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LugRadio Decides To Call It Quits

Posted by timothy on from the an-excellent-run-by-smart-folks dept.

[vmlinuz] writes "After four years, 100+ shows and over 2 million downloads, the guys behind LugRadio, the irreverent Open Source podcast from England have decided to call it a day, with the desire to 'go out on a high.' The last ever show will be recorded at LugRadio Live UK 2008 on the 19th and 20th July in Wolverhampton, England. There are also blog entries from the two long-standing members of LugRadio, Jono Bacon and Stuart 'Aq' Langridge." I hope the back catalog will remain available — LugRadio has since its start been one of the best online audio offerings out there.

9 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. shame! by QX-Mat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went to the first LRL and loved it, after following the banter for a while. sadly i was a poor student then, and didn't make the last one.

    Thanks to LRL I met Mark Shuttleworth :D Thanks to LRL I watched about 20 people order a desert at an Indian confusing it with the main mean :D

    I guess this gives the community a chance to reciprocate? Perhaps a new UK-based (humours of course!) Linux radio show with slightly more knowledgeable (on-topic?!) hosts? Unfortunately I find the show is too long for me to back jump into nowadays.

    (I didn't mean to say they're not knowledgeable folk btw - only that each and every paintball I fired championed KDE and Slackware in return for all the bashing! :D)

    Matt

    1. Re:shame! by Zwicky · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Perhaps a new UK-based (humours of course!) Linux radio show with slightly more knowledgeable (on-topic?!) hosts? Unfortunately I find the show is too long for me to back jump into nowadays.

      I agree with this. While the show, I felt, has always been mostly enjoyable to listen to, the inane banter can become tedious and I found myself skipping chunks of it so as to get to the good stuff.

      In the end I stopped listening to it by deferring it indefinitely. I still downloaded them though which means I now have a backlog.

      The humor of Mr. Bacon et al is quite puerile which I didn't see as a bad thing initially (it was actually quite refreshing to begin with) but as time wore on it got more and more tiresome.

      Nevertheless I'm still sad to see it go 'off air' but I do think it was the right decision.

      --
      "Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
    2. Re:shame! by nhaines · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree. I discovered the show after meeting Jono at SCaLE6X in February, and enjoyed it very much as I prepared to be at LRL USA to run the Ubuntu booth. I'm really going to miss the podcast, not to mention the LRL events. Where else can I make my mother proud by getting up on stage and being introduced by a pasty need in a thong? But seriously, it have me a vgance to hang out with a lot of other Ubuntu and Free Software enthusiasts, and I was looking forward to next year. I wish the four of them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

    3. Re:shame! by QX-Mat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm definitely with you - the personal tangents make LR work so well! I guess after a while I began to notice gaps in the presenters' knowledge. They slowly became more and more evident, and I feel that many of the "i don't like"s are really "don't understand"s. Most shows will have the comical genius and the technical expertise, yet i find LR is group of like-minded comical hobbyists without a strong technical personality directing things.

      Just imagine how balanced the show would be for the technical folk and the like-minded enthusiast if Jonathan Corbet was British and an LR presenter! (nb. I am an LWN fanboy)

      The only problem is that I kind of disagree with what I'm typing, when I reread it back. LR is LR - it's hard to fault something so uniquely special. Having listened to a few perl related podcasts a few years ago to 'sample' the podcasting world (pardon the pun), I was a little dismayed by what the internet had to offer then: generally the more technical the cast and subject, the more boring and mundane they are presenting it. LR is great because it's like a Friday night chat show (after 9pm, you are permitted to swear on UK TV) a la Jonathan Ross, combined with the indefeasible personality like traits of Jeremy Clarkson. It's great comedy at the same level as it's technical representation.

      Maybe I'm just a little too moany. Regardless, LR shall be sadly missed come next month!

      Matt

  2. Re:Why do I... by camperdave · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're not the only one. I wonder what other cool websites people have been holding out on us?

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. Re:Why do I... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://xkcd.com/ Spend and afternoon reading the entire back catalog.

    *Some people may not have seen it yet...

  4. Why is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the first time I hear about them!?

    What's (other?) good listening for a blue-eye'd rms-follower?

  5. This is sad by RPoet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've listened to them for years and have had some good laughs. Their style is crude, yes, but authentic and funny. Now we're left with The Linux Action Show, with the glossy, family-friendly, foolsafe "hysterical morning crew"-style humour which is so typical American. I will miss the bullocks that LugRadio was.

    --
    "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
  6. Re:Pretty Crass by steevc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think of them as the Top Gear (UK car show) of Linux podcasts. Personally I could have done with an edited version without all the inane chat so that I could listen to just the good bits. It was always meant to be like a chat you would have at a LUG, but also included some great interviews with prominent people.

    I would also say that it was generally better produced than many podcasts. Jono and co are good speakers and it was well recorded, so was easier to listen to some others that were full of hesitations and hard to make out. I think general quality has improved over the last few years.

    I haven't made it to a LRL and won't this time, but would have liked to. The range of speakers and low cost were attractive even if you didn't like the presenters.

    So I will need to find some other podcasts to listen to now. The Ubuntu UK one is pretty good. I also listen to Stack Overflow for general programming stuff. It helps pass the time on my journey to work.