NOLUG was started in 1999 by ScottHarney and Hunter Hutchinson, then-employees of Fastband Internet Services, an ISP that went out of business in 2000. From the beginning, the meetings have been held at UNO, which has been very supportive of NOLUG and Linux in general.
Another of the early leaders was Konrad Rzeszutek, who earned a Master's Degree in computer science at UNO in May 2002 and moved to Austin Texas to work for IBM as a Linux developer. Konrad was the UNO liason for a while, until he left town.
Most of the old crowd either left New Orleans looking for work, or got too busy with other responsibilities, and the task of running the MonthlyMeetings and presenting topics fell to JoeyKelly when Konrad left. Currently Joey is attempting to increase meeting attendance and overall interest with the GuerillaLinux program and other projects, including participation in LaLUGs..