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LWN.net Closing Down

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the 21-penguin-salute dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "The best Linux news site is calling it a day. Citing money problems, they are saying next weeks issue will be the last. I've been reading LWN.net since the very beginning. They have always demonstrated sanity, restraint and professionalism along with thoughtful commentary - unlike certain other well known Linux news sites. Very sad." They've had problems since last fall. It's been a good four year run for them.

6 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Alternatives please? by kir · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This question obviously would not get posted to "Ask Slashdot", but I'm still curious.

    What sites do you, the full-on geek slashdot community, think deserve my readership after next week's closing of lwn?

    Loads of linux news sites are out there, from home-grown to corporate backed, but I've yet to find one that comes close to the professional and relevant lwn (not that I was looking hard - after all, I love lwn). Lay it on me!

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    3cx.org - A truly bad website.
  2. how ironic by rigelstar · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I have never heard of this Linux news site before for some reason. Now, seeing the site, it looks like a useful site that I would have visited daily. I wonder how many sites like this crumble do to lack of knowledge of their existence. Advertise!

  3. Re:When does Slashdot follow? by AxelTorvalds · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Your guess is as good as any, I would have guessed that VA would have done a lot of things by now to make more money form Slashdot and to reduce the expense.

    I hate this. I really like LWN, it's new, it's not rumors and geek stuff, it's news about technical things in the world of Linux. I hate to see it go down.

    I've been kicking this idea around some, a narrow pipe is cheap, why couldn't there be a syndication for web sites? If you had 100 sites hosting the same LWN content and could some how make sure that they were pretty well distributed then the cost of LWN becomes much cheaper. I'm thinking like FIDO net style in a way. Presuming that bandwidth and servers is their number one cost other than full time staff. I'm starting to think the next cool thing beyond the weblog is the syndicated web magazine, it could have editors, all that stuff and then they put it on line, rsync it to all the syndication sites. Then all you need is some way to pay the staff, the syndication sites could pay subscription fees, in exchange they get some control over an amount of content space. If you can get enough syndication sites then it's pretty cheap to become, right? Or if they don't have a staff providing content then it could be free to syndicate. It has to work because big corporations do it, we just need to scale it to hobby size.

  4. LWN Penguin Gallery by superyooser · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Somebody should archive LWN's Penguin Gallery. These Tux pictures may be old hat to some of you, but I had never seen most of them. Note that there are 16 pages. Some of the pics are stupid, but others are really interesting or funny. It's neat to see how Tux himself can assume a new cultural identity as various people groups embrace him as an icon.

    Some of my favorites: Indian chief Tux (page 4), Tux playing on a Lexmark "sliding board" (page 5), Beowulf cluster Tux (page 6), Argentine Cowboy Tux (page 9).

  5. LWN can stay, though. by Inoshiro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They are out of money for professional writers. However, why not continue in another form?

    LWN was run voluntarily at first. Can it continue in this fashion? I mean, I like reading the excellent editorials, but I can also live with fewer of them. Say, the amount one person would willingly write in their spare time and contribute to the community.

    Paying jobs are nice to have, I know. But LWN could continue as a hobby, like Kernel Traffic exists today. As long as you have hosting which provides bandwidth and the archives, everything can continue.

    If all else fails, at least let other people mirror your archives. This way the great work LWN has contributed to the community will not go away. I only wish my financial situation were better, so I could give back some money to make up for all the times I've read LWN since 1998 (I've been reading every weeklf edition since 1999) until present and found the content to be useful.

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    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  6. There's people in that site too! by zopepaul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm pleased to see all the positive comments about LWN. It's also been my favorite Linux site, going back to 1998. In fact, LWN broke the news about Zope going open source, one hour after I announced it at a Python conference. We weren't ready for the exposure they provided, so we had to haul *ss to catch up. :^)

    What isn't discussed here is the personal side. I think Liz, Jon, and Dennis are some of the most honorable, decent people in the world of Linux. They've all given a lot to the community, even beyond LWN.

    Lots of others shoved wads of cash in their pockets when the bubble inflated. LWN held out until an offer with integrity showed up. Alas, it turned out to be a moral but non-lucrative choice.

    To Liz and Jon and Dennis: kudos for being Good People. You've already created a warm legacy, something not enough people in the community can claim.