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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.

12 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. When does Slashdot follow? by MisterBlister · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This honestly isn't a troll. I'm just wondering how viable Slashdot is for the near future? Considering the well known "Slashdot" effect, they must pay a bundle on bandwidth charges each month, and 90% of the ads on the site seem to be for other OSDN sites, so I don't think they're pulling in any money there. I know they have subscriptions, but have THAT many people really signed up for them? How long until Slashdot is gone or goes a bit-more subscription based (ala Salon)? Anyone willing to make some public guesses?

    1. Re:When does Slashdot follow? by Surak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not too long before anything with decent content goes subscription based (excluding volunteer-run sites perhaps), except for the academic stuff, but then again, some universities have decided to restrict access to the 'good' content to behind the campus firewall, leaving just course descriptions and such publically accessible.

      --
      My journal has hot /. gossip.
    2. Re:When does Slashdot follow? by sh0rtie · · Score: 5, Insightful


      Speaking as a experienced webdeveloper they could cut the bandwidth usage here at least in half by using stylesheets,removing whitespace in the source,and adhering to w3c standards in the html code , it would be quite trivial to convert and the time spent would == cash saved for the effort (and it would still work in lynx:)

      we are always bashing people about standards , so why dont we take a leaf out of our own book and make this site/code/browsers use the technology available to us ?, it is 2002 after all not 1992.

      heh or is it another case of "do as i say not as i do" ?

    3. Re:When does Slashdot follow? by jamie · · Score: 5, Informative
      "Another option would be to enable gzip compression on Apache. That would save probably 3/4 of the bandwidth they use"

      Gzip is already enabled. It saves more than 75%. It also obviates whitespace-compression and many of the other things that have been discussed in this thread...

      Server: Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) mod_gzip/1.3.19.1a mod_perl/1.27 mod_ssl/2.8.10 OpenSSL/0.9.6d
    4. Re:When does Slashdot follow? by nemesisj · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not cool for pointing out the fact that I hadn't done my homework. Just not cool.

      --

      $45 per U Colocation Special
  2. 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!

    --
    3cx.org - A truly bad website.
    1. Re:Alternatives please? by diaphanous · · Score: 5, Informative
      For news on linux kernel development:

      Kernel Traffic
      KernelTrap

  3. Gone from the future, and the past.... by zapp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The sad thing about the Internet, is not necessarily that when a site shuts down it stops putting up new content, but in many cases the archived information on the site disappears.

    Yes I know about the Internet archiving effort (www.archive.org), but in many cases the sites going under had streaming video or audio, which is lost forever.

    --
    no comment
  4. Re:Hmm... by SlugLord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's always good to see the real human beings who understand that all news reporting comes with a slant, and that some (though surely not Slashdot) is more biased than others.

    I read everything here with a suspicious eye, though I think that some of the most suspicious (of government and big companies anyway) persons are probably trusting of Slashdot in its ability to provide knowledgeable, minimally-biased news.

  5. other good linux news sites by robdeadtech · · Score: 5, Informative
    some decent sites that are almost always updated at least once a day...

    linuxinsider

    linuxtoday

    firstlinux

    linuxsecurity

    and somewhat linux related but definitely awesome...

    oreilly's meerkat

    oreillynet and not so much news but definitely up to date...

    ONLAMP

    --
    Heil Sig! -Rob
  6. 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.

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  7. 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.