Meetings and Events

The New York City *BSD Group was launched in December 2003 and became public at Linux Expo in January 2004.

We weren't sure exact what we wanted, but we knew what we didn't want.

We didn't aim to be just another hobbyist user group attracting the socially inept. And nor did we aim to become another resume filling association with a fee-based membership, filling our free evenings with sales talks.

We wandered into unknown worlds. The BSD community has never been advocacy-driven, preferring to let the software stand on its own two feet. And certainly the reputation of an "uncivil BSD society" caused us to wonder what NYCBUG could ultimately morph into.

And it was not always easy.

One local, long-time BSD developer welcomed us with open arms with comments like:

they are just doing what linux group does... probably same ppl too

cu

Ten years later we can look back and be proud of our accomplishments. We have run four NYCBSDCons and raised funds to hosting a lot of mirrors and projects. But more importantly, we should determine what we did right, and how we can continue NYC*BUG for another ten years.

This meeting will look at the broad picture of where NYC*BUG has been, and hopefully draw some lessons for everyone about technical user groups, the *BSD community and more generally how.