director of Linux International, suggested instead that the organisation need only change its tagline to "Representing Free Software and Open Source Communities" to reflect the open-source ecosystem beyond Linux.
A Linux Australia wiki page has been created to show the alternate naming proposals. Of this list, I am particularly amused by the Libre Open and Linux Conferences Across the Tasman name that shortens to LOLCAT, which could lead to a plethora of images, such as these pictures.
Ferlito said that Linux Australia does not intend to relinquish the Linux Australia brand or the linux.org.au domain name for as long as it makes sense to maintain them in any transition.
