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LinuxFest Northwest is Coming in April (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the it's-always-good-to-get-together-with-1200-close-friends dept.

Jakob Perry, today's interviewee, is a volunteer who helps make LinuxFest Northwest happen. This is an event produced by the Bellingham Linux Users Group that "has been a tradition in Bellingham, WA since 2000." Bellingham is a small town about a 1.5 hour drive away from Seattle, and a shorter distance from Vancouver, Canada. Last year they had 1200 people. They have a core group of about 10 year-round volunteers, with as many as 60 participating in the event itself, many of whom are students at Bellingham Technical College, which is where LinuxFest Northwest is held.

9 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Population by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

    "Bellingham is a small town about a 1.5 hour drive away from Seattle, and a shorter distance from Vancouver, Canada. Last year they had 1200 people."

    Bellingham, or the LinuxFest?

    1. Re:Population by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 2

      Bellingham, or the LinuxFest?

      It's a trick question. In the daytime, Bellingham's population triples as thousands of Canadians descend on the town snapping up cheaper milk, cheese and Costco vodka.

  2. beer by tehlinux · · Score: 3, Informative

    My buddies do the brewing automation system presentation. Pretty cool.

    http://www.linuxautomation.org/

    --
    Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
  3. Easy to book vendors by drosboro · · Score: 2

    Since Bellingham is already a hot-spot for Vancouver-ites doing their cross-border shopping, it's gotta be easy to book vendors! Looks like a great event.

    1. Re:Easy to book vendors by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 2

      Since Bellingham is already a hot-spot for Vancouver-ites doing their cross-border shopping, it's gotta be easy to book vendors! Looks like a great event.

      Not necessarily. Unless you hit a sale at Fry's, computer stuff is often cheaper in Vancouver than in Bellingham or Seattle.

      My criterion for bringing something back is 50% off the Canadian price, or just plain unobtainable.

      The border people can be unpredictable: I've been waived through and told to have a nice day on a day trip with $800 worth of stuff, and I've done all the paperwork for $50. On one memorable trip I had collected a new telescope mount in Anacortes. Even the cashier said "ouch!" when she punched it up in the computer.

      ...laura

  4. Re:So, what do you do at these things? by rkfig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is a room dedicated to installing and/or troubleshooting installs for the whole event. Of course there is the vendor area showing whatever wares they have. Mostly it is sessions covering a broad range of topics. I saw Monty Widenius talk about MySQL upcoming features and such a few years ago. There was a session about how red light cameras actually work from a software and hardware point of view last year. Developing for this or that, embedded platforms and such. Generally one session for either KDE or Gnome and why they are either good or bad. There is an electronics area where they are showing 3D printers, Lego Mindstorms and that sort of thing usually. A guy I know does a whole day session demonstrating the automated beer homebrewing system that he made which utilizes Linux. He also supplies the home made beer and soda for the after party. Jeopardy style game session that I think is called Alpha Nerd. Most of the sessions are someone showing something they created to "scratch their own itch," such as the git based backup system session I saw either last year or the year before. It seems like there are usually 20-30 different sessions at least scheduled throughout the day, and a raffle drawing at the end with some great prizes. Also, the culinary department of the school has a great lunch, usually salmon, steak sandwiches, or some vegetarian option I can't recall, for a very reasonable price.

  5. I go every year by steveha · · Score: 3, Informative

    LinuxFest Northwest is a great event. I encourage you to go if you can.

    Here are a couple of articles I wrote for Linux Journal about LFNW:

    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6839
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8339

    At LFNW I have attended some really outstanding lectures, sometimes by famous or important people. George Dyson lives in the area and he sometimes gives a talk; every time I have attended one of his talks it was great.

    They have a raffle with some cool prizes every year. There are always O'Reilly books, and sometimes they have things like "one year of virtual server hosting".

    The Bellingham Technical College is a great venue for the event. Lots of parking, lots of classrooms for talks, lots of space for the vendor hall, a snack bar that serves espresso drinks... they also serve up a lunch; usually on Saturday the lunch offers salmon grilled over a wood fire.

    I hope to see you there.

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  6. Re:Be Warned Slackware Users by Smauler · · Score: 3, Informative

    Socks and sandals though are very comfortable -- you can wear them all the time, not just at LFNW.

    You do actually know that socks and sandals are not looked down upon just because they're not comfortable, right? There is another reason.

    I admit it - I'm a fashion Nazi. Socks and sandals just hurt me when I see them. I feel physical pain whenever I see socks and sandals. I'm not a stylish person - most of the stuff I wear is pretty generic. However, I'd prefer someone come in to work with an emu costume on rather than socks and sandals. Seriously. You hurt me when you wear socks and sandals.

  7. Local advice for travelers... by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bring a towel.

    While most of you think that's a cute HHGttG reference (OK, it is...), this is the Northwest...it rains. A lot. An umbrella wouldn't be a bad idea. Really.

    If you're staying in a local motel, AVOID THOSE LOCATED ON SOUTH SAMISH BLVD. The local cops keep all the crack-heads, tweakers and other various riff-raff confined to the daily/weekly/monthly motels along this street--no need for you to go looking for trouble, it will find you if you stay there for long. The better motels are located north of Lakeway Blvd. (including the Quality Inn right on Lakeway. It's one of those fancy ones). The one exception to this rule is the Shamrock Motel in North Bellingham--I hear more call-outs on the police-dispatch frequencies referencing this motel then any other address in Bellingham. Avoid it.

    Bring an UP TO DATE street map, especially if you're going to be driving anywhere besides the Technical College--Bellingham has the most ill-designed street layout of any city I've ever been to, including San Francisco. Not going to vouch for Google maps or TomTom like devices either...really, get a map.

    Bellingham is notorious for having the highest fuel prices in the Northwest. If you're driving in from the south, gas up at the Skagit Valley Casino--lowest gas prices in the area as it is on native lands (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe). They also have cheap, decent buffets. They're located 15 mins south of Bellingham. If you're driving in from the North, the same can be found at the Silver Reef Casino just north of Bellingham, west on Slater Dr. from I-5 (Lummi Indian Tribe).

    Hope that helps.