 | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.(December 2009) |
Jonathan Oxer | |
|---|---|
 Jonathan Oxer at Linux.conf.au in 2007 | |
| Born | 26 July 1970 London, England |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Director at Freetronics |
Jonathan Oxer (born 26 July 1970, London, England) is a computer programmer, Debian developer, author, entrepreneur, and Free Software activist. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and their two children.
Jonathan Oxer was born at St Mary Abbott's Hospital in London, England to Australian parents who were working in London at the time. In late 1970 his parents returned to Melbourne, Australia.
Oxer's primary education was at Blackwood Community School, a small alternative school created in the mid-1970s by a group of parents. The school was known for having an unstructured learning program that mixed students across all year levels and did not use scheduled class times. [1]
Oxer's secondary education was at St Michael's Grammar School where he completed his Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1989. In 1987 Oxer was one of a group of students from the school who conducted an extra-curricular project to use information published by researchers at IBM Zurich, the University of Alabama, and the University of Houston to create a sample of yttrium-barium-copper-oxide (YBCO) superconductor capable of exhibiting superconducting properties at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, which at the time was the highest-temperature superconductor yet created [2] Oxer's contributions to the project included writing software to plot the optimum cooling curve of the material to maximise crystal alignment during the annealing process.
In 1994 Oxer founded Mission Internet, one of the first companies in the world to specialise in connecting database content to the Internet.[ citation needed ] In 2000 Mission Internet's operations became part of Internet Vision Technologies, a company formed in partnership with Andrew Minett. [3] IVT was acquired by Advanced Solutions International (ASI) on 8 June 2017. [4] Oxer is currently Director at Freetronics. [5] Additionally, Oxer runs a site and YouTube channel SuperHouse featuring DIY video tutorials on home automation. [6] [7]
Oxer was admitted to the Debian Project in August 2002. [8] He subsequently convened the Debian Miniconf in a different city every year in conjunction with Linux.conf.au: Perth in 2003, Adelaide in 2004, Canberra in 2005, Dunedin (New Zealand) in 2006, Sydney in 2007, and Melbourne in 2008.
Oxer was elected President of Linux Australia on 25 January 2005, [9] serving three consecutive terms. He was also nominated for the 2008 election but did not accept the nomination.
Early in his first term Oxer was the focus of controversy surrounding the application for a trademark in Australia for the term "Linux". In many countries the trademark "Linux" is registered by or on behalf of the Linux Mark Institute, an organisation which administers the trademark on behalf of Linus Torvalds. Following an attempt by an unassociated commercial entity known as Linux Australia Pty Ltd to register the trademark within Australia, Linux Australia agreed to act as an agent of Linux Mark Institute to contest the pending trademark application by Linux Australia Pty Ltd and submit a counterclaim for the trademark. Subsequent action taken by Linux Australia included presentation of a request for support for the trademark application to a number of FOSS-related businesses in Australia by a lawyer acting on behalf of the organisation. As a result of the way the letter was worded some recipients misinterpreted it as a demand for payment for use of the trademark, causing a negative backlash within the FOSS community. [10] Jon Hall, President of Linux Mark Institute, subsequently defended the actions of Linux Australia Inc and confirmed that the application was submitted on behalf of the organisation. [11] The trademark applications by both Linux Australia Pty Ltd and Linux Australia Inc were ultimately denied. [12]
During his incumbency Oxer was a vocal opponent of changes to Australian intellectual property law mandated by the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, and in particular the broader definition of technological protection measures. [13] [14]
In January 2020 he was awarded the Rusty Wrench Award for his services to the free software community in Australia.
Oxer has coordinated the large PGP/GPG keysigning parties at every Linux.conf.au from 2004 onward, and to assist with key collection and management for large groups created the keysigning.org website. He also administers keys.keysigning.org, the only keyserver in the subkeys.pgp.net network geographically located in Australasia.
In March 2006 Oxer used a veterinary RFID tag implantation tool to implant an RFID tag under the skin of his left arm, [15] and subsequently modified his house to allow the implanted tag to control items such as the door locks. [16] He was subsequently labelled "Australia's geekiest geek" in The Age [17] and Sydney Morning Herald. [18]
Oxer is author of several books relating to computers and e-business:
Debian, also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of Debian (0.01) was released on September 15, 1993, and its first stable version (1.1) was released on June 17, 1996. The Debian Stable branch is the most popular edition for personal computers and servers. Debian is also the basis for many other distributions, most notably Ubuntu.
