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SAN FRANCISCO -- If you're in a sparsely packed Moscone Center auditorium filled mostly with men wearing black hacker and GNU T-shirts and clutching green bottles of Mountain Dew, it must be time for the next Golden Penguin Bowl: A LinuxWorld Expo tradition in which two teams, the Nerds and Geeks, play for bragging rights and the "coveted" Golden Penguin trophy.

Think of it as Jeopardy for computer fans, where contestants test their knowledge of bit-addressable microprocessors, symmetric multiprocessing systems, BSD, and cheesy science fiction. The event took place at the LinuxWorld Expo here this week.

Typically filled with snarky comments and unpredictable questions, this year's Golden Penguin Bowl didn't disappoint. The two closely matched teams battled, but ultimately the Nerds triumphed in a very close game and regained the title after losing last year.

The host of the contest, Samba developer Jeremy Allison, showed off his skills as both a computer geek and an aspiring game show host. He trotted and pranced before the audience in a silver-and-white sequined tux, looking less like a tech guy and more like a cross between Richard Dawson and Elton John.

The Nerds team consisted of Andrew Morton, 2.6 Linux kernel maintainer; Tim Witham, director, Open Source Development Labs; and Greg Kroah-Hartman, a kernel maintainer at the IBM Linux Technology Center. A trio of Apple employees comprised the Geeks: John Hubbard, engineering manager of the BSD Technologies group; Stuart Cheshire, senior engineer and Rendezvous architect; and Dominic Giampaulo, file system architect.

Code, Not Cinema

The game got off to a slow start. Allison's first question asked who played Agent Smith in The Matrix and Elrond in Lord of the Rings. After a stunned silence from the contestants, Allison cracked, "I can tell this is going to be a very long game." The Geeks' Hubbard ventured, "His first name is Hugh." But the judges wouldn't award points for a partial name, so the team lost points.

The Nerds pulled ahead by correctly answering a question about the Apple Lisa. Apparently, answering geeky computer questions is easier than geeky movie questions.

In another question, Allison showed a snippet of code and asked whether it was BSD or Linux kernel code. He then quipped that it doesn't matter, since SCO owns it all--an allusion to the company's copyright suits against Linux.

After the traditional Star Trek question, the Geeks pulled ahead with 2000 points to the Nerds' 1000; but the Nerds evened the score by knowing that Microsoft claimed patent rights over the FAT file system.

Allison was sneaky, throwing in a couple of trick questions. He asked which of the following products was originally developed by Microsoft: DOS, PowerPoint, SMB protocol, SQL Server, and Internet Explorer. The answer that none were original Microsoft inventions elicited boos from the audience.

The Nerds knew how many bodyguards it takes to guard Larry Ellison's special cookies when he gives a talk at LinuxWorld (two), which pushed the team into the lead at 5000 points to the Geeks' 3750.

The Nerds held on to their lead after correctly answering a question about The Time Machine. Allison asked whether the cinematic Time Traveler saw cold or heat at the end of the world. The Geeks guessed heat; Allison corrected them by saying that the Traveler saw only snow, the human race had died out, and all that was left were cockroaches, trolls, and SCO lawyers.

Quiet Finish

In the second round, which was a bit shorter, the questions were tougher and the stakes were higher.

"How many packets does an attacker have to capture to break WEP security?" Allison asked. Both teams sat there paralyzed. The correct answer was 4 million packets.

The Geeks got the next question, matching the named corporations with their mission statements: "Don't be evil" (Google), "Sniffing the glue that holds the Internet together" (Ethereal, maker of the Network Sniffer), and "A computer on every desk and in every home" (Microsoft).

The final challenge was a fittingly Linux-oriented one: Both teams were asked to list nonnetworked file systems for Linux or BSD, including open-source or proprietary systems. They had 1 minute to scribble as many as they could on their pad.

"Can anyone stand the excitement?" Allison remarked as the contestants scratched their heads.

Out of a total of 30 correct file systems, the Nerds guessed 14 and the Geeks got 13. Allison had some trouble with his math, but commented, "Whatever the outcome, these teams were the most amazingly well-matched battle of wits in the Golden Penguin Bowl."

The Nerds barely won the game with 19,000 points to the Geeks' 18,750. The judges presented the trophies to the Nerds, who earned a year of bragging rights.