My first Linux user group meetup was in 2001/2002. It changed my life forever. It shaped my career, got me a huge network and shaped me as an individual.
I can’t imagine where I would have been in life if I had not encountered Lug/FOSS. The network, mentoring and relationship have helped me in all these years.
I attended another Linux user group meetup after a long time. There were some familiar faces whom I had met via IRC, Twitter or other Linux events.
There was a 3ed engineering student as well in the room who reminded me of myself. My first meetup, I was clueless about what these people are talking about. The difference he had was Internet availability and better Linux distribution. He mentioned why these days meetups are not needed, the Internet has it all. I so wished to tell him how these meetups were more about connecting, meeting and learning life. Linux and technology was one part of it.