Geek Trek

It all started in May 1999 on a dark Saturday afternoon in Prague, when 15 geeks from America, Russia, Germany, and England met at 5pm on the Charles Bridge …

This sounds like the opening of a thriller, except that the people on the bridge weren't exchanging spies or money but were frantically waving penguins and trying to recognize each other. "Look for a small Russian with a small camera with a big lens and a stuffed penguin," one of the attending geeks told the mailing list.

It was during that first meeting (LBW 0.99) that the geeks decided on a format for the Linux Beer Hike [1]: Not a huge conference with hundreds of participants and speakers (as originally suggested), but rather an informal geek meeting in a place with good hiking opportunities, interesting local cuisine, and accommodation for every budget. Finding a date and location was pretty easy. Because there was a solar eclipse in Germany in August 1999, it was decided to hold the first Beer Hike in Tüchersfeld/Pottenstein, Bavaria.

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