Kekatos was inspired to create the special day by a Hewlett-Packard magazine advertisement in which a system administrator is presented with flowers and fruit-baskets by grateful co-workers as thanks for installing new printers.

Many geek and Internet culture businesses, such as O'Reilly Media, also honor the holiday with special product offerings and contests.

[citation needed] There is also a separate event near Kaluga called LinuxFest which is held on the last Friday in July.

Before 2010 there were spontaneous gatherings, and since 2010 the event received official permission from Ekaterinburg authorities[7] to be annually held near famous Keyboard monument in the city centre with support from IT companies.

[8] In 2016 during such an event a memorial plaque was set up at the monument to honor Eugene Zorin [ru], the Ekaterinburg FidoNet organizer and Internet pioneer who died recently.