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Australian Open Source Winners Announced

Posted by michael on from the kudos dept.

ilovestuff writes "The winners of the annual Australian Unix and Open Systems User Group's open source awards were announced in Sydney last night. Winners included Andrew Tridgell, Rusty Russell, Kimberley Shelt and Martin Pool."

10 comments

  1. Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Mr.+Darl+McBride · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Yes, that Martin Pool! What isn't mentioned in the article or the writeup is what a sea change this occasion represents. Martin's been passed up for awards and work both, largely because of his outspokenness about alternate lifestyles. If you think things are tough in the US, you can't imagine what life's like in Australia, where there's no such thing as a "hate crime" or enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. For the OSUG award committee to recognize Martin's vast accomplishments is a risk to future funding for the awards, and a potential press nightmare. Let's hope that global recognition and endorsement of the awards offsets any difficulties resulting from this positive step for Australia.

    You can do your part by writing the OSUG award committee through the club secretary and, in your own words, letting them know you approve of all of the nominees. Kimberly is a new surprise as well, but Martin was entirely unexpected. I'm writing to the award committee myself, as well as to Martin Pool and his now far-away life partner, Robert Crawford, now VP of Software Development at the Bridge Agency.

    1. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Martin made it much easier for me to come out of the closet. When I ran across his mailing lists and found how casually he could joke about these things, and how nobody else seemed offended or attacked him for it, I was floored.

      Say what you will about the open software community. Some people may be hot tempered, some may be exclusionary or quick to criticize, but I've yet to find a group so willing to accept people from all walks of life. I now date a wonderful guy I met through the Missouri Linux Club (MLC), I'm out on campus, and life has never been better.

      Thanks to more than Martin and OSUG. Thank you to everyone for making open source a true open community!

    2. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Martin spoke at NZUG in New Zealand. At the time he wasn't seeing Robert and was being funny about flirting all through his talk, pinching or trying to pinch the group president on the ass whenever he'd say "grep," which he seemed to work in a lot. I've never laughed so hard through a talk.

      Also cool, he used wiki the way most people use PowerPoint. His presentation was completely non-linear and was steered by the audience's questions, yet he still managed to give the big picture. The guy has a wicked sense of humor, and I'd call him a credit to any group who would have him. And if you can get him to talk to your own user group, make sure you do!

    3. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There shouldn't be "hate crimes" anywhere. I don't care why you murder/rape/steal, if you do it on purpose you should face the same sentence.

    4. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "Hate crimes" are those things where someone in Texas or Idaho is sentenced to death for killing for someone and the liberals start screaming that a) the death penalty is excessive and b) we need hate crime laws because the defendant isn't being punished enough, right?

      Yeah, I know this guy is looking to reload to troll at +2, I know.

    5. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Mr.+Darl+McBride · · Score: 1
      I mostly agree with you. I think that the hate crime category is mostly a tool to raise the awareness of the problem, and it has a lot of value there. I'm not sure I've heard of anyone actually being prosecuted more harshly for the crime falling in the hate crime category, but it's good that it's at least brought into the court discussion at a time where the perpetrator is receptive to discussions about his future.

      Still, I wish I could leverage this to turn that $3 billion into $5 billion. Do you think IBM might be flaunting our license merely because we're mormons?

    6. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Magic+Thread · · Score: 1
      there's no such thing as a "hate crime" or enforcement of anti-discrimination laws
      Uh, aren't those two things mutually exclusive? Calling some crimes "hate crimes" == discrimination.
    7. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Flouting", Mr. McBride, not "flaunting"...

    8. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The tests were hard in charm school; few heterosexual men could make it through. How did you manage it?

      Oh.

    9. Re:Kudos to OSUG! And Congratulations to Martin!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homosexuality is all over open source. It's not a bad word here; it's an acceptable alternative lifestyle. At the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, this is just one of the kinds of magic an open community brings. Bad ideas and horrible judgement don't stand up when everything is held to honest and logical scrutiny.