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Linux Foundation Purchases Linux.com
darthcamaro and several other readers have noted that the Linux Foundation has bought Linux.com from SourceForge Inc. (Slashdot's corporate parent). The Linux Foundation (employer of Linus Torvalds) will take over the editorial and community stewardship for the site; SourceForge will continue to supply advertising on it. "[Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim] Zemlin says the Linux Foundation wants to build a collaborative forum where Linux users can share ideas and get information on the Linux operating system. A beta of the site will be released in the next few months. ... Linux.com is being redesigned as a central source for Linux software, documentation and answers regardless of platforms, including server, desktop/netbook, mobile and embedded areas." What do you think should be on Linux.com?
How about the proper spelling of the namesake's name?
Howtoforge.org has fulfilled that role for a long time which Linux.com aims to do now.
Why didn't Sourceforge Inc. ask us this before they sold the site? Then they'd actually be able to follow-through on the answers.
Linux Torvalds? The guy that made the Linus kernel?
The one-stop, easy-install, multi-distro place for all your linux software needs.
...they want to do something like Windows.com and showcase all what Linux can do and be installed on and overall, share a wealth of information for all to enjoy.
It would be neat to see all of this and I can't wait to see what it will be like in the months to come.
Friends help you move...
REAL Friends help you move dead bodies... ^_^
A centralized source of Linux info would be GREAT! Especially if it had a search function that pointed you to a good complete answer to inexpertly phrased questions. Right now, pointing newbies at Google is one of the big linux turnoffs for them.
Most of us experienced users know where to find good help and info so I think they should make linux.com primarily a site for beginners. It would include a broad overview, tutorials, howtos, information about distros and a lot of zealous pro-linux content to spread the love. linux.com is the obvious domain name for someone looking to learn about linux. Notice I say primarily for beginners and not totally. It should of course contain more detailed information.
...and forget the advertising bits.
but does it run Linux?
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
A redirect to .org seems to be an appropriate option.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
I don't know for a fact, but I'd guess that a number of visitors will be people who have heard of "that linux thing" and punched in www.linux.com to find out more. While I think it's great that Ubuntu is great for having critical mass and gaining mainstream momentum, I also think it's in everyone's interest to explain, in simple terms, that Linux != Ubuntu, and that Linux is, in a manner of speaking, a whole lot more than Ubuntu.
With such an obvious name, linux.com is where many newbs go first. The forums were not that great to begin with, and in the last few weeks they even lost all formatting, including newlines. I'm glad to see that such an important domain name will be put to good use now.
A neutral communications medium is essential. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.
What do you think should be on Linux.com?
One thing I would like is for it to be a clear and professional page that invites and excites people to learn more about Linux.
What I mean is this: Right now if you google "Linux", the first hit is linux.org. That site has some good info, and even has an explanatory paragraph about what Linux is... but (how to put this nicely?) it doesn't look professional. It doesn't scream "this is a sophisticated and powerful (yet user-friendly) system supported by (and supporting) billion-dollar industries." Instead the impression a first-time visitor will get is that Linux is arcane, old-fashioned, and disorganized.
The fact is that when any of us talk to others about Linux (whether as a home desktop or for business-use), the person will go and search "Linux" and end up being confused. So I would like "linux.com" to have a really carefully designed frontpage, that explains what Linux is, looks very professional (maybe with tie-ins to big-name companies to make the suits feel more comfortable), and helps people get what they need (links to downloads, FAQ, community sites, all that good stuff...).
The Ubuntu homepage is pretty good in this regard. I'm sure I'm not alone in having switched over the last few years from telling people to "read more about Linux" to telling them to "read up on Ubuntu". It's just easier to pick a distro for them (they can always change when they learn more), and Ubuntu has put a nice "face" on the Linux ecosystem. Their homepage doesn't overload you with info, and provides clear links to downloads, community, etc.
So while I hope linux.com becomes many things to many people (and has all the news and content that we geeks want), I hope they take this opportunity to make the mainpage a useful portal for people who want to learn more about Linux. (Since it will be an obvious place for a newbie to first look.)
Linux.com was one of the very first sites I used to frequent on a daily basis. But I quickly lost interest as I found the site ugly and Slashdot together with other sites did a better job.
I hope the new owners can put some serious work into the site.
By the way, Slashdot too needs some love. Details like number of comments submitted to date are missing or are deliberately hidden from non subscribers like me! Heck, we need to know all sorts of statistics. I appreciate the need for cash but I thought that's why we began to see ads especially among comments at Slashdot.org.
you know its a good idea
Read radical news here
But does it run Linus?
1. monthly debate on the best Linux distro
2. monthly debate on binary kernel modules, proprietary software and GPL, plus ridiculing RML's mustache
3. quarterly email exchanges between Linus Torvalds and other users with the latter calling the former former arrogant bastard and the former calling the latter "a bunch of wanking monkeys"
4. weekly discussion on how Windows sucks and bookkeeping on the number of chairs thrown out of Redmond buildings
5. monthly whining about how slow Debian development is
6. bi-annually mention of Hurd and that it's going to be ready "soon"
So why did Sourceforge let Linux.com go essentially dead at the turn of the year?
