Press
The press are calling. If you're a press member and have questions please call 650-938-7375. We've made the American press. We have a great article at Time Magazine's web site [ http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/article/0,2334,13820,00.html ]. We're in CNN [ http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9806/25/lefevre ]. We've also got a short mention in the San Jose Mercury News. And there is an article at Business Today [ http://www.businesstoday.com/techpages/linux26.htm ] (The Boston Herald).
And we've made the Japanese press. Here's the article [ http://biztech.nikkeibp.co.jp/wcs/show/leaf?CID=onair/biztech/gen/36529 ], and the front page [ http://biztech.nikkeibp.co.jp/biztech/index.html ].
3:16 am...Chris DiBona has written a really great essay [ http://www.penguincomputing.com/rally/chris.html ] with his views on the event.
We have pictures [ http://www.etla.net/~willey/personal/funny/win98/ ] and more pictures [ http://hugin.imat.com/svlug ]. If you have trouble getting to the more pictures, try this link instead [ http://olympus.cfa.cmu.edu/~rmitz/linux-revolt/ ]. ...Here's one by Mark Willey. It's only part of the crowd, and by no way does justice to the size or grandeur of the whole event, you really had to be there to appreciate the whole thing.
3:01 am...Wow, lot's of great things happened. The event was an amazing success. Sixty people or so, all with signs/banners/etc. Rick Moen and David Miller were there. So were the police. Well, the police came after Fry's called them on us, despite the fact that we were really well behaved. The funny things is that Fry's didn't really have many people there. Not like CompUSA [ http://www.compusa.com/ ] did.
So, we went to Compusa at around 12:30 am. They we're really nice compared to Fry's.
The most fun part for me was Linux TV. We'd already given out the 250 S.u.S.E. [ http://www.suse.com/ ] CDs, so Nick Moffitt and I (Sam Ockman) with Alex Fedosov as our camera man, went to the people that were waiting in line (there were about a hundred queued up) and started asking them questions.
We got right next to them with the video camera and said, "hey, we are with Linux TV. Mind if we ask you a few questions." We did our very best to be infomercialish.
Us: We're Linux TV and We're wondering if Windows crashes on you?
Them: Yes, occassionally.
Us: What if we told you our operating system doesn't crash.
Them: Doesn't crash?
Us: Doesn't crash.
Them: Really.
Us: Guess how much we'll sell it to you for.
Them: How much?
Us: Zero Dollars.
Them: Zero Dollars?
Us: And if you act now, we'll throw in the source code free.
Them: Source code free?
Us: Free source code, if we act now?
Them: How do you make money?
Us: Volume!
We went around the line, where everyone was queued, and did this to every tenth person or so, trying various versions. Everyone in the line got to see this, and they really liked it.
Updates: 6:56 pm...Dinner Will be had at Chile's at 10:00 PM at Lawrence & El Camino. If you get there before I do, the reservations are under Sam. Meanwhile, we've made the world's greatest newspaper Slashdot [ http://slashdot.org/ .
6:30 pm...Okay, we have a new mailing list up...to replace svlug@svlug.org, it is svlug@penguincomputing.com If you have anything to say, please mail it there. It will go out to over 150 people.
5:33 pm. Looks good...rumor has it people from Berkeley might come in. The svlug mailing lists do not work by the way. If you got a message about this twice, I apologize. If you e-mail svlug@svlug.org it probably won't go through. E-mail me directly with any information/restaurant recommendations at ockman@penguincomputing.com.
And don't forget to hit shift-reload on your browser occasionally. I.e. make sure that you are not reading a cached copy.
Tonight Fry's stays open until 1am because at midnight they will start selling Windows 98 to the world. We will be excercising our free speech rights by having a rally in front of the flagship Fry's in Sunnyvale, where we will pass out Linux CDs for free to everyone who comes to buy Windows 98.
So, please join us. It will be fun, and we will hopefully convince quite a few people to try Linux, and get a lot of good press.
We will meet in the parking lot at Fry's at 11:30 pm. It's at 1077 E. Arques Ave. in Sunnyvale. You can get directions at mapquest [ http://www.mapquest.com/ ]. This is the brand new Fry's off of Lawrence.
Please bring a flashlight or two, and if you can please bring piecs of posterboard, and large markers, so we can make signs. But the most important thing is just to come so we can have a show of strength.
Updates to this message/last minute changes/where people may be meeting for dinner should anyone arrange that/etc., will be at http://www.penguincomputing.com/svlug-rally.html Please check there regularly for more information.
Click here for the Penguin
Computing Home
Page [ http://www.penguincomputing.com/ ]Copyright 1998