New Bay Area Linux Group Emphasizing Desktop Linux Meeting May 17

**jdeslip** · May 14th, 2009

Live in/near the Bay Area?? Care about Desktop linux? Want free loot?

I am happy to announce the first public meeting of the Berkeley Linux
Users Group (http://www.berkeleylug.com). This is a user group
emphasizing the use of, development of and promotion of desktop and
mobile Linux. BerkeleyLUG centers around Linux as a desktop OS (as
opposed to embedded router OS or LAMP Server for example) capable of
fully replacing (and indeed improving on) OSX or Windows. If you share
an interest in desktop Linux, please consider attending the following
meeting and help shape this organization:

Date: Sunday, May 17

Time: 12:00-3:00

Location: Bobby G's Pizzeria (Beer / Soda / Pizza Sold and Free Wifi
Available) 2072 University Avenue

Agenda:

Ongoing: Trivia Contest. Automated demos of Jack's Favorite Desktop Apps.
12:00-12:30: Meet and Greet. First three people get a prize (see below).
12:30 – 1:30: Introduce goals of Organization:

Promote and spread desktop linux in East Bay area.
Tables at events like Solano Stroll or Sproul Plaza.
Development of desktop Linux. How can we as a group contribute?
Perform Modern Installfests
Create locally produced Desktop Linux News Blog and Podcast?
Future talks: ZaReason? High Performance Computing? Killer Apps? Desktop
Mangers? Etc...
Organization of BerkeleyLUG discussion

1:30 – 2:00 – Create accounts for http://www.berkeleylug.com
contributors. Anyone with something cool related to desktop Linux to
share, feel free.

Prizes:
First 3 people to show up: 10 Ubuntu Case Badges (Everyone else gets 1
case badge).
Linux Trivia Contest: 1stt Place – Ubuntu T-Shirt Medium.

RSVP:

Please respond to this email if you plan on attending and register for
an account over at www.berkeleylug.com to get future emails. Please pass
the message on to whoever you like.

Registered users of berkeleylug.com interested in contributing to the
site will be elevated to author/editor/admin level at the meeting). This
site actually already has a lot of traffic due to several articles being
exposed at digg.com (including one making the frontpage).

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The rest of this email is a description of myself, and how BerkeleyLUG
fits in with other East Bay organizations.

I am graduate student at UC Berkeley (studying physics). I have used
Linux as my primary OS for more or less the last 8 years. I find it
amazing how far desktop linux has come in this period of time. I believe
it is now at a state where it is appropriate for computers users from
every demographic to use, and can often surpass the alternatives in
terms of usability and functionality. The main thing holding desktop
Linux back, in my opinion, is awareness, which is one of the main things
I would like to address within berkeleylug.

There is another Unix group in Berkeley with a lot of momentum, BUUG,
that meets every second Thursday. I attend (and enjoy) these meetings on
a semi-frequent basis. These meetings are a sort of laid back chit/chat
about Linux/Unix. What we intend by BerkeleyLUG, is to be a
supplemental, and somewhat orthogonal, active Desktop Linux user
support/promotion group. Finally, there is yet another group in Berkeley
called BerkeleyTIP that emphasizes a monthly global VOIP conference.
While, I think that is a nice idea that could become hugely successful,
BerkeleyLUG is designed to be an organization with physical meetings
emphasizing the contributions by and for the local community. And... did
I mention you can have beer?