NLUUG is an association of professional UNIX

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

 / Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 users in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The group aims to increase and extend the awareness and use of Open Standards (including UNIX) and similar open system

Open system (computing)

Open systems are computer systems that provide some combination of interoperability, portability, and open software standards. The term was popularized in the early 1980s, mainly to describe systems based on Unix,...

s and Open Source.

The NLUUG also maintains one of the larger FTP mirrors in the world, and is the prime FTP site for several packages including VIM

Vim (text editor)

Vim is a text editor written by Bram Moolenaar and first released publicly in 1991. Based on the vi editor common to Unix-like systems, Vim is designed for use both from a command line interface and as a standalone application in a graphical user interface...

.

Activities

Typically, the NLUUG organises two large conferences every year. Topics over the last years include:

• IP Communication
• Languages and Tools
• E-mail and Beyond
• Visualization in Software Engineering
• Open Source in Business
• Security
• Web Applications
• Extreme UNIX

History

The NLUUG was founded in 1983, but the initial members were active together a long time before that.

The NLUUG founded the first Internet provider in the Netherlands, NLnet

NLnet

NLnets history started in April 1982 with the announcement of a major initiative to develop and provide network services in Europe under the name EUnet.Stichting NLnet was formally established as a "stichting" in February 1989...

. NLnet at the time only was serving businesses, which is why XS4All

XS4ALL

XS4ALL is the third-oldest Internet service provider in the Netherlands, after NLnet and SURFnet. However, XS4ALL was the first company to offer Internet access to individuals, since 1993...

 usually claims to be the first Internet provider (for consumers).

Other claims to fame are the founding of the SANE Conferences organization and the fact that the NLUUG was the first organisation to have Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...

 be a speaker on a conference outside Finland.

NLUUG Awards

The NLUUG sometime gives awards to people who have been helping the cause of Open Systems and Open Standards. Over the years, awards have been given to amongst others Piet Beertema

Piet Beertema

Piet Beertema is a Dutch Internet pioneer. On November 17, 1988 at 14:28 hours, he linked the Netherlands as the second country to NSFnet, a precursor to the Internet...

, Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum is a Dutch computer programmer who is best known as the author of the Python programming language. In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as a "Benevolent Dictator For Life" , meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, making decisions where necessary...

, Wietse Venema

Wietse Venema

Dr. Wietse Zweitze Venema is a Dutch programmer and physicist best known for writing the Postfix email system. He also wrote TCP Wrapper and collaborated with Dan Farmer and Samuel Johnson to produce the computer security tools SATAN and The Coroner's Toolkit.-Biography:He studied physics at the...

, Bram Moolenaar

Bram Moolenaar

Bram Moolenaar is an active member of the open source software community. He is the author of Vim, a text editor that is very popular among programmers and power users....

, Andy Tanenbaum

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Andrew Stuart "Andy" Tanenbaum is a professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is best known as the author of MINIX, a free Unix-like operating system for teaching purposes, and for his computer science textbooks, regarded as standard texts in the...

and Wytze van der Raay and Teus Hagen.