Presentation by David Zeuthen:

This talk will describe how modern free software desktops using the Linux kernel handles device configuration. We describe how events created by the kernel will take its path from the kernel, through udev, D-BUS and HAL into every single application that needs to adapt to a changing environment.

It will be explained how current applications, libraries and services are plugged into the device event processing and describe the new model away from static system-wide configuration to policy based and user owned preferences to handle device configuration.

Approaches for managing user privileges will be discussed with highlight on a new desktop-centric finely grained centralized privilege system called PolicyKit.

The talk will also feature several real world demos of how the modern free desktop handle hardware and how the abstraction helps leads to better compatibility for non-Linux 2.6 operating systems (such as Solaris or FreeBSD) by providing well defined integration points.

- License note: "Creative Commons: Attribution - ShareAlike 2.5"
- Attribution: "linux.conf.au.", Sydney, Jan. 2007