About VanLUG

The Vancouver Linux User Group is a non-profit association of technology professionals and enthusiasts in the Greater Vancouver area. With over 2,200 members, we are one of the largest Linux user groups in the world.

VanLUG existed for a couple of years before it was officially incorporated on March 29, 1999. What started as a handful of people in a library meeting room has grown into one of the most active user groups of its kind across Greater Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

We promote Linux and free, open-source software as alternatives to proprietary platforms, and provide a forum for professionals and newcomers alike to meet, learn, and collaborate. Our monthly meetings, hosted by our library and community partners, feature guest speakers from local and international companies on topics ranging from kernel internals and automation to career strategy and startup opportunities.

More importantly, VanLUG wants members to gain new skills, new ideas, better career trajectories, and greater opportunities in the open-source ecosystem.

Our purpose

We exist to fulfil the following mandates:

To promote the use of GNU-Linux (aka LINUX), a freely distributable, UNIX-like operating system developed by Linus Torvalds and a team of International collaborators. Linux follows the 'free, open source software' (FOSS) principles created by Richard M. Stallman who headed the GNU project. We also promote other variants of Linux (called Distros) and other UNIX versions (like GNU, BSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc) by individuals, businesses, organizations, institutions, and others, particularly those in the Greater Vancouver Area, the Canadian Westcoast, and the Pacific North-West.
To promote Free, Open Source and other software development models under which GNU-Linux and related software are being developed.
To foster collaboration and cooperation between GNU-Linux / Unix users and developers, particularly those in the Greater Vancouver Area, the Canadian Westcoast, and the Pacific North-West.
To provide a focus for GNU-Linux / Unix users and developers, particularly those in Greater Vancouver Area and the Pacific North-West.
To organize events of various types in Greater Vancouver Area and the Pacific-North West, that promote the GNU-Linux / UNIX and related software and products to the larger community.

2026 Board of Directors

As a registered non-profit society in British Columbia, VanLUG is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Elections are held annually at our AGM. New volunteers are always welcome. Get in touch⁠ if you'd like to help.

Nestor Balce — President

I have worked on Marketing for 30 years for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B) companies in Asia, US, and Canada. My work machine is a Mac (sorry!), and I usually use Ubuntu and now Fedora for my weekends. Outside of Work, I walk a lot (I did a short Camino in Spain) and I like to run: I am currently training for the BMO Vancouver Marathon (42km).

LinkedIn⁠

What VanLUG needs: I think VanLUG needs wins at the Member level - I don't think counting the number of members is important anymore. I would rather have some people say they got a job thanks to VanLUG. That is more meaningful to me: success at the member level.
What I can contribute: I am willing to work on getting the best topics and speakers for our members. I am willing to make cold calls to people if necessary. I am also working on expanding my contacts in Tech so I can help people find job.

John Weintraub — Vice President

John Weintraub has chosen not to share a public biography at this time.

Kim Kulak — Treasurer / Acting Secretary

Started at University of Alberta in 1973 in physics. Took a computing course because I knew nothing about computers. Graduated with a B.Sc in Computing Science, because I was a lot better at computers than physics. Worked 20 years as a programmer. Most of that time writing embedded software on Unix hosts. In that time used almost all of the commercial Unix systems, BSD on a Vax, AIX, HPUX, SunOS, Solaris, System V on AT&T 3b2, and many that I don't remember any more. When I heard of this Linux thing I downloaded (over dialup) about 10 floppies of tar balls. Got it running on my 486 and was blown away by how good it was. I missed the first VanLUG meeting organized by Dave Michelson but attended the second and almost all meetings since then. Started to help run the club almost immediately. I've been VanLUG president in 2008, 2009, 2024, and 2025. And every other position at one time or another.

