Local Linux User Groups meet (typically weekly to monthly) to provide support and/or arrange and host presentations for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. Given that Linux is not dominated by any specific corporate or institutional entity, LUGs are more important for Linux users than other sorts of users' groups. Linux is predominantly user supported and some support is vastly easier via phone or in person than over e-mail or USENET. LUGs are still primarily focused on hobbyist users and professionals who are engaged in self-directed study.

LUGs typically meet once per month in facilities freely provided by universities, colleges, community centers, private corporations, or banquet rooms in the backs of restaurants. For example, the SVLUG of the Silicon Valley met for about 10 years in the back of a Carl's Jr. restaurant, and has met for the last several years in meeting rooms at Cisco Systems and, more recently, Symantec. Similarly, the BALUG (SF Bay Area LUG) has always met in a banquet room above the Four Seas Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Not all online Linux support groups refer to themselves as "a LUG", and the use of the word is sometimes (as in the Linux User Group HOWTO) intended to specifically refer to groups of Linux users which organise regular meetings. However, the LUG indexes list groups with members over a large geographical area, and over time, organisations like the EU LUG, for Linux users throughout the European Union (as of 2005, apparently defunct) use the term LUG to refer to themselves.

The potential member base of an online LUG, as with other online support groups, make them suitable for people seeking help with more obscure or difficult problems. Some Linux users are part of both a local LUG and an online LUG.