The 25th annual LinuxFest Northwest wrapped up at the end of April this year so we’re taking a stroll down memory lane and reminiscing on the last 10 years of attending the show. From the Linux Switch competition with Jupiter Broadcasting and Noah from the AskNoah Show, the release of Pop!_OS to the epic reveal of COSMIC Desktop, the following are some of our most memorable moments!

Let's begin with the most recent fest in 2025! System76 Founder Carl Richell updated the community on the progress of COSMIC Desktop and Emma was back to host the parking lot (un) BBQ with the folks at Jupiter Broadcasting. With standing room only in Carl's presentation, it was nice to go out to the parking lot and surrounding landscape to sit and have a picnic. And that's exactly what people did! The System76 booth was flooded with existing customers and fans talking about their experiences with our sales and support team and the product quality. It was the ultimate hype location on the exhibitor floor.

Introducing COSMIC DE to the community for the first time was one of the highlights of the 2024 event. The excitement for our new rust-based desktop environment helped fuel the next year of development and couldn't be more grateful for the reception during that presentation. Another highlight of the weekend was when a System76 fan asked Carl to sign his Lemur Laptop. Caught that epic moment on camera!

We can't forget to mention the wettest BBQ of the century that was pulled off by the entire JB team and System76. Through the rain and freezing temps from being soaked, everyone involved maintained good vibes and happy smiles! Especially Noah, pictured below! Major shoutouts to Jeff, Alex, Noah, Chris, Hadea, Brent, Angela, Wes and Olympia Mike for helping pull off feeding all the nerds!

A lot of memories and friendships are made at the parking lot barbecues. In 2019, the weather was perfect and the BBQ was after the fest. This was the year Lady Jupes (the RV) basically became home base for future BBQs. We can't forget when a person that shall not be named put on someone else's pink bathing suit over their clothes and trotted across the parking lot with grace. Although there are photos of this, it's better to just leave it up to your imagination.

2019 was also the year where the support team and copywriter attended the fest for the first time. That was some fantastic team building that weekend!

The Linux Fest after the first Pop!_OS release was a fun one to get creative with swag. We ate so much popcorn that weekend...

Rewind to 2016 when Emma and Noah did a Linux Switch competition on the streets of downtown Bellingham for the Linux Action Show. You can watch the video on Youtube!

The sense of community at Linux Fest Northwest is unmatched and is an unforgettable event every year. The opportunity to create lifelong friends, learn new things and collaborate on ideas is priceless and we recommend attending if you're ever able to make it to Bellingham, Washington at the end of April. Thank you to the fest organizers and volunteers for putting on this free community event every year!

For more information on Linux Fest Northwest, visit LFNW.org.