'Silicon Valley Tea Party' where Linux users distributed Linux installation disks at Microsoft events


By Mike Cohen

The Linux kernel was released as a 'free OS' in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student at the time. The Linux kernel has been under development for over 30 years, and the development community is a symbol of the open source community. A group of Linux users held a ' Silicon Valley Tea Party ' at a Microsoft event.

Silicon Valley Tea Party
https://marc.merlins.org/linux/teaparty/

The Silicon Valley Tea Party was held in response to an event called the 'Great 1998 Linux Revolt.'

Microsoft announced that it would release Windows 98 in June 1998. In response, a Linux user group launched a plan to distribute Linux installation disks for free to Windows 98 buyers. The plan was created with the aim of 'spreading the existence of an open source alternative OS called Linux' and to 'perform a peaceful demonstration of freedom of speech.'

Late at night on June 24th, the day of the release, about 60 Linux users living in Silicon Valley gathered at Fry's Electronics, an electronics store in Sunnyvale, California. Holding up placards and banners, they distributed 250 SUSE Linux installation disks for free to those who purchased Windows 98. The users also interviewed people lining up, calling themselves 'Linux TV,' pointing out Windows crashes and appealing that 'Linux comes with source code for free.'

Naturally, Fry's Electronics called the police. As a result, the Linux users were chased away by the police and moved to another electronics retailer. The next electronics retailer was friendly to Linux users and tacitly approved of the Linux awareness campaign. This series of events became the 'Great 1998 Linux Revolt.'

The Great 1998 Linux Revolt was uncoordinated, as it was hastily planned and spontaneously held just hours before the release of Windows 98. Learning from this experience, the Silicon Valley Tea Party was held again.

The Silicon Valley Tea Party was held to coincide with the opening of Microsoft's developer center in Silicon Valley, California. A group of Linux users gathered at the opening event venue of the developer center, bringing with them a total of 500 installation disks for SUSE Linux and Caldera OpenLinux . They distributed the disks to participants of the opening event and to passersby.



A placard featuring Tux the penguin, the Linux mascot, with the message 'Windows user REPENT!'



They also hand out discs to drivers of passing cars.



If there is no driver, the discs will be placed in the wipers and distributed.



After the distribution was over, the users went to a local pizza place to celebrate, and Microsoft employee Rick Moen called the pizza place and bought each person a beer and a soda.



'I still think Microsoft's operating system is terrible, and a lot of their software is terrible,' one user wrote. 'Microsoft is a monopoly that doesn't really care about the law and is hell-bent on crushing its competitors, and I think it's just plain evil that they're constantly changing protocols and file formats to make people actually incompatible.' But he also noted that the Great 1998 Linux Revolt helped him to hold the event while still maintaining a friendly relationship with Microsoft.

in Software, Posted by log1i_yk