What VanLUG needs: Past President is the one and only position on the board that isn't elected. It's there to provide continuity from one president to the next. I did run for secretary treasurer (or more correctly secretary and treasurer) because nobody else wanted these positions. I'd be happy to pass them on to anybody willing to do it.
What I can contribute: I'm with Nestor: 'The Theme for 2026 is "Expansion of Linux and Open Source."' I currently do this through Linux Link. If you've never seen Linux, I have a couple of computers running Linux and I'll show you around and let you try it yourself. If you're now ready to use Linux, I'll help you install it. If you're already a Linux user, then come in! There are always other Linux users ready and willing to talk about Linux. I think running workshops would be a fantastic opportunity to bring Linux and Open Source to dozens of people in addition to the personalized one-at-a-time at Linux Link.

Alex Z. — Director-at-large

Alex Z. has chosen not to share a public biography at this time.

Brant F. — Director-at-large

I'm retired after working in tech, corporate training, and most recently, emergency management. I've delivered training to small groups and large audiences primarily in the Oil and Gas Industry in Western Canada. I'm good at it, if I know the material. I'm interested in Linux from a privacy and security point of view, AI, virtual machines, and similar topics. Outside that, I write fiction, enjoy strategy gaming, and collect fine tequila. I'm a sci-fi fan.

What VanLUG needs: In my opinion, VanLUG should have a more focused approach to obtaining members and expanding public awareness of Linux. For example, all of the digital 'footprints' should coordinate with one another (right now things seem to have grown organically over the years -- not a criticism, just an outsider's observation). The website could use a little love as well. Moreover, our core audience should be better identified and segmented (e.g. rank novices, some experience, experts, seniors, etc.) with an eye to eventually offering value to each group.
What I can contribute: I believe I have several skills and characteristics which could assist VanLUG. These include public speaking; training design, development, and delivery (using various presentation software); some graphic design abilities, excellent written and oral communication skills, and a highly organized mind-set. I have some experience in marketing and enjoy content development, including both internal and external documentation and collaterals.

Felicitas P. — Director-at-large

I'm Felicitas Pojtinger, and go by just Fel. I was born in 2001 and have a B.Sc. in Media Informatics. I'm Head of Research and Development at Loophole Labs, a startup where we work on live migration, checkpoint-restore, and Linux kernel things and the low-level userland. I've been working full-time in the industry for six years, three years doing consulting and fullstack work on everything from IoT and embedded Linux to frontend development, then as a founding engineer before moving into my current role. Outside of work, I've been involved with Linux and open source since 2011 when I started modding phones to run Linux and Android. That led me through custom ROMs (xda-developers etc.), aerospace and CubeSat development, 3D printer design, and eventually into Kubernetes and distributed systems. I spoke at conferences like KubeCon, develop P2P open source applications like weron VPN and bofied, and I've recently been working on getting more involved with GNOME development on the Linux desktop. I've also done a fair bit of open source advocacy work, from anti-Article 13 demonstrations in Europe to getting schools and unis to switch to Nextcloud and Linux instead of proprietary software.

