Ottawa Linux Symposium and

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Ottawa Linux Symposium and CE Linux Forum
Tim Bird Sony Electronics, Inc.
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Ottawa Linux Symposium

• What is it?
• Premiere technical conference for Linux kernel
  developers
• Held annually in Ottawa, Canada, in July
• This year its July 20-23
• Important gathering of many important Linux
  developers, maintainers and users
• Why does it matter?
• It is a place for people to meet face-to-face to
  discuss roadmap of Linux kernel

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Other similar conferences

• FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Developers European
  Meeting)
• LinuxConf Australia
• CELF Technical Conferences?

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CELF involvement with OLS

• CELF is a sponsor of the event
• CELF donates prizes to be handed out at the final
  keynote
• In the past, CELF has given presentations, Birds
  of a Feather (BOF) sessions
• Currently planning to show demos of CE projects
  at the conference

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How does CELF benefit from OLS?

• CE Linux developers can attend the event
• Good for developers and their companies
• More importantly, is a place to influence other
  kernel developers
• CELF can also influence kernel developers during
  the run-up to the conference
• So, even if you cant attend, you can help!

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Attending OLS tips

• OLS is about personal networking
• Many presentations are not focused on embedded
• A word of warning expect flames, but
• BE NICE

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Networking

• Should try hard to meet people in your area
• Attend presentations, make note of who is
  presenting, and who is asking questions
• Ask questions yourself!
• Talk to people in the hallway
• Introduce yourself!!
• Attend BOFs (Birds of a Feather Session)
• Dont just go back to the hotel room
• Find people for meals
• Tag along if you have to

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Networking (cont.)

• Seeing someone in person helps with your comfort
  level on mailing lists
• Very simple request
• Just talk to people about CE issues

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Quick comment on Flames

• Most developers are nice and courteous
• Some developers have deep anti-commercial bias
• Best way to defuse a flame is say Im here to
  learn how to participate better.

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If you are not attending

• Papers are published after the conference
• See proceedings at
• http//www.linuxsymposium.org/proceedings.php
• Dont just read papers, but also note authors and
  their writings on web and on LKML
• Send comments!!
• Especially send patches, if you have them

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Preparing for OLS

• Tims evil plan
• Extra hard push in next 4 weeks to
• Discuss CE issues on relevant mailing lists
• Send patches
• Even if the patches are not ready, you can send a
  Request for Comment
• Prepare good demos for OLS
• Try to flood community with CE-related
  discussions and code

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What makes a good OLS demo?

• Must NOT be a sales pitch for a product
• But its good to show a product or board and
  describe how Linux was adapted for or it
• Code should be available
• Demonstrate something interesting or surprising
  from CE space
• Purpose is to raise awareness of CE issues, and
  help change perspective of non-CE developers

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Examples from this Conference

• Very good issues raised at conference
• Special needs of embedded that influenced design
  decisions for Qt Embedded and DirectFB
• Big issues with cross-compilation of packages
  (which DeviceLinux and OpenEmbedded handle in
  different ways)
• Great list of specific issues adapting Linux to a
  cell phone

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Lets have fun!

• Ill see you out on the community lists!