GNU is an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux. Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL).
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromagnetic interrogation pulse from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag transmits digital data, usually an identifying inventory number, back to the reader. This number can be used to track inventory goods.
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source cross-platform email client, personal information manager, news client, RSS and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation and operated by subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation. The project strategy was originally modeled after that of Mozilla's Firefox web browser.
GPE is a graphical user interface environment for handheld computers, such as palmtops and personal digital assistants (PDAs), running some Linux kernel-based operating system. GPE is a complete environment of software components and applications which makes it possible to use a Linux handheld for tasks such as personal information management (PIM), audio playback, email, and web browsing.
Rhythmbox is a free and open-source audio player software, tag editor and music organizer for digital audio files on Linux and Unix-like systems.
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for Internet of things devices and robots. All the editions can run on the computer alone, or in a virtual machine. Ubuntu is a popular operating system for cloud computing, with support for OpenStack. Ubuntu's default desktop has been GNOME since version 17.10.
Xubuntu is a Canonical Ltd.–recognized, community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system. The name Xubuntu is a portmanteau of Xfce and Ubuntu, as it uses the Xfce desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu's GNOME desktop.
Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution.
gNewSense is a Linux distribution that was active from 2006 to 2016. It was based on Debian, and developed with sponsorship from the Free Software Foundation. Its goal was user-friendliness, but with all proprietary and non-free software removed. The Free Software Foundation considered gNewSense to be composed entirely of free software.
Touchatag was an RFID service for consumers, application developers and operators/enterprises created by Alcatel-Lucent. Consumers could use RFID tags to trigger what touchatag called Applications, which could include opening a webpage, sending a text message, shutting down the computer, or running a custom application created through the software's API, via the application developer network. Touchatag applications were also compatible with NFC enabled phones like the Nokia 6212. TikiTag was launched as an open beta on October 1, 2008. And it was rebranded to touchatag on February 15, 2009. Touchatag also sold RFID hardware, like a starter package with 1 USB RFID reader and 10 RFID tags (stickers), for which the client software was compatible with Windows XP and Vista, along with Mac OS X 10.4 and up. Touchatag was carried by Amazon.com, ThinkGeek, Firebox.com and getDigital.de along with Touchatag's own Online Store. Touchatag also marketed their products' underlying technology for enterprise and operator solutions. Touchatag announced an agreement with Belgacom PingPing on jointly developing the contactless market and announced a commercial pilot with Accor Services. On June 27, 2012 the Touchatag team has announced the shutdown of the project. inviting users to use IOTOPE "a similar open source Internet Of Things service" which itself has no apparent activity since November 2012.
A human microchip implant is any electronic device implanted subcutaneously (subdermally) usually via an injection. Examples include an identifying integrated circuit RFID device encased in silicate glass which is implanted in the body of a human being. This type of subdermal implant usually contains a unique ID number that can be linked to information contained in an external database, such as identity document, criminal record, medical history, medications, address book, and other usage.
Criticism of desktop Linux is a history of comment on the perceived shortcomings of the Linux operating system when installed on desktop computers. These criticisms have been aimed at the plethora of issues and lack of consistency between Linux distributions, their usefulness and ease of use as desktop systems for general end users, driver support and issues with multi-media playback and audio development.
An app store is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the computer itself. Complex software designed for use on a personal computer, for example, may have a related app designed for use on a mobile device. Today apps are normally designed to run on a specific operating system—such as the contemporary iOS, macOS, Windows or Android—but in the past mobile carriers had their own portals for apps and related media content.
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MATE is a desktop environment composed of free and open-source software that runs on Linux, BSD, and illumos operating systems.
Besides the Linux distributions designed for general-purpose use on desktops and servers, distributions may be specialized for different purposes including computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, support for real-time applications, or commitment to a given desktop environment. Furthermore, some distributions deliberately include only free software. As of 2015, over four hundred Linux distributions are actively developed, with about a dozen distributions being most popular for general-purpose use.
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