[microtherion]

VA Linux was quite generous in selecting their "friends and family" beneficiaries. I was one of them (and made enough money to pay cash for a used car), despite not really having contributed to Linux at all (I made some contributions to Perl related to a different OS).

I later learned that the first day pop of VA Linux was deliberately engineered — large allocations were contingent on buying more shares at market prices on opening day.