Welcome to Linux!
Open the Source and Free Your MIND!
The official and only legal Jacksonville Linux Users Group™, otherwise known as the JaxLUG™, is a community users group comprised of a diverse group of local Linux users in the greater Jacksonville, Florida metropolitan area extending to all of North East Florida, ranging from beginners, developers, engineers, home users, professors, researchers, scientists, students, systems administrators, teachers, and IT professionals to general Linux and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and technology enthusiasts; backed by the Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Jacksonville Linux Users Group Inc, please see our legal and financial pages for more information. We have open legal positions, with other positions to come!
Come join us all year long in 2026 as we celebrate 30 years of Linux in Jacksonville, the 30th anniversary of the JaxLUG, the Jacksonville Linux Users Group! Come interact with us on our very own Matrix homeserver matrix.jaxlug.ngo or for hard core Linux geeks our IRC channel on OFTC #jaxlug, and re-join the restored self-hosted Mailing List at list@jaxlug.ngo, the heart and soul of the group since 1996. Checkout the JaxLUG Infrastructure Project, or the coming JaxLUG Recycle Program a.k.a Project Phoenix, and our work-in-progress superior, top-notch, human expert authored Linux resources, that copycats are duplicating, with more to come to help foster and grow the next generation of Linux users, and ideally, Linux and open-source developers!
We are the innovators, others can copy us, but will never be us, they just follow our lead!
Don't be fooled by copycats, wannabes, flimflammers, flashy websites with Delaware mailing address, and fake Linux communities that exist solely on proprietary platforms, such as Discord, Meetup, Google Groups and others, people who claim to be Linux and security experts who struggle to do minimal tasks like host static websites or other on Linux. Jacksonville, Florida is riddled with people who claim to have knowledge and skills they do not, and who merely want to socialize rather than have a real technical community that benefits its members and the area! Unfortunately, local educational and municipalities rather support in-authentic fraudsters and scammers, rather than support locally highly educated, experienced, and authentic, bona fide efforts. Jacksonville does a great job of holding itself back, no more!
We are the knowledgeable, skilled, and authentic open-source and Linux community; the experts!
In what should be a celebratory year, it has broken down to a few locals, who are intimidated over change of status-quo which impacts their self-serving agenda, who are resisting major advancements for the benefit of the community, at the expense of the community, to serve their own personal interests! There is a saying, we stand on the shoulders of giants that came before us, expand that to, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. This is a fundamental principle of Unix, Linux, and Free and Open Source Software, where we respect history, we respect licenses, we respect intellectual property, we respect those that came before us, as if it were not for them, we may not exist, nor would the FOSS we use and love like Linux!
Linux is not a new operating system. Linux was developed as a free and commercially affordable alternative to the historically very expensive, now mostly obsolete aside from BSDs, Unix Operating System, which Unix dates back to the 1970s. Linus Torvalds wanted access to Unix outside of college, and did not have the tens or hundreds of thousands in any currency to purchase a Unix license, and therefore, developed Linux. Linux builds on an ancient, rock solid, foundation of Unix software, most of which is FOSS now, under various license. Nobody can claim to be a Linux person, who disregards history, as Linux literally is history carried forward!
Linux is also about education, just as much as FOSS, the entire purpose for having access to the source code is to learn. If you are not into learning, Linux is not for you. If you are not into history, Linux is not for you. If you want to learn about the longest running history of currently used software, Linux is for you! If you want Freedom, control, to not be spied on, have your data mined for AI, etc, Linux is for you! Linux is about you, so if you are not trying to build upon yourself, better yourself, learn, etc, Linux may not be for you, there is always ChromeOS, MacOS, and Windows. Linux is for a reason, and that starts with learning!
The JaxLUG exists to advance Linux in the Jacksonville, Florida and the greater Metropolitan area of North East Florida to foster the education and usage of Linux, which includes at times attracting leading technology professionals to present on innovative Linux development methodologies and technologies. North Florida Linux users of any kind are welcome!
Donations
The Jacksonville Linux Users Group is a Florida Non-Profit, 501(c)(3) under IRC, which will take 5 years to receive permanent status from the IRS, but, in the meantime, anyone can now make tax-deductible donations to the JaxLUG! Donations are handled through our partner Give Lively. Presently, the money will be used for administrative purposes, legal filings, trademark, domain, etc. In the future, as the JaxLUG's resources grow, these funds will be allocated by the JaxLUG board to benefit the Jacksonville, Florida, Metropolitan area to foster the education and usage of Linux!
Sponsors
The Jacksonville Linux Users Group is a Florida Non-Profit, 501(c)(3) under IRC, and is actively seeking sponsors of any kind, be it food, monetary, or venues. This sponsorship will be tax-deductible! If your business, employer, or company would like to sponsor the JaxLUG in any form, please reach out! Sponsors will be acknowledged and advertised on our website and other media with links to the sponsor.
Presently, sponsor (donor) payments are handled through Give Lively and/or Stripe, and we will be producing various sponsor levels and packages.