Democratizing Linux & Open Source Education.

The Penguins Club is a charity and non-profit community initiative running from 2020. We host community Linux mirrors, distribute free educational booklets, leaflets & stickers, and deliver valuable practical lessons and monthly workshops.

Non-Profit Charity Network/Run entirely by volunteers/Free for every student/26/18 Gulshan Badda Link Road

Upcoming events

Live and upcoming events on the platform.

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Linux Command Line, Shell Automation & System Internals
17 October 2026 • 15:00 BST

Linux Command Line, Shell Automation & System Internals

SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE & BASH WORKSHOP
26/18 Gulshan Badda Link Road, Dhaka 1212 & Telegram Stream

Hands-on lab walking through terminal navigation, automation pipelines with bash, systemd services, and Linux kernel fundamentals.

Attend via Telegram →
Contributing to Open Source Software & Git Best Practices
21 November 2026 • 15:00 BST

Contributing to Open Source Software & Git Best Practices

UPSTREAM COLLABORATION & PR SPRINT
Campus Lab Space & Online Live Stream

Hands-on guidance through cloning repositories, fixing good first issues, writing tests, and opening upstream pull requests.

Attend via Telegram →
Self-Hosting, Local Privacy & Digital Sovereignty
19 December 2026 • 15:00 BST

Self-Hosting, Local Privacy & Digital Sovereignty

HOMELAB, CONTAINERIZATION & NEXTCLOUD
Hacker Space, Dhaka & Virtual Stream

Learn how to take control of personal data by hosting your own open-source services on refurbished hardware or inexpensive home servers.

Attend via Telegram →

What the community has built since 2020

The Penguins Club measures success not by vanity metrics or sponsorship fees, but by genuine community longevity, software shipped, and students empowered with free computing literacy.

4+Years RunningMonthly meetups kept continuously since 2020
34+Meetups HostedIn-person workshops in Dhaka & interactive live streams
30+Open RepositoriesPublic tools, datasets, guides & bots on GitHub
100%Free • Zero PaywallsRun by volunteers with zero corporate lock-in
CHARITY INFRASTRUCTURE

High-Speed Local Linux Mirror

Hosting community cache mirrors for Debian, Arch Linux, and Ubuntu packages to ensure fast, low-latency downloads for local students and developers across Bangladesh.

PRINTED EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL

Free Booklets, Leaflets & Stickers

Designing, printing, and distributing physical command-line cheat sheets, Linux installation guides, and Tux stickers at meetups and universities across the country.

OPEN DATA DIRECTORY

bd-startups Ecosystem Index

Curated crowdsourced database documenting tech companies in Bangladesh, providing global visibility to local innovators and student researchers.

What we run

Clubs meet monthly year-round. Campus workshops, installation fests, and upstream sprints run when a university department or partner signs on.

Ongoing • Year-RoundGNU/Linux & Systems

Linux Systems & CLI Club

Paper reading, live terminal challenges, and monthly hands-on workshops — the habit this community started with in 2020.

From desktop installations (Debian, Arch, Fedora) to headless server administration, shell scripting, package management, and systemd services.

Ongoing • Open SourceToolchain & Git

Open Source Toolchain & Upstream PRs

Show what you are building with FOSS tools, get code reviews, and learn the collaborative skills required for upstream contributions.

Mastering Git branching workflows, writing tests, reviewing PRs, and contributing to public repositories under copyleft and permissive licenses.

When Hosted • On DemandCampus Outreach

Campus Install-Fests & Workshops

One-day hands-on bootcamps at universities. Free for students. Runs when a university club, department, or partner signs on.

We bring seasoned mentors, live bootable USB drives, printed cheat-sheets, and lab rubrics. You bring the lab room and eager students.

Specialized TrackDefense & Privacy

Cybersecurity & Digital Sovereignty

Teaching defensive computing, network auditing, server hardening, and self-hosted cloud alternatives.

Configuring firewalls (UFW, nftables), SSH keys, private local LLMs without telemetry, disk encryption, and verifiable security practices.

Charity InitiativePublic Commons

Local Linux Mirror & Educational Kits

Free community infrastructure: high-speed package mirrors, printed booklets, leaflets, and Linux stickers.

Operating community package mirrors for Debian, Arch, and Ubuntu. Printing and handing out physical reference leaflets and booklets at zero cost.

Four ways to take part

Speak, host a campus stop, contribute code, or support the logistics that keep workshops and educational materials free for every student in Bangladesh.

HOST ON CAMPUSFree for students & universities

Host a campus workshop

Bring a Linux install-fest or workshop to your university. You bring the lab room and students; we bring the bootable USBs, printed booklets, stickers, and experienced mentors.

SPEAK OR DEMOFirst-time speakers welcomed & mentored

Speak or demo a tool

Teach the tool or workflow you wish someone had shown you. Whether you built a Rust CLI, configured a home server, or mastered Vim, our meetup stage is open to you.

CONTRIBUTE CODEAll code copyleft & open source

Contribute to open repositories

Submit pull requests to bd-startups, Awesome-Cybersecurity, or uradhura. Help translate documentation, fix issues, and improve community infrastructure.

