InstallFest field notes: Linux in an afternoon

An installfest is a simple idea that changed a lot of minds: bring your machine, leave with Linux running. Over a single Saturday, a room full of volunteers would partition disks, pick distributions, wrangle XFree86 modelines and, above all, get networking working before anyone went home.

The hardware tombola

The recurring plea in our meeting notes was always the same: buy an Ethernet card, and bring a hub or a switch if you have one. Half of making Linux useful in 1998 was getting it onto the network, and the other half was finding a video mode the monitor would accept without complaint.

From installs to upgrades

As more people were already running Linux, the events shifted. Configurefests focused on XFree server configuration and RPM package management; the August 22, 1998 event in Falls Church leaned toward getting existing machines upgraded and configured rather than first installs.

If you helped at one of these, or have photos, the InstallFests page is where we are collecting the history. Write in.