[Linux-aus] [Announce] 2024-2025 Annual report and Draft AGM

[dvalin at internode.on.net]

On 18.01.25 09:54, Arjen Lentz wrote:

>

> Linux thrives, and will continue to do so.

> It's niche on the desktop, but everybody with an Android phone has Linux in their pocket.

> With Microsoft continuing to raise prices for 365, the desktop picture may even change, at least for alternative office suites etc.

Yes, I made sure my mobile is Android, for that reason. And Victron's

Cerbo GX system controller for their solar MPPT and battery inverter

range runs VenusOS, which is a Linux distro with an open source

community. I downloaded and installed it on a RasPi with touchscreen,

although my solar installation uses a Cerbo, because that has more

serial I/O, needed when there's 4 inverters, a couple of MPPTs, 'n

stuff. When time permits, I'll have a go at integrating with Home

Assistant, but the ToDo list has higher priorities.

It's encouraging that there was an app in the Android Play Store for the

Jikong BMSs I'm using for my three DIY LiFePO₄ battery banks. (Some

other BMSs require M$ for configuration, so can't be used here. It's

therefore handy that the Jikong has the niftiest app, and a 2 amp active

balancer - much better than the passive balancers on most others.)

> Most Internet infrastructure runs Linux in some form, even more than half of Microsoft Azure are actually Linux VMs.

> Routers, switches, firewalls and other more specialised commercial VMs or boxes tend to be Linux based as well.

I've never heard of Microsoft Azure before, and have eschewed

involvement with all things M$ these last 45 years. All my embedded

systems software development has been on HP-UX, SCO, Solaris, then

Linux. In the last 30 years, GNU cross-compilers have handled all the

targets I've used, from PowerPC & V850 to ATmega and ATtiny 8-bitters.

Telecommunications Call Control, and a bunch of other stuff, needing

multi-threaded state machines, were easier to implement in a DIY

macro-implemented mini-language, rather than muck with C's baggage.

(Once you're writing your own crt0, and assembler ISRs, you're on bare

iron, I figure.)

I'm finding, at 70, that mental energy is not as endless as before, so

maintenance of *nix & embedded skills, plus attempting to foster climate

resilience, is about as far as it stretches. Technical curiosity extends

more to how successful Eavor's first commercial stratum-agnostic

geothermal energy plant at Geretsried in Bavaria will be in the next few

months. So fission power 7 km down, with zero fuel mining or cost, and

no waste disposal risk or cost, should be on line this year, firming

up the remotely tapped fusion which delivers wirelessly half the time.

Surface fission reactors are obsolete technology, commercially unviable

in the extreme.

Having lived alone these last 50 years, a conference outing ought to

appeal, but the travel from my bush retreat doesn't much. If I can divert

folk one milliradian toward minimisation of infrastructure and human

habitat loss for their children, then it's effort well spent, on the way

out. (My EV motoring is 100% fossil-free photon-propelled. Several

million Aussie urban commuters could profitably go BEV *now* - an MG4 is

cheaper than a Toyota Corolla, has zero fuel cost ($ & CO₂) if you have

enough solar, and servicing is "Inspect in 2 years, change battery coolant in 4

years, thanks.), with a 10 yr warranty.

Sorry, that was an old-bloke ramble, but the disruption S-curve is

approaching the price tumble point, so later this year is a great BEV

entry point for mass adoption, especially in multi-car families, I figure.

Erik

P.S. Many thanks for your service over the years, Arjen!
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