On 1/14/20 8:03 PM, Jon "maddog" Hall via WLUG wrote:
GNHLUG started in 1995, but was reduced to a mailing list about ten years ago. It no longer holds meetings. Every once in a while someone tries to resuscitate it, but it eventually goes into a coma again.
I think BLU has been around a long time. It is what is left from the Boston Computer Society, and as such may have pre-dated even GNHLUG.
I believe that BLU predates WLUG by quite a bit. I had just started learning about Linux, and I knew nothing of the GPL or the ideals surrounding Free Software. I decided that I wanted a place to hang out with people more knowledgeable about Linux. I lived in Worcester at the time, and I didn't want to drive to Boston or New Hampshire for a meeting due to the distance. I had never been to a user group meeting of any sort, yet I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool, with no clue of what to do, or how to do it, or what the result would be. All I thought was that people needed to be brought together. As a WPI alumnus, it seemed like a natural place for such a gathering. WLUG's first meeting was in July 1997 in the WPI Library. Maddog was there, and our first speaker was Jim Paradis. We had 17 people in attendance. I distinctly remember maddog telling me at that time that if we had 17 people in attendance in a year, we'd be doing quite well. We purchased really expensive food from DAKA, the WPI cafeteria service at that time. Later, we moved to different rooms on campus, and I brought soda and cookies. I never believed in charging membership dues for WLUG. I decided to go with small voluntary donations, just to defray costs, and no more. Somehow, it worked. We had something on the order of 50 people show up at what I think was probably the best attended WLUG meeting in history. I don't remember the year, but KDE had just come out, and I gave a talk about it. I have a feeling that this meeting took place in the big room in Olin Hall. The summer parties were always a big hit. Great food, conversations, and great people. While we occasionally had a speaker from outside of the club, most of the speakers were members of WLUG. We have a very talented membership who was never afraid to get up in front of the crowd to share what they know. I learned a lot from WLUG, both technically and otherwise. WLUG has its own Tux penguin, hand made by Doug Waud. WLUG Tux shows up at summer gatherings and other unexpected times. I'm sure if a bunch of us sat together after a WLUG meeting, we'd recall more stories and could, if desired, document the club's history. I think it would be a lot of fun! Andy