Give the Gift of Membership

When you hear the phrase "Give One, Get One," your mind may turn to the ill-fated promotion from the One Laptop Per Child program. This holiday season, the Linux Foundation is shaking up the phrase with a "Get One, Give One" program, helping you share the benefits of Foundation membership with lucky students.

The Foundation's "Get One, Give One" program, which it launched this week, intends to spread the wonders of the Linux Foundation to the student set, many of whom must forgo such opportunities for financial reasons. For each Linux aficionado who signs up for an individual membership, the LF will provide a free membership to a student of the individual's choice. For those without a student in mind, the free membership can be directed to the student waiting list, where eligible matriculators can sign up for a first-come, first-served chance at memberships up for grabs.

Membership in the Linux Foundation, for those not already familiar, provides a number of opportunities to those wishing to support the Foundation's work. Members play an important role in guiding the organization, having not only the right to vote in Foundation elections but also to seek a spot on its Board of Directors.

The usual variety of swag is included — t-shirts, exclusive publications, members-only events — as well as one rather unusual item: an @linux.com email address. (A special lifetime-address membership is also available.) A range of discounts are also available on products including (e)books from O'Reilly; SCALE, LinuxCon, and OSCON admissions; employee pricing from Lenovo, HP, and Dell; geekery from ThinkGeek; and even 15% off The Original Magazine of the Linux Community, our very own Linux Journal.

"Get One, Give One" will continue through January 31st, making it a double-charitable way to offload some of the excess money from whichever cold-weather holidays one might be celebrating. Students interested in being on the receiving end of the Foundation's generosity would do well to sign up as soon as possible — demand will likely exceed supply, and first-come, first-served will go quickly. Be sure to grab a student ID in the dash — proof of enrollment is required to get a spot on the list.

Interested individual members-to-be can find more information and a sign-up form on the Linux Foundation website.