First, a few words about what this talk is not. It is not a tutorial on how to program quantum computers. For that, you should find a D-Wave machine or go to http://research.ibm.com/ibm-q/, either of which should provide an excellent hands-on introduction to the current practice of quantum computing. Either way, highly recommended!
This talk instead gives an overview of the current state and trends of quantum-computing technology. It then uses these trends to make some educated guesses about the challenges facing the use of quantum computing in production. Of course, the bigger the killer app, the more effort will be invested in overcoming these challenges. This talk therefore also gives an overview of quantum computing’s most likely killer apps. This will lead into some possibilities of how quantum computing might affect the Linux plumbing, and vice versa. The talk will conclude with the usual free advice, which will be worth every penny that you pay for it.