Website⁠ Mastodon⁠ Bluesky⁠ LinkedIn⁠

What VanLUG needs: I think VanLUG needs better connections to other Vancouver open source communities like Cloud Native Vancouver, Vantekkies, and Vancouver Systems. I think we need to get more involved with the intersection of public policy and the public sector, following the "public money, public code" approach. I think we should focus on talks with technical topics that touch on social causes like free Linux desktops and the fediverse, and tighten the alignment of talks with open source principles—hosting talks on things like Nextcloud, Home Assistant, Element, and other ways of achieving software freedom on the server side. I think we need to advocate for Linux use by institutions from a digital sovereignty angle and connect the open hardware community—RISC-V, 3D printing, makerspaces, hackspaces—with VanLUG. I think we should look into getting more corporate sponsorship for more accessible venues, review our infrastructure to see how it's being hosted, and figure out how we can minimize background churn work and costs while making it easier to get donations going. I think we need to adopt and codify the OSI and FSF definitions of "open source" and "free software" and make people aware of openwashing and how to spot it. I think we should have a policy of using open source software for board communication and external communication, similar to Fedora's and Debian's policy. I think we should work with Free Culture and Creative Commons artists and writers to provide artwork and proper descriptions for talks and events instead of using AI-generated images, and modernize and streamline the VanLUG corporate identity. I think we need a formal open Call for Papers process with something like pretalx for people to submit talks directly, and I think we should work on getting talks recorded, livestreamed, and promoted on the Fediverse and other syndicated platforms so people from outside Vancouver can access them and we can get better visibility.
What I can contribute: I can work on these goals and advancing software freedom in Vancouver. I have experience organizing around free software, like I mentioned I've worked with anti-Article 13 demonstrations in Europe, participated in digital sovereignty discussions with a few Social Democratic parties, ran the CoffeeCodeContribute boot camp, and advocated for open source in universities and schools. I want to get more familiar with non-profit governance since most of my "management experience" (if you can call it that) has been in private industry and academia. I can attend meetings and provide my industry experience. I can help with reducing costs for hosted infrastructure, simplify development processes, and work on the website, a future Fediverse presence, and other hosted infrastructure. I can help set up open-source automation tools for things like meeting transcriptions to reduce churn and busywork for day-to-day operations. I can organize more talks, both from myself and other people in the industry. I can try to get Vancouver-based startups to help with sponsorships and make more industry connections to make sure VanLUG can continue growing. I can help work with Free Culture artists instead of AI-generated content, set up a formal Call for Papers process, and work on getting talks recorded and livestreamed (with consent of the speakers ofc, that is), and promoted so we get better reach beyond just Vancouver.

Frank L. — Director-at-large

Currently a Qubes OS "paid" support provider exclusive to VanLUG and regularly maintain a list of anonymous web third-party hosting providers on the Whonix Wiki every month. Previously I have been involved with the Tor Project, Snowstorm, OONI, Lantern, Purism, Open Media, and OpenNIC consisting of various contributions, durations and roles, alongside being a privacy front-end operator of nearly 30 services (based on LibRedirect) for the general public during the last few years. Related interests under the broad "digital resistance" umbrella include music (Mosaichord) and physical security (lockpicking/safe manipulation/tamper-evident seal bypass) against cold boot/evil maid attacks.

Qubes OS Forum⁠ Whonix Wiki⁠

What VanLUG needs: What I believe VanLUG needs most is digital sovereignty, primarily to reduce financial costs and secondarily to reduce trust on external third-parties.
What I can contribute: The first stage of my plan is to successfully deploy a DNS recursive resolver (DoT/DoH3/DoQ/DNSCrypt) and mail server for myself first using a VPS from the list of anonymous web third-party hosting providers on the Whonix Wiki, transfer that proof of work towards VanLUG's infrastructure to decommission the third-party mail server, then repeat that for future stages. The second stage is Hugo, which will replace WordPress, and the third stage is Element Server Suite, which may optionally be bridged to the pre-existing VanLUG Signal group(s) using mautrix-signal, subject to someone else's interest towards achieving and maintaining this interoperability.

PJ L. — Director-at-large

PJ L. has chosen not to share a public biography at this time.

Ted L. — Director-at-large

I first started using computers in 1972. It was a computer terminal hard-wired to the Vancouver School HP-2000A time-shared computer, programmed in BASIC. I quickly got hooked and taught myself BASIC and the command interface. At first, I programmed in BASIC using pencil-marked cards. Later, I learned that I could simply walk into the UBC computer lab for students (I was a Grade 10 high school student at the time) and use the keypunch machine to enter my programs. I received credit for CS10 through remote studies, as the school I attended was too small to offer a computer science program. In 1978, I managed to scrape together $5,000 to buy a TRS-80—an 8-bit CPU with 4 KB of RAM. I converted a Model 15 teletype printer, running at 66 WPM, from 6-bit Baudot to 7-bit ASCII in order to print lowercase letters. In the 1980s, I earned a diploma in Computer Systems Management from Capilano College. In the 1990s, I learned about VanLUG and obtained the famous yellow disc used to install Slackware on a PC via a CD-ROM drive—one that I installed myself. I later shifted my focus from Linux to the Internet and learned how to communicate with computers over radio. I deepened my Linux knowledge by using Raspberry Pi models 1, 2, 3, and 4 to interface with radio equipment, TOR relays, Bitcoin nodes, and more. I graduated from Kwantlen University College in 2003 with a degree in Technology. I am now retired and spend my time helping people meet their financial goals.

