LinuxChix
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LinuxChix is a mailing list and IRC community for Linux users. It is designed to provide both technical and social support for women Linux users, although there are members of the community who are men. Members of the community are referred to as "a Linux chick" (singular) and "LinuxChix" or "Linux Chix" (plural) regardless of gender.
The term LinuxChix refers to the organisation centered around the official website, the mailing lists and the IRC channels. The organisation has no official status and the name is used by other groups which are comparatively loosely affiliated with the original LinuxChix group, including local LinuxChix chapters which meet in person, and several national and continental groups which operate more or less independently.
LinuxChix was founded in 1999 by Deb Richardson. Her reason for founding LinuxChix was to create an alternative to the "locker room mentality" of other Linux User Groups and forums. LinuxChix discussion is meant to follow two principles:
- be polite
- be helpful
In 1999 LinuxChix consisted of a single mailing list, grrltalk. The growth of this mailing list led to the establishment of other mailing lists, beginning with techtalk for technical discussions and issues for discussion of women's political issues.
In 2001, Deb Richardson sought a new maintainer for the community, and chose Jenn Vesperman, who is the current coordinator as of 2005. Jenn Vesperman has run the community in a mostly hands-off fashion, delegating almost all tasks including mailing list administration and website maintenance to a volunteer. During Jenn Vesperman's tenure, the number of mailing lists has tripled. Her tenure saw the foundation of the newchix mailing list for people new to Linux; the courses mailing list used by Linux Chix to teach each other specific topics; and the grrls-only mailing list, the only list closed to male subscribers, founded by Val Henson in 2002. At around the same time, a LinuxChix IRC server was created. As of 2005, the mailing lists have an estimated 500-1000 total subscribers.
External links
- LinuxChix website (http://www.linuxchix.org)
- LinuxChix Brazil (http://br.linuxchix.org/)
- LinuxChix Africa (http://www.africalinuxchix.org/)