NewsForge on Linux.com

If you’re reading this at Linux.com, you were probably a bit surprised to suddenly see NewsForge news front and center. The way it is being done now is only temporary. Both sites are in the process of being rewritten almost from scratch, and you will see many changes to them in coming months.We’re still working out a lot of the changes. We’ve already gotten hundreds of helpful suggestions about what the two sites should become, and what information each one should carry. “News” was the single item most often suggested as an addition to Linux.com. Okay, now there’s news. And because we’re now sort of running two (click) two (click) two sites in one, we have a larger news budget than ever before, so we can give you more thorough coverage of Linux and Open Source news than we’ve been able to do in the past.

This does not mean we are going to stop carrying the useful tutorials and HOWTOs that have been most of Linux.com’s past content. If anything, we want to run more of them, for users ranging from rank beginners to “old hands” working on complex networking and grid computing projects. We are also working to build an improved index of Linux and Open Source documentation, along with a rating system that will let you decide which technical articles, of the many thousands that have been published online, are the most (and least) useful for users at different skill levels.

The one big difference between Linux.com “now” and Linux.com “then” is that we will now pay at least token sums for all articles we publish other than opinion pieces. NewsForge has always been a professional site. Now Linux.com will become one. This doesn’t mean we are going to turn away contributions from the many fine volunteers who have helped build Linux.com to its present level, but that we will now pay them for helping us take it to the next level.

All the current Linux.com material is still available on the same pages where it has always been, and still carries the same OpenContent License under which it was originally published. Material published on Linux.com after October 27, 2001, is covered by the same Terms of Service as other OSDN Web sites. (NewsForge has always been covered by OSDN terms of service, so no change there.)

One tiny addition we’ve made to Linux.com’s front page is a link to the Linux Counter. We’ve always supported this attempt to count as many Linux users as possible, and feel it has never gotten nearly as much publicity as it deserves. Please join us in registering yourself as a Linux user. And if you are reading this on NewsForge, and have never checked out Linux.com, please do so. You’ll find that there is a lot to the site behind the front page, everything from a list of Linux Users Groups to advice for new Linux users.

What else? In a way, that’s up to you. We’d say, “Keep those cards and letters coming, folks,” if we were a ’50s TV quiz show, but this is the Internet, so it’s more accurate for us to say, “Keep that email coming.”

We may not be able to respond individually to every writer, but we promise to read and carefully consider each and every suggestion we get.

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is editor in chief of OSDN and Linux.com.