The Silicon Valley Linux User Group (SVLUG): Installfest/Workshop
LOCATION: Accent Technology 1880 Hartog Drive San Jose, CA
DIRECTIONS: http://www.svlug.org/directions/accent.shtml
MAIN URL: http://www.svlug.org/
EVENT NOTES:
General Procedures
The event itself is usually unformatted - no pre-set schedule of activities. When you arrive, check with the Installfest personnel (not the bookshop employees - we do not want to interfere with their work) on where to set up your system. We try to keep people with new installations together, and people with troubleshooting issues together. Then go to work - our gurus will be there to help. Feel free to ask any question.
There is no fixed schedule of acivities, though occasionally we will have an expert come give a mini-seminar on his or her area of expertise.
Due to the finite size of the work area, we ask that you be prepared to share tables with other installers.

What To Do
Bring your machine, including monitor and anything else it needs to work.
Bring a power strip. If we have a shortage of outlets, people who bring power strips get priority at the wall outlets.
Whether you are doing a new Linux install or just an upgrade, make a backup of your current system before you come. If something goes wrong, we want to be sure that you lose nothing critical.
If you are installing a new version of Linux, bring your installation CD and documentation. (Some Intel-based installation CDs may be there for you to use, but don't depend absolutely on it.)
We try to have a 10baseT local-area network hooked up among our machines, so bring your NICs!
If you have one, bring an Ethernet hub. Since attendance is somewhat unpredictable, it doesn't hurt to have several extras. (Be sure to ask before connecting it - we want a topology where one hub is just for other hubs to connect to, and ideally only one-hub-deep connections from there. Some distant parts of the room may need an extra hub for that area.)
Some regular participants have found it handy to make a box of stuff they regularly bring to the Installfests.

What Not To Do
Don't count on others to have spare monitors, power cables, keyboards, mice, non-Intel Linux distributions, etc... although if you intended to bring them and forgot, ask around before driving back home to get them.
Our hours of operation are 11am to 4pm. Don't arrive at 3:00 and expect to get much accomplished before we have to shut down for the day.
ORGANIZATION NOTES:
The Silicon Valley Linux User Group (SVLUG) is the oldest and one of the largest Linux user groups in the world. It's a group of Linux hobbyists, professionals and enthusiasts in the vicinity of San Jose, California, which is also internationally known as Silicon Valley. Our members share interests in Linux and free or low-cost implementations of Unix, as well as other open sourceTM software. The group was originally formed in 1988 as the PC-Unix Special Interest Group of the Silicon Valley Computer Society. SVLUG celebrated its 10th anniversary at the March 4, 1998 meeting, where Linus Torvalds addressed an audience of 500 people.