Author: JT Smith
Such is the caliber of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference. USENIX 2001’s program boasts an international flavor, attracting innovators such as Greg Lehey from Australia and Rik van Riel from Brazil, as well as researchers and visionaries from industry giants such as IBM, AT&T, Bell Labs, Compaq, Sun Microsystems, Harvard University, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University. A six-day experience, USENIX 2001 offers 30 high-caliber tutorials and three days of technical session tracks with speakers at the leading edge of new development and high tech research.
“USENIX is a professional organization that as not only built a community, but has seeded an industry. When I look back at the best ideas the computer science community has produced in the last 25 years, its amazing how many of them were discussed and honed at USENIX conferences,” says Clem Cole, Freenix Track Chair for USENIX 2001. “It’s exciting to help make a home for the next set of good ideas. It’s a pretty good bet that at least a few of the new things we hear and read about at USENIX 2001 will become the building blocks of our next great technology.”
USENIX 2001 General Sessions have always attracted a mix of systems researchers and developers. Daniel D. Frye, Director of IBM Linux Technology Center and conference Keynote Speaker, will deliver his often controversial views examining Linux and open source as a “Disruptive Technology” within the traditional computer industry and the ways in which these will redesign relationships between IT suppliers and customers. Jeff Bonwick of Sun Microsystems explains the workings of multiprocessors extensions on memory slab allocators located in Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Shym Technology’s Don Davis delves into the cryptographic defects within popular protocols such as PGP and XML. Richard Neeves of ReefEdge, Inc will describe the software technology accelerating IBM Web servers. The Future of Virtual Machines, by Ed Bugnion of VMWare, Inc., presents technology that will streamline server farms by allowing multiple operating systems such as Linux and Windows to run concurrently. Security topics continue to buzz with a trio of presentations by luminaries Avi Rubin on the Security of E-Voting in Public Elections, Steven Bellovin on Security Aspects of Napster and Gnutella, and Lorrie Faith Cranor’s discussion on Online Privacy issues.
The celebrated Freenix track again assembles the gurus of Open Source computing including presentations from FreeBSD, NetBSD, IBM Linux Technology, Linuxcare, and VA Linux. Dedicated to all things open source, the Freenix track features Keith Packard of SuSE and the Xfree86 Core Team, discussing Graphics and the X Render Extension. Timothy Fraser, Robert M. Watson, and Peter Loscocco discuss Linux system integrity, flexibility, and security through the use of LOMAC and TrustedBSD. The Kernel session touches on KQueue, a scalable notification system, offers tips on improving FreeBSD SMP Implementation, and discusses Linux 2.4/2.4 Virtual Memory Management.
“USENIX presents the rare opportunity to see inside the hearts and minds of the people at the foundations of open source computing. How designs are created and how software is built—even the messy parts—are presented for the community to share and grow together,” says Keith Packard, who is part of three USENIX 2001 presentations. “USENIX talks will present open source technologies driving the Internet today, along with obscure research topics which may well become the TCP/IP of tomorrow.”
The USENIX Annual Technical Conference is also notable for it intensive tutorial classes taught by industry gurus. Practical and immediately applicable, tutorials train professionals to master techniques and technologies in system administration, networking, security, cryptography, Perl, Sendmail, Solaris, Samba, LDAP, UNIX, Linux, wireless technology, and the Web.
Attendees have ample opportunities to meet the industry’s movers and shakers. The conference’s two-day exhibition showcases over 60 corporate leaders, including sponsors EMC, Inc and IBM, as well as Compaq, Microsoft, Microway, Addison-Wesley, Prentiss Hall, Sendmail, and ActiveState, exhibiting their products and services in the two-day Exhibition. Evening receptions and informal sessions round out the conference experience and include the ever-popular Birds-of-a-Feather evening sessions, where attendees gather around topics of their choice and network with like-minded peers and experts. USENIX’s unique, tongue-in-cheek Game Show is a hilarious look at the gathered community and a not-to-be-missed Thursday night event.
“The USENIX community represents everything that open source systems should: a collegial environment where ideas are discussed openly,” says Keith Packard. “Personality and friendship are valued over corporate loyalty. Who you work for is much less relevant than what you’ve accomplished.”
Again the USENIX Annual Technical Conference rises above gloomy industry predictions by simply demonstrating how rich the computing community continues to be and how far it can still go. If there is only one conference to attend, make it USENIX 2001. Detailed conference schedules and registration are available on the USENIX Web site: http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01.
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Usenix Annual Technical Conference
June 25 – 30, 2001
Boston, Mass
http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01
About the USENIX Association
USENIX is the Advanced Computing Systems Association. For over 25 years, it has been the leading community for engineers, system administrators, scientists, and technician working on the cutting edge of the computing world. USENIX conferences are the essential meeting grounds for the presentation and discussion of technical advances in all aspects of computing systems. For more information about the USENIX Association, visit http://www.usenix.org
Press Badges and Registrations
USENIX 2001 invites members of the press to register for a complimentary badge to our technical sessions. For more information on obtaining a press badge or to set up interviews with our coordinators and speakers, please contact Monica Ortiz at 415-990-5513 or email monica@usenix.org.
