LinuxFest Northwest is an annual
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
conference and expo held in
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...
. It is a Saturday and Sunday weekend event held in late April or early May. Some get-togethers start Friday evening. The event is dedicated to discussion and development of the
Linux operating system
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution (distro), whic ...
and other
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...
projects.
Event description
LinuxFest Northwest is a free event, focused on generating interest in Linux and other open source software projects. The 2015 edition has 80 presentations and 45 exhibits from vendors and organizations, as well as demonstrations. The event raises money through a raffle and by charging commercial vendors a donation fee for their booths. This allows the festival to stay free for all who wish to come while raising enough money to fly in popular speakers.
Location
Linuxfest Northwest is held in Bellingham, Washington, about 80 miles (128.75 km) north of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
and 50 mi (80 km) south of
Vancouver, B.C.
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Met ...
The location is primarily chosen because the facilities are donated by
Bellingham Technical College. There have been discussions in the past to move the festival south to Seattle, however no local groups have taken on the task.
History
LinuxFest Northwest originated as "Linuxfest", held by the Bellingham Linux Users Group (BLUG). The first 'fest' was held in 2000, but was mainly advertised as a local Bellingham event. In 2003, the fest was expanded to a regional event, advertising as far south as Seattle and
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...
, and north to Vancouver, British Columbia. Until 2006, it was a full day on Saturday. In 2007 it was expanded into a 2-day weekend event. In 2019 the logo was changed from a
totem pole
Totem poles () are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large t ...
to a
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
landscape. The 2020,
2021, and 2022 conferences were either cancelled or moved online in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, and the 2023
conference was cancelled due to an unplanned closure of the venue.
Previous featured speakers
; 2010
*
Brian "Krow" Aker — Drizzle
* Jesse Keating — Fedora Developers conference
* Brian Alseth — ACLU Technology and Freedom
; 2009
* Joe Brockmeier — Building Packages, Distros, and More
*
Jon "maddog" Hall
Jon "maddog" Hall (born 7 August 1950) is the board chair for the Linux Professional Institute.
Early life
Hall helped his father assemble toys at a toy store, and had three years of high school electronics shop.
Career
The nickname "madd ...
— How Free and Open Source Software will have World Domination
* Jesse Keating — What's under the hat? A sneak peek at Fedora 11!
*
Seth Schoen — Information security discovers physics
*
"Monty" Widenius — AskMonty & Black Vodka
; 2008
* Brian "Krow" Aker — Caching via libmemcached
* Joe Brockmeier — A Look at KDE4
* Mel Chua — OLPC: Education in the classroom worldwide
* Bri Hatch — Network Protocols Illuminated
* Jesse Keating — Fedora 9 Sneak Peek
* Rob Lanphier — Hijinks and tomfoolery on the 3D Internet
; 2007
* Brian "Krow" Aker — How Sites Scale Out
* chromatic — The Present and Phuture of Parrot
* Crispin Cowen — Securing Linux Systems with AppArmor
* Karl Fogel — 3 Centuries of Open Source & Copyright
* Jesse Keating — One Laptop Per Child
* Allison Randal — Parrot: a VM for Dynamic Languages
* Karen Sandler — Software Patents
; 2006
* Tim Bray — Open Problems in Network Computing
* Greg DeKoenigsberg — Fedora and Community Building
* Charles Ditzel — Twelve Reasons To Use NetBeans
*
George Dyson — Turing's Cathedral
* Jim McQuillan — The Linux Terminal Server Project
* Danny O'Brien — Incoming! What's on the EFF's Radar
; 2005
* Brian "Krow" Aker — State of the Dolphin
*
Chris DiBona — Google Open Source Update
* George Dyson — Von Neumann's Universe
* Chuck Gray — Impact of Linux
* Bri Hatch — The Command Line is for Everyone!
* Dee-Ann LeBlanc — Linux for Dummies
; 2004
* Charles Ditzel — Java 2004 : Java and Linux
* Chuck Gray — Linux Solutions for Business
* Bri Hatch — Linux Security
* Dee-Ann LeBlanc — Bringing Mainstream Games to Linux
*
Rasmus Lerdorf
Rasmus Lerdorf (; born 22 November 1968) is a Danish-Canadian programmer. He co-authored and inspired the PHP scripting language, authoring the first two versions of the language and participating in the development of later versions led by a g ...
— PHP from the Source
* Chris Negus — Fedora/Red Hat Troubleshooting
References
External links
LinuxFest Northwest- Official Website
LinuxFest Northwest 2007 Looms{{bellingham
Linux conferences
Recurring events established in 1999
Bellingham, Washington