2 date:
2004-
01-
27 15:
36:
27+
00:
00
3 slug: happy-birthday-freenode
4 title: Happy Birthday freenode!
6 It's **freenode**'s birthday party. Please come celebrate with us.
8 In early August,
1994, a small IRC support channel called #linuxneo, on the EFNet IRC network, began to see activity. The channel grew, and in a few days its name was changed to #linpeople. The channel eventually moved to Undernet, then DALnet, and in late
1995 it became its own IRC network, irc.linpeople.org. By early
1998, its focus began to broaden, from GNU/Linux to free software in general, and it became irc.openprojects.net. In August,
2002, the network changed its name to irc.freenode.net as it became the first project of a new nonprofit
[(not-for-profit) --Ed.] entity, [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml).
10 Today, **freenode** peaks at over
15,
000 users, and we're home to coordination channels for such projects as Debian GNU/Linux, fedora, Gentoo, KDE and subversion. We're the official IRC network of the Free Software Foundation's GNU project; we provide support channels for FreeBSD, GNU/Linux and a variety of free software applications. But the real conceptual moment when the network was born was early in
1994, on
29 January at
01:
49 UTC, when I first joined the channel #linuxneo.
12 So, happy birthday to us! Ten years later to the minute, on
29 January
2004 at
01:
49 UTC, the birthday party will begin in channel **#linuxneo** on **irc.freenode.net.** It'll last all day. Grab an IRC client, get a little
[help](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/ircprimer.html) setting it up, and come join us on freenode!