LWN: Linux Beer Hike 2001 Bouillon - Belgium
Sep 17, 2001, 13 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (3285 reads)
"The Linux Beer Hike or Linuxbierwanderung took place at Bouillon in Belgium this year. This might not seem like an obvious place to go to but the local facilities and scenery make for the kind of location that most people pay lots of money to go to on a package holiday. Coupled with six days of sun and only two days of rain it made this years event one of the best so far. A large crowd of people assembled over at the Archeoscope at Bouillon. Much beer was consumed and most were doing their level best to keep up with everyone else. The tenth anniversary of Linux was celebrated in some style. If only Linus Torvalds could have been there with us.
The Friday and Saturday at the beginning of the week saw a whole army
of geeks arrive in Bouillon from all over the world. In the seven days
that the Beer Hike took place much of the local area was covered on
foot and much of the local beer was consumed by the beer crazed fans
of da penguin. The author himself was able to find a leetle more room
for ze local Belgian 'ospitalite even after a whole seven days of
partying, mostly with the help of local people who did not give in even
after midnight. At the start of the week we had to assemble a network
which also included the cluster and the wireless link up to the camp
site. The latter proved to be something of a pain to set up and
dragged on into Monday. People were seen standing around in groups
discussing the difficulties and what to do next. As well as this the
cluster kind of clustered on and the rest of us shoved off for more
beer which at 8% by volume was the kind of thing that shouldn't be
missed out on. One of the first social events was over at the bar next
to the camp site. Most people turned up and the first overly large
quantity of beer was consumed. The Beer Hike isn't only about beer
there are also many events organised for everyone during the seven
days that it is running. Willem Konynberg started this off with his
presentation which asked how do we make Linux better and why does it
need to be so much like a Microsoft product when there's no real need
for it. He says that he wanted to raise a few eyebrows and question
current thinking about computers and software in general. The
assembled crowd loved it and gave him a big round of applause.
On Sunday evening after a successful day of hacking at the keyboard
most of us went to the torch lit tour of the castle. This was
something of a gem from beginning to end. Very touristy but also well
thought out and not to be missed. It was all about how the crusade
was led from the local castle in ancient times and how the political
shape of Europe was changed as a result. It's well worth going to
Bouillon just for this trip alone. The tour was organised by Juergen
Braukman. We would all like to thank him for his efforts."
