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USENIX 2000 Annual Technical Conference Set for Another Outstanding Year

USENIX Celebrates 25 Years of Service to the Unix and Open Systems Community

Berkeley, California -- USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association, announces USENIX 2000 Annual Technical Conference in San Diego, California, June 18-23. This year's conference promises to be another outstanding event with a comprehensive lineup of tutorial programs, technical sessions and special guest speakers and dignitaries including Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems, Thomas Dolby Robertson, Founder of Beatnik, Inc. and Linus Torvalds, Developer of Linux. Conference attendees will be invited to special celebrations as USENIX marks 25 years of innovation and service to the technical community.

The conference kicks off Sunday, June 18th with the Tutorial Program presented by instructors who are experts in their fields sharing their knowledge of the latest technologies and required skill-sets to keep IT professionals and their companies at the forefront of success. USENIX tutorials survey the topic, then dive right into the specifics of what to do and how to do it so that attendees can immediately take useful skills and technology understanding back to their companies and organizations. Over a three-day period, 28 tutorials will cover topics such as systems administration, Linux, UNIX, Perl, SGI, Samba, Solaris, Sendmail and networking. In addition there will be a range of tutorials on security issues such as Intrusion Detection, Network Forensics, and Computer Attacks: Trends and Countermeasures. Among the instructors are Eric Allman of Sendmail, Inc., Tom Christiansen, Perl guru, Marcus Ranum of Network Flight Recorder, Inc., Bryan Andregg of Red Hat, Inc., and Evi Nemeth of the University of Colorado, to name a few.

Commencing Wednesday, June 21st are the Technical Sessions which feature cutting-edge, technically excellent research. Included are over two dozen Refereed Papers and Invited Talks such as new work from Bill Cheswick of Lucent Technologies-Bell Labs on Mapping and Visualizing the Internet and Rob Pike also of Lucent Technologies-Bell Labs presenting an Introduction to Quantum Computation and Communication. Two other high profile presentations are The GNOME Project by Miguel de Icaza and The Lessons Learned About Open Source by Jim Gettys of Compaq. Rounding out the program are presentations on the latest research results on operating systems, tools and techniques for dealing with the system infrastructure headaches, and a discussion on the Microsoft Antitrust Case by expert witness Edward Felten of Princeton University.

The ever-popular FREENIX track is back and better than ever. This series of topics is devoted to high-level technical discussion of open source and freely redistributable software such as BSD, Linux and X11-based graphical user interfaces. Those interested in Open Source software will appreciate the technical quality and relevance of the Freenix track.

Keynote speaker Bill Joy, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, will open the Technical Sessions presenting his vision of the future of computing. Thomas Dolby Robertson, Founder of Beatnik, Inc. and best known for his 80's pop hit "She Blinded Me with Science", delivers the closing address on integrating music and interactive audio into the fabric of computer and Internet technologies. Mr. Robertson will demonstrate that everyone, from composers and musicians to Web homesteaders and professional Web designers, can benefit from these evolving technologies. Following last year's very popular appearance, Linux Guru, Linus Torvalds, returns to the USENIX Annual Technical Conference to host the Thursday night Linux Birds-Of-A-Feather Session (BOFs). Meet Linus and other Linux and Open Source enthusiasts at these informal evening gatherings taking place throughout the week.

Another event not to miss is the USENIX 2000 Vendor Exhibition which is becoming larger each year—and this year is no exception with more than 70 registered vendors. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to preview many innovative products and services, obtain information from well informed vendor representatives and quickly compare solutions on-site saving hours of research.

Other conference highlights include celebrations and events commemorating the 25th anniversary of USENIX including a museum display of collectibles, photos, equipment and memorabilia recounting the history of USENIX throughout the years. There will also be gifts and prizes at the Carnival Welcome Reception and the chance to win one of 10 StrongARM-powered Network "Shark" Computers donated by Compaq.

USENIX is the Advanced Computing Systems Association. Since 1975 the USENIX Association has brought together the community of engineers, system administrators, scientists, and technicians working on the cutting edge of the computing world. The USENIX conferences have become the essential meeting grounds for the presentation and discussion of the most advanced information on the developments of all aspects of computing systems. For more information, visit www.usenix.org.