Melbourne has pipped Hobart at the post to become the successful bidding team for the 2008 Free and Open Source Software conference, linux.conf.au (LCA).

Linux Australia president, Jonathon Oxer, announced the decision in an email to the main Linux Australia mailing-list this week.

He praised both Hobart and Melbourne for their professional bids but added that Melbourne's well-developed plans got them over the finish line first.

Team Mel8ourne leader, Donna Benjamin, said her team got the edge over Hobart because of its previous experience in LCA bids.

She said her team didn't want to give away too many details at this early stage but concluded they wouldn't drastically alter the LCA formula.

"While LCA is all about really good talks and high quality technical content and getting the rock-star hackers here to talk to locals, we also want to give it that Melbourne vibe of diversity," she said. "We want more diversity, we want more women, we want great food and we want more international guests."

Benjamin said Team Mel8ourne had already put its feelers out to high profile Linux women and would pursue their involvement.

"We won't be granting seats without merit though. But we know their stuff is good, we know they're out there and we want them here," she said.