Gentoo Linux celebrates third Bugday Anniversary - with a living penguin

PRESS RELEASE

Gentoo Linux celebrates third Bugday anniversary – with a living
penguin.

Gentoo Linux [http://www.gentoo.org/] will celebrate the third
anniversary of its Bugday initiative on Saturday, August 5, with a
number of contests and, of course, prizes, including a living
penguin, the Linux kernel mascot. A devoted Gentoo member sponsored a
one-year adoption of a Chilean penguin under the care of the
International Penguin Conservation Work Group
[http://www.penguins.cl/]. The winner not only gets to name the bird,
but he (or she) will also receive information and pictures on a regular
basis. Additionally, Bugday sponsors have put together a number of
prizes that will greatly enhance the wardrobes of their winners:
shirts, caps, cufflinks – all Linux-related, of course. Nothing is for
free, though: besides some special awards – like "most closed bugs“ –
there will be a technical and a non-technical quiz with some fun and
serious questions to answer.

Like other open source projects, Gentoo conducts Bugdays on a regular
schedule – Since August 2, 2003, Gentoo users and developers have come
together on the first Saturday of every month in #gentoo-bugs on the
Freenode IRC network to work on open bugs. The project has been a great
benefit right from the start; Gentoo developer and lead organizer
Bryan Østergaard reports that about 40 new developers have joined
Gentoo due to their involvement in Gentoo Bugdays. Since then it has
become normal for about 80 users and developers to hang out in
#gentoo-bugs helping the project. During bugdays, this number usually
increases to over 120.

Østergaard describes the atmosphere as very constructive: "We solve bugs
together,  enhance our packages – we call them 'ebuilds' – or parts of
the documentation. The channel is unmoderated, so our users are
encouraged to ask questions anytime to learn about Gentoo. Bugdays thus
form an effective bridge between developers and users. And of course
they help us solve more bugs. On a Bugday, the average number of closed
bugs is around 280. On a usual Saturday, it's 230.“

Everybody interested in Gentoo is free to get involved on any bug in the
Gentoo bugtracker [http://bugs.gentoo.org/], but there also is a list of
sugested bugs with varying degrees of complexity on the Bugday page
[http://bugday.gentoo.org/] for orientation. Gentoo Bugdays run all
Saturday, midnight to midnight UTC.

The Gentoo Bugday team would like to express their gratitude to the
event's sponsors, including Genesi, the power.org community, and
thelinuxshop.co.uk, without whose generosity this event could not have
been organised.




Information for editors:
Questions can be directed to pr@gentoo.org or directly to the Bugday
team at bugday@gentoo.org