[svlug] Linux Birthday

[Ian Kluft]

>From: Drew Bertola <drew at drewb.com>
>
>Felipe Leme writes:
>> Someone has suggested, a few months ago, that we do something to
>> celebrate the 10th birthday of Linux, preferably with the participation
>> of Linus ("as he lives in the valley now").
>> 
>> Are we taking that project ahead? Did someone talk with him yet?
>> 
>> This is just a reminder, as I think that's a great idea, and the time is
>> coming (and nobody mentioned it again in the list).
>
>As I recall, someone mentioned that LWCE-SJ is a day or two later.

I was the one who mentioned the 10th anniversary of Linux is coming up.
The people who made arguments that apparently shot it down thought Linus
himself should arrange it, instead of others locally, which I think is
silly.  We can invite Linus - but I wouldn't take it further than that
to avoid pestering him, as so many people unwittingly do.

LWCE will be in SF this August, not in SJ.  And it isn't on the right day.
So if we want to arrange something in the South Bay, we can.  The anniversary
date came from this page:
   http://www.li.org/linuxhistory.php

Aug 25, 1991 was when Linus posted the message saying he had ported bash
and gcc to his experimental kernel, which he hadn't named yet.  Later the
FTP site administrator decided that any Unix kernel name must end in an
"x", took Linus' name for the rest, and called the directory "linux".
The name stuck.

So lacking any other date that looks more significant in Linux's history,
Saturday, Aug 25, 2001 was the day I suggested for the 10th anniversary
celebration.  It's convenient that it falls on a weekend.

Some ideas that were suggested when we last discussed this in February were:
* "party/fundraiser, a la the RSA patent expiration party" (Mike Higashi)
* "one-day free (or minimal cost) conference of our own" (Mike Higashi)
* "picnic/barbeque" (Mike Higashi)
* "pub crawl" (Deirdre Saoirse)

Steve Bibayoff of the Fresno Linux User Group stated a preference for a
weekend event.  It's a long drive to San Jose.  (I can second that, having
made a couple drives to near Fresno for rocket launches.)

Seth Schoen pointed out that this is two weeks before the "Billion Seconds of
Unix Party" he wants to throw for Sat, Sept 8, 18:46:40 PDT 2001, at which
time the clocks on all Unix (and Linux) systems hit one billion seconds
since Unix officially started timekeeping on Jan 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT.  Both
events are worthy of parties.

Paul Cubbage challenged the whole notion, saying we should ask Linus when
he considers the official date.  I think we've all observed that Linus
tries to stay out of the spotlight when not at official events, and we
should respect that.  We should invite him but ask nothing of him.

My personal preference would be a barbeque/picnic.  We can reserve picnic
areas in just about any city or county park in the area.
-- 
Ian Kluft  KO6YQ   PP-ASEL                              sbay.org coordinator
ikluft(at)thunder.sbay.org   http://www.kluft.com/~ikluft/      San Jose, CA
       "Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous
       than deliberately accepted risks."   -- Wilbur Wright, 1901