LUG | @home with bobobex

Lincoln LUG held their second meeting on 19th October, and this time the venue was the recently re-furbished Ye Olde Crowne pub in Lincoln. Dave, Steve and Jon from Hull LUG made the journey down to join us again, and as well as Neal, Philip and me attending, we were also joined at this meeting by Carl and Jo.

Once the introductions were out of the way, and the food and drink ordered, we all quickly settled into discussions about our work; favourite distro’s; favourite podcasts; shared interests and our favourite sci-fi viewing. Steve tried to ruin Battlestar Galactica for Philip and I by telling us the plotlines, but luckily we managed to shut him up before too much info was given away. Jo and I even talked about knitting and crocheting, and I put her in touch with my friend Hanna, who has a shared passion for all things wool-related. There was the usual tech out on display, and being the resourceful lady that she is, Jo also brought an extension lead which was heavily utilised. We did a quick straw poll on who had updated to the new and shiny Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release which then prompted Carl to tell us about how he was still using Slackware as his distribution of choice. Everybody then proceeded to get out their business cards and play business card Top Trumps, trying to out-do each other on size, design, & graphics. Philip and I didn’t play as neither of us have business cards – something we really need to remedy for the future! We all got together for a team photo holding our Linux Format magazines (see photo below). We really are a diverse bunch!

Linux Format magazine rules!

The beer and food were excellent, and the bar owner even brought over an extra bowl of chips for us. He did make the mistake of asking us who we were and what we were doing, and I watched his eyes glaze over as I mentioned Linux and open source – I really must improve on my marketing/selling skills!

All too quickly closing time was upon us and it was time to say our goodbyes and leave, but not before we had agreed to go back to the venue for November’s meeting which will be on Wednesday 16th November starting at 7.30pm. We all agreed that for the next meeting we would try and sit in either the Library bar area or the tiered seating area, as it was too cold sitting by the door!

I am really enjoying the Lincoln LUG meetings (including the organisation and promotion of them) and I am so glad that I persisted and got this LUG up and running. Getting to meet new and unique people with a shared passion for Linux and tech over a few beers every month has made it all worth it!

I have previously blogged here and here about my proposal to relaunch the Lincolnshire LUG. Whilst my idea was met with enthusiasm from most, the general feedback was that the geography and rurality of Lincolnshire as a county was too vast, and that a smaller, more localised LUG was needed that could meet more regularly.

Listening to member feedback, I am pleased to be able to announce the start of Lincoln LUG. I am currently in the process of sourcing a venue for our first meet in September, and I will post details via the Lincoln LUG mailing list of the date, time and venue.

The Lincoln LUG membership is open to any existing Lincolnshire LUG or neighbouring LUG members who can travel and want the opportunity to meet with like-minded GNU/Linux people over a drink or two.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the Lincolnshire LUG mailing list members for their support and ideas, and the lug.ork.uk admins for helping me to make this happen. I would also like to thank my husband, Philip, for his offer of taste-testing all the local hostelries in an effort to find a venue suitable for us.