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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.

23 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. LP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    LAST POST!

  2. 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 QuasiEvil · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually I found the fact they would go off on personal tangents or rants to be one of the more endearing parts of the show. There are other podcasts out there that cover Linux / F/OSS news and have guests, but most of them are far too sterile and professional as hosts. They'd do great on a *real* radio network or some such (aside from their content being fit to a niche), but they're not that much fun to listen to. The LR guys were funny as hell, and I've listened to most of the back episodes on various long road trips lately. I damn near ran off the road near Paducah because I got to laughing so hard.

      Sorry, though, to the parent poster - Mr. Procter will remain my favorite of the hosts.

    3. 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.

    4. 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

  3. Back catalogue by oojah · · Score: 5, Informative

    I mirror the back catalogue and have no intention of getting rid of it. I know other mirror maintainers have said the same thing. Talking to Aq on irc today he gave the impression that the main archive will be sticking around as well, so don't worry too much :)

    Roger

    --
    Do you have any better hostages?
    1. Re:Back catalogue by dotwaffle · · Score: 2, Informative

      Same here, I'm keeping my mirror running forever more :(

      Will have to turn off bashpodder updating it though!

  4. LugRadio Live by oojah · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't forget that you still have the chance to get some of the LugRadio vibe at LRL UK in July.

    Details are at http://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/

    Roger

    --
    Do you have any better hostages?
  5. Speaking of podcasts, by Ossadagowah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Please bring back Geeks in Space. You could have a group conference over skype (or ventrillo), record it, clean it up some, and then save it as an mp3 and upload it to the interwebs.

    --
    anata sekai o kakumei surush ga nai deshou? Anata no susumu michi wa yoi shite arimasu.
    1. Re:Speaking of podcasts, by k_187 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This.

      GiS was podcasting before there was a pod to cast to.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
  6. Why do I... by kiehlster · · Score: 2, Funny

    always find out about good things when they all call it quits? Unfortunately I found out about Windows well before Bill Gates called it quits, and I'd envy anyone who found out otherwise.

    1. 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!
    2. 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...

    3. Re:Why do I... by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.basicinstructions.net/

      http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
  7. Pretty Crass by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sorry to rain on the parade, but I found the show unlistenably crude at times. There's no way I would recommend this podcast to anyone except perhaps Linux users in the Navy with some spare time on their hands and a tendency to giggle at long-in-the-tooth inside jokes.

    I actually gave up searching for Linux-related podcasts because of this show.

    In fact I started using a Mac a year ago and I'm very happy with where I'm at right now.

    (Actually that last sentence was a complete lie, but it felt appropriate somehow).

    1. Re:Pretty Crass by superslacker87 · · Score: 2, Funny

      (Actually that last sentence was a complete lie, but it felt appropriate somehow).

      It's better than saying you run Vista willingly!

      --
      I run Ubuntu skinned to look like a Mac on a PC. Go figure.
    2. 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.

  8. 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?

    1. Re:Why is this by popeydotcom · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.thelinuxlink.net/ has a comprehensive list.

  9. 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.
    1. Re:This is sad by Squozen · · Score: 2, Funny

      The word is 'bollocks', sir.

  10. you're all... by sparkes · · Score: 2, Funny

    *bbbeeepppp* *beeep* *beeeep*

    But I'm proud to admit I was there at the very start, in fact I was there before the start. ;)

    --
    blog and junk