Website⁠

What VanLUG needs: VanLUG is a not-for-profit group that does not collect dues and focuses on spreading the word about open-source software and low-cost computing for everyone. This is a tall order. We need to run workshops, host seminars, and give talks about how open-source software can assist people in their daily lives using Linux platforms. We may also need to collect donations to ensure the group can continue operating as a not-for-profit, non-dues-collecting organization.
What I can contribute: As I stated at the last AGM, I can contribute free, open-source server space on a commercial computer system located in Texas, USA, which I pay for monthly. This includes mail, web hosting, CMS, retail, privacy, AI, and many other open-source services that can be run on the server. I can also help people achieve digital and private sovereignty over their data using a Linux-based platform called Start9. Additionally, I can assist with setting up nodes and relays to improve privacy and financial security. Since I run my own mail server, I can be reached at vanlug@tedlee.ca.

Victor AV S. — Director-at-large

Victor AV S. has chosen not to share a public biography at this time.

Violet F. — Director-at-large

I am Violet Figueroa (they/she), and I am trained as a Cloud Security Analyst. Over the last year I have been shifting into cybersecurity after completing a training program, and have been getting more involved with VanLUG through meetups, the mailing list, and volunteer work. Ask me to infodump if you want media recommendations for movies, tv, games, linux homelabing stuffs, PKM and book recommendations, etc etc, I will happily oblige!

What VanLUG needs: From my perspective, one of the main things VanLUG needs is to keep lowering the barriers for new and returning Linux users. That includes clear on-ramps for beginners, more geographically distributed events, and spaces that feel welcoming to people from different backgrounds and experience levels. I also think we can continue to highlight how Linux and open source connect to everyday concerns like privacy, accessibility, and cost of living.
What I can contribute: To support that, I can help with outreach to community organizations and neighbourhood houses in Vancouver as potential meetup venues, contribute a security and privacy lens to talks and workshops, and pitch in on documentation and processes that make it easier for new volunteers and speakers to plug in. I am especially interested in helping with events and content that show how Linux and open source can support digital safety and inclusion.

William G. — Director-at-large

William G. has chosen not to share a public biography at this time.

Zhiqiang Z. — Director-at-large

Hi, I'm Zhiqiang ZHOU (ZZ). I was born in 1996 and currently work as an SRE at LayerZero. I'm mostly interested in cloud computing and cloud-native systems. I'm also active in open source — I'm a Chaos Mesh maintainer and have spoken about the project at KubeCon. Before moving to Vancouver, I was a moderator of the Hangzhou Linux User Group in China. I also co-run a small web design studio with a friend called Boring Design. After moving to Vancouver, I started looking for a local Linux community, which is how I found VanLUG and met a lot of great people here.

GitHub⁠ LinkedIn⁠

What VanLUG needs: To me, VanLUG is about people who are genuinely interested in Linux and related technologies, coming together to learn and share. I think it's important that more people know VanLUG exists. The community already has good content and strong technical depth — improving visibility and reach would help bring in more people who care. I also think that while in-person events are great, recorded or live content is a big long-term asset. Livestreams or recordings can help our talks reach beyond the room.
What I can contribute: I'd mainly like to help in three areas: Tech infrastructure — with my SRE/DevOps background, I can help support community platforms and tools. Talks and topics — I'm happy to share topics like Chaos Engineering and open-source + business / commercialization. Content and social media — I'd like to help with recording videos and share on social medias like, YouTube, Twitter, Bluesky, etc. If we need to start fresh, that's totally fine.

See our Design System on the Resources page for VanLUG's icon, logo, fonts, colours, and design assets.