All I ask for is the clear, thorough (mostly), and timely writing that was the hallmark of the articles that were on the front page of the old Linux.com.
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
"The Linux Foundation (employer of Linux Torvalds) will take over the editorial and community stewardship for the site; Sourceforge will continue to supply advertising on it."
Good, I was worried they would run out.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Doesn't Linus own the Linux trademark? This seems like a fairly cut and dry trademark squatting case.
If my memory correct. Some one buy that domain for 5 million dollar at .com craze...
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
How about no more Microsoft advertisements. I understand its a money thing but you wouldn't take money from a crack dealer would you?
I mean, honestly, my general daily haunts are slashdot, the register, BBC news, and failblog, and occasionally b3ta.
If I want to learn about linux, then I go to slashdot. That said, if I'm a total linux kernel developer geek, then perhaps I do need to see a daily news update on what patches got accepted and rejected, but somehow, I expect the whole site to be dedicated to boring shit like "linux gets used in some school somewhere", or "some country installs linux box somewhere in the basement of some government office".
I hope it didn't cost too much, because they're not going to get many visitors..
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
If they really want the community to decide then they should just make it a blank Wiki and let it go with the only restriction being that content be related to Linux.
I want this account deleted.
What do you think should be on Linux.com?
Linux games.
factor 966971: 966971
needs BitTorrents of various Linux distros. That way we can download Linux better.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Welcome to Linux.com!
You can do anything with Linux, anything at all!
The article never said it was sold and I know that it wasn't. It was given by Sourceforge to the LF. But hey, this is slashdot and headlines almost always are incorrect :-)
You just need to use the correct search engine "wifi config"
I'd like to see a slightly dorky personal web-page for Linus Torvalds. But that's probably just me.
Email addresses, of course. I'd pay for a @linux.com email address...1gb storage, SSH access to mutt/pine/emacs, IMAP/POP, decent webmail package... yeah, I would definitely pay for that. Premium for good service. :)
Thank you.
A beta of the site will be released in the next few months.
Surely this transition of ownership has been negotiated for some time now?
They can plan and build a website long before they own the domain. Why didn't they?
The articles themselves are still there by direct reference. I wonder how long that content will remain though? I for one hope that they start commissioning articles again as they took a couple of mine. In general, the magazine style article content at Linux.com had something of a following. The snag is that they either have to pay for content or solicit for unpaid and hope for the best.
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
hard core homosexual dwarf porn??? isn't that what the domain suggests?
Gads! I think we should put Linux stuff on it.
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
Boxed Ubuntu sets on the shelves at Walmart by this summer? OEMs-a-plenty? Hey, at least someone is finally making excellent games we can finally buy! I mean, how much longer are we going to have to word-of-mouth this OS before it finally has a life (as in: IRL) of it's own?
~Just as a thing fails if it lacks a kernel, so too it fails if it lacks a skin. ~ Rumi, Discourses
Now can we please acquire (NSFW): python.com and redirect it to (SFW): python.org?
-metric
And when I actively choose to use the non-GNU versions of things it becomes..?
Busybox and uClib running above the Linux kernel.
A very popular combination in the embed world.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Now I actually might have a reason to visit that site.
You are not what you own.
I would like to see a noobfriendly environment with guides and linux tutorials that are written in something else than Plaintext.
Because when your machine is borked, what you really need is a video tutorial. Not plaintext. Plaintext isn't fun any more. We want dancing girls !
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
I wonder how much GNU is in Android?
[Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim] Zemlin says the Linux Foundation wants to build a collaborative forum where Linux users can share ideas and get information on the Linux operating system.
Great, but do we really need a new linux forum?
I am the lawn!
The Linux brand has enormous leverage. We should make the most of it.
The best function that linux.com could serve is as a portal into Linux resources and the entire Linux community. But it has to be organized in such a way as to make Linux adoption as easy and painless as possible. There's no conflict between that and all the other capabilities we might like the site to have.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
You are wrong. The contact email is fine, but Gmail has been blacklisted by linux.org's mail provider as a spam host.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
That still counts as "broken." The reason why it's broken isn't relevant to the status of "broken".
Comment of the year
No, that definitely doesn't count as broken. That means that Gmail permitted too many spammers to abuse their network, and was blacklisted as a result. Nothing broken about that, except Google not taking a hard enough stance with spammers.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
And I suppose the fact that Gmail works with *every other website on earth* means that all those millions of websites are broken when Linux.org is the only correct website? Or do you live on some weird parallel planet where this is not true?
In any case, at the moment it's a usability nightmare. The error message at the very least could say something useful in plain English. Of course, this just goes to show that nobody in open source gives a shit about usability, so when you think about it maybe it's a good introduction to the site.
Comment of the year