Picn*x XVII - The Linux 17th Anniversary Picnic
August 9, 2008

The Linux 17th Anniversary Picnic, or "Picn*x 17", will be held August 9, 2008.

This is a celebration of all the accomplishments of Open Source Software since the release of the first Linux kernel in August 1991. Participants and enthusiasts of Open Source software, more than just Linux, are welcome.

The Sunnyvale, California (Silicon Valley) picnic is usually scheduled for the Saturday following the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco.

Celebrating 17 years!

Each year is an achievement not just for Linux but also for whole the Open Source community. For Linux, it started with the first people who sent patches to Linus Torvalds after he posted his experimental OS kernel in 1991. Though Linux wasn't the first to use this idea, it was the first to elevate Open Source Software, before it even had that name, to a level of worldwide importance. Today there are heavily-studied processes about how to use Open Source as a software engineering methodology. We have a lot to celebrate and even more look forward to. Anyone from the Open Source community should consider themselves welcome.

Are you coming to Picn*x 17? Please RSVP!

RSVP's will open in the late Spring or early Summer of 2008.

Let's all thank the sponsors for covering the cost of the food (for those who RSVP'ed so we could plan for it.) See you there!

Privacy note: the picnic only uses your registration for the picnic, such as to send you a reminder, print "hello my name is" stickers, get food and t-shirts, etc. We might use it to let everyone know if we need more volunteers, if necessary. Your private info will not be made available to third parties.

Previous Years' Picnics

The annual Linux Picnic started with the "Linux10" Linux 10th anniversary celebration on August 25, 2001, on the day of the 10th anniversary of Linus Torvalds' announcement that he was opening his experimental OS kernel project to the world.

Since then, the Linux Picnic in the Bay Area has been held on the weekend following the LinuxWorld Expo held in San Francisco. That gives people travelling to the Bay Area from around the world the chance to catch both events. As long as the LinuxWorld Expo in the Bay Area is held during August, we expect to continue this plan.

The Linux Picnic has always been held at Sunnyvale Baylands Park.

You may also see the archived web site from Picn*x 15 which was held August 19, 2006 and web site from Picn*x 16 which was held August 11, 2007.

Wi-Fi at the Picnic!

The Silicon Valley Wireless Users & Experimenters (SVWUX) organized wireless Internet connectivity for Picn*x 15 in 2006 and Picn*x 16 in 2007. A lot of volunteer effort went into planning the locations of antennas and Wi-Fi repeaters to cover the whole picnic area.

Many thanks to Finisar who generously provided the Internet connection from their offices across the street from the park at Picn*x 15 and 16. Thanks also to Tom Minnis for arranging a microwave Internet backhaul link for Picn*x 16 as well.

SVWUX plans to do the same thing at Picn*x 17.

Volunteers

The Linux Picnic is looking for volunteers^?! You can sign up to help out with Coordination and Administration, Food Purchasing, Cooking, Setup and Breakdown, First Aid, Communications, Welcome Table, Drivers, and Gopher (primary task is making sure that the Volunteers have enough water).

Picnic Volunteers mail lists

The picnic volunteers mail list is the primary communications method for the picnic volunteers.

You may subscribe to the announce-only mail list if you don't have time for all the discussion and only want to receive announcements about the picnic.

Overall info about the mail lists is on the mail list etiquette page.

Picnic Volunteers IRC Channel

The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel is one place you can expect to find some volunteers there monitoring for questions and new volunteers. Sometimes (usually in the weeks before the picnic) you'll find work getting done too.

Point your IRC client to chat.us.freenode.net on port 8001 and join #linuxpicnic - users outside North America see freenode.net's list of servers for one on your continent.

Amateur Radio frequencies

Ham Radio Operators - bring your mobile and/or handheld radios. While it's usually a hobby and lots of fun, you know how you can be called upon for emergency communications too.

On-site radios will use 446.5 simplex. Mobile talk-in and transit shuttle dispatch will be on the Charlie Repeater 147.855- 100pl.

Link to linuxpicnic.org from your web site

Anyone can help with this. Link to linuxpicnic.org from your personal or organizational web site.

Add a link to linuxpicnic.org^? on your web site.

How to Use the Wiki

A "wiki" is a user-editable web site. For an introduction about the concepts and traditions of wiki sites, see the article about wikis on Wikipedia.

Our wiki site has a restriction that you must be subscribed to one of the Linux Picnic's mail lists in order to work on it. Please see the UsingThePicnxWiki page.

There is a Frequently Asked Questions and Tutorial online if you need them.

Open Source Partner Organizations for 2008

The following organizations (listed in alphabetical order) are the Open Source Partner Organizations participating in Picn*x 17. (Let us know if your organization should be added to the list!)

• BayLISA - Bay Area Large Installation System Administrators
• Haiku OS - Open Source OS based on BeOS
• LUGOD - Linux User Group of Davis
• sbay.org - South Bay Community Network
• Smaug - Santa Cruz Microsoft-Alternative User Group
• SVWUX - Silicon Valley Wireless Users & Experimenters

Note: Included topic SponsorList^? does not exist yet
Would you like to be a sponsor of the Linux Picnic?
Please see the SponsorInfo^? page.
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