What's new at FreedomHEC

We have a venue, in lovely downtown Seattle, convenient to public transportation and lodging. Thanks to Pogo Linux Inc., our hosting sponsor.

About FreedomHEC

Coming to Seattle in May for that other hardware conference [ http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/attend06.mspx ]? On your way out, stay for the hardware unconference where you'll learn how easy it is to make your hardware compatible with free, open source operating systems such as Linux, and available to new markets such as servers, next-generation entertainment devices, and more.

Get answers on everything from kernel data structures to the fine points of licensing. Discover how participating in the Linux process is fast and simple, how the development process works, and where to get started.

To attend, edit this wiki and add your name. (The wiki password is: freedom)

Who: Hardware engineers and driver developers

What: High-intensity learning, networking and taking-back-the-PC-industry unconference

Where: 701 Fifth Avenue Seattle, WA 98104

When: May 26-27, 2006

Why: Take control of your own destiny and make your hardware valuable to the growing Linux market.

What you can expect to get out of FreedomHEC

• Understand the Linux kernel development process and learn how it differs from the "traditional" operating system driver development process.
• Learn how to become part of the Linux kernel development community.
• Learn how to port any existing code to the Linux kernel
• Learn various technical bits about different parts of the Linux kernel (SCSI layer? Driver core? sysfs? USB? PCI? Network driver layer? Anything else anyone wants to learn about?)
• learn how to properly submit code and get it accepted into the main kernel tree.
• learn how an individual company can directly influence the development of the areas surrounding their product. For example, they can add new features to the SCSI core if they need them, and they don't have to rely on any other company to do the work for them, as long as they work with the community.
• Realize that Linux kernel developers are easy to approach, and work directly with, no management levels are present to slow things down.

• a fun time.

Who's Who at FreedomHEC

(please add yourself! See below for wiki info.)

Greg Kroah-Hartman -- device driver educator

Greg K-H [ http://www.kroah.com/log/ ] is the maintainer for numerous Linux kernel driver subsystems including the driver core, sysfs, kobject, kref, and debugfs code. He also helped start the linux-hotplug and udev projects, and is one half of the kernel stable maintainer team. He works for SuSE Labs / Novell and does various kernel related things for them. Greg is co-author of the book "Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition" [ http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ ] and a contributing editor for Linux Journal.

Don Marti -- power strip untangler and manager of miscellaneous

Don Marti [ http://zgp.org/~dmarti/ ] has been an organizer of events including Burn All GIFs Day and the "Free Dmitry" movement. As a boy, he ran away from home and joined the trade show.

Contact Don at: dmarti@zgp.org or 510-332-1587

Leann Ogasawara -- Leann [ http://developer.osdl.org/ogasawara/ ] is a member of the Test and Performance group at OSDL. She is currently involved in their Open Drivers and Open Test Framework projects.

Jim Pick -- http://jimpick.com/

Randy Dunlap -- www.xenotime.net/linux/ past USB and kernel-janitors maintainer. Ready to discuss Linux social engineering skills.

Proposed Talks

Write a real working Linux driver

Introduction to the Linux kernel development process

Linux Kernel social engineering

Thanks to our Sponsors

Pogo Linux

Pogo Linux Inc. [ http://www.pogolinux.com.com/ ], makers of the new Verona 220 dual-core workstation, will be sponsoring our conference facility in downtown Seattle.

No Starch Press

No Starch Press [ http://www.nostarch.com/ ] is publisher of the new Write Great Code by Randall Hyde.

FreedomHEC in the News

• FreedomHEC to Help Windows Developers Learn Linux [ http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/24/1359228&from=rss ] by Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier on newsforge.com

Administrivia

Media, potential sponsors, questions: please mail Don Marti at dmarti@zgp.org

To contribute to this wiki, you'll need the password, which is: freedom

"This is the Christmas Jim Allchin stole from the hardware industry. We're stealing it back."

changed April 4 '06 at 7:55 pm