linux.wauug.org, formerly wauug.erols.com, was a volunteer server run by members of the East Coast US Linux user groups, chiefly the DC Linux Users Group. It served web pages, FTP mirrors and mailing-list archives for the community from the mid-1990s. This is a faithful restoration of that server as it stood in 1998-99.
What this was
In May 1996 the DC LUG set up its own web server, sponsored by Erol's Internet Services, and shared it with other volunteer organisations. The machine ran Linux, of course. It hosted the user-group directory, the DC LUG home page, installfest information, kernel upgrade notes, and daily mirrors of sunsite and tsx-11. Over time the project grew into what became tux.org.
About this restoration
This edition rebuilds the site from archive.org captures of the January to December 1999 window, with a few pages recovered from the adjacent 1997-98 captures where 1999 snapshots were missing (the home page, for example, is restored from the January 1998 capture). The original Tux and penguin graphics were never captured by the archive on this host, so period-appropriate artwork has been recreated in their place and is clearly a reconstruction. The historical content, including the full run of DC LUG meeting topics, is preserved as it was recorded. Later parking and placeholder pages that appeared on the domain years afterward are deliberately excluded.
Editorial team
The restored archive is maintained by a small editorial team who keep the history accurate and write the News & Notes section.
Marcus Feldman
Kernel & Systems Editor
Marcus has run Linux boxes on the East Coast since the 0.99 kernel days, back when upgrading libc could brick an afternoon. He keeps the kernel and system notes on this archive honest, and still thinks a clean dmesg is a thing of beauty.
Priya Raghavan
User Groups & Community Editor
Priya organised installfests and begged for Ethernet hubs across three different user groups before deciding someone ought to write it all down. She covers the people side of this archive: who met, who spoke, and who finally got X working.
Gordon Minsky
Mirrors, Archives & History Editor
Gordon cut his teeth mirroring sunsite and tsx-11 over a 28.8 modem and has been fascinated by where the bits live ever since. He curates the mailing-list archives and the history pages, and can tell you exactly why a package ended up under /pub/current.
Devin Albrecht
Guest contributor
Devin Albrecht writes about internet infrastructure and the engineering culture behind large online platforms.