SUPPORT LOGISTICS100% transparent non-profit allocation

Support mirrors & hardware

Fund high-bandwidth Linux mirror servers, provide refurbished laptops for student labs, or support printing free booklets and stickers — never a paywall.

[ PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS ]

Support rooms that are already hacking & building

Supporters help cover physical meetup spaces, high-bandwidth mirror servers, travel to universities across Bangladesh, and printing free booklets & stickers — never a registration fee. You get direct connection to passionate systems engineers, student builders, and a community that remembers who made the workshops possible.

Public Repositories & Initiatives

All our code, guides, and learning resources are published under open copyleft licenses on GitHub. Explore, inspect, fork, and submit pull requests.

View all 30 repos on GitHub →
Open Data

Curated open directory of technology startups in Bangladesh. Helping local tech innovators gain international visibility and collaborative peer connections.

Markdown
216
Workshops

Slide decks, talk transcripts, lecture notes, and resources presented at The Penguins Club monthly meetups covering Linux systems and tools.

Talks & Notes
50
Automation

High-performance Telegram bot written in Rust powering community group automations, resource delivery, and utility services.

Rust
50
Roadmap

Curated open career guidance, Linux skill rubrics, and engineering references for aspiring systems administrators and developers.

JavaScript
32
Digital Literacy

Essential internet etiquettes, digital ethics, and communication norms compiled in one place for students and tech community participants.

Astro
01
[ OPEN COLLABORATION ]

Want to contribute or start a new repository under the club?

Whether you want to contribute documentation to bd-startups, write a security guide for Awesome-Cybersecurity-Bangladesh, or incubate your own open source tool, our community is open for collaboration.

Connect with The Penguins Club

Our community operates primarily on Telegram, where we coordinate monthly meetups, answer Linux and open-source questions, and share project updates. Everyone is welcome.

PRIMARY ACTIVE COMMUNITY HUB

Join our Telegram: @penguinsclubnetwork

This is where our day-to-day community coordinates. Connect with students, sysadmins, software engineers, and FOSS advocates. Ask Linux troubleshooting questions, get guidance installing a distro, and receive monthly meetup alerts.

Monthly meetup dates & stream linksFriendly Linux troubleshootingOpen source collaboration
Open Telegram Group →Direct handle: t.me/penguinsclubnetwork

Communication Channels & Roadmap

We keep daily discussions focused on Telegram while configuring additional decentralized protocols.

OFFICIAL & ACTIVE

Telegram Community

@penguinsclubnetwork

Our primary live community hub. Join for monthly meetup notifications, Linux troubleshooting, distro install help, and community discussions.

PLANNED

Matrix Space

#thepenguinsclub:matrix.org

Federated, end-to-end encrypted chat on the open Matrix protocol. Setup in progress to bridge with our main community rooms.

PLANNED

Discord Community

discord.gg/thepenguinsclub

Voice lounges, audio rooms, and screen-sharing channels for hands-on workshop pair programming and community streams.

PLANNED

Discourse Forum

forum.thepenguins.club

Long-form async forum for distro documentation, in-depth tutorials, system architecture RFCs, and permanent knowledge archiving.

[ COMMUNITY OUTREACH • LAB COORDINATION ]

Need to reach the organizers directly?

If you are an academic institution, community space, volunteer speaker, or open-source foundation interested in collaborating with The Penguins Club, send us an email or visit our physical lab.

Why Software Freedom Matters

Founded in 2020, The Penguins Club operates on the conviction that computing knowledge should never be hoarded behind paywalls or proprietary lock-ins. By teaching GNU/Linux and open tools, we help individuals take ownership of their technology.

SOVEREIGNTY

Digital Sovereignty

Personal workstations and servers should be under the full control of their owners — free from involuntary data extraction, mandatory telemetry, and artificial lock-ins.

SUSTAINABILITY

Hardware Longevity

GNU/Linux breathes decades of useful life into older computers, actively combating planned obsolescence and reducing electronic waste in universities and homes.

AUDITABILITY

Verifiable Security

Open source software enables independent peer audits and threat modeling. Security must be rooted in transparent architectural design, never secrecy.

COMMONS

Digital Public Commons

Foundational software technologies — from the Internet to the Linux kernel — were built as shared public commons. We defend and expand that heritage.

CHARITY

Free Educational Resources

As an open charity initiative, we host community Linux mirrors, publish guides, distribute free booklets & leaflets, and deliver practical lessons.

The Four Essential Software FreedomsFormulated by the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
[0]

Freedom to run the program

To run the program as you wish, for any purpose, on any machine — without artificial licensing barriers or corporate surveillance.

[1]

Freedom to study the source code

To inspect how the software executes and modify it to suit your needs. Transparent source code is fundamental to computer science education.

[2]

Freedom to redistribute copies

To share copies with peers, students, and institutions so everyone has access to modern software tools.

[3]

Freedom to distribute improvements

To release modifications to the public, allowing the global community to learn and benefit collectively.

Community Non-Profit Commitment

100% volunteer-run charity initiative. We host public Linux mirrors, distribute free educational booklets & stickers, and provide hands-on workshops that remain permanently free and open to everyone.