Web review: Daemonnews.org is all you need to know about BSD

– by Tina Gasperson –
Today is a good day to review Daemonnews.org. The brand new March issue is online, and editor-in-chief Brett Taylor is giving us a look at the future of the BSD-focused magazine.
I talked to Taylor briefly at LinuxWorld in New York City a month ago. He told me about DaemonNews’ move to paper, including the incredible amount of work involved in creating a print publication (hence the decision to start bi-monthly), hopes for circulation increases, the editorial intentions.

Taylor looks for contributors who can give readers nuts and bolts information about hands-on best use of BSD. Consider the online version’s table of contents for this month’s issue:

• Adventures in Firewalling
• FreeBSD Corporate Networker’s Guide, Chapter 8
• Review: FreeBSD Corporate Networker’s Guide
• Review: FreeBSD Handbook, 1st print edition
• OpenBSD bridge without IPs using IPF Tutorial
• Adventures in BSD: BSD in a Microsoft Office

Certainly, those are topics to sink one’s teeth into and come away with something of value. Taylor says that the print version contains even more features than the Web site. According to his editorial this month, “The current plan is to keep the magazine and the ezine separate, each with mostly their own stories and articles.”

That’s a wealth of BSD resources, and Taylor is looking for content from the BSD community, though he says that with the addition of staff they’ve been able to create a small backlog of articles, and are now paying for excellent BSD reporting and feature writing.

But the Daemonnews.org site is more than just the monthly e-magazine and the bi-monthly print publication. There is also a daily news update, a la Slashdot. There you’ll get rumors and tidbits about the culture, like “which BSD site is sending out spam?” or “In The Cocoon.”

Daemonnews also runs a full support forum where you can ask any burning questions about anything having to do with any version of BSD. Some petitioners have been waiting upwards of a week for answers, though, so if you’re a BSD expert I’m sure they’d appreciate your presence and your knowledge over there.

The site also hosts the BSD Mall, where shoppers can pick up the latest releases of stuff like Darwin, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DN Magazine, and more, like clothing, hardware, books, and posters.

And here’s something we bet you didn’t know: Daemonnews even has it’s own cartoon strip called Source Wars, loosely based on everyone’s favorite multiplayer game, Tradewars. You can pick up T-shirts and posters with the Source Wars characters emblazoned thereupon, as well.

Best of all, there’s a page full of links and resources specifically created for people who are new to BSD, with “tips for getting started,” “what to do after you get it installed,” “setting up email,” “setting up X,” and lots, lots more stuff. It’s very organized and definitely the site to keep up on the browser of your second computer while you fiddle with BSD on the first.

The Daemonnews.org newsfeed is free, and you’ll find information about that on the FAQ page, as well as clues on how to advertise and, well, other frequently asked questions.

Of course, Daemonnews links to all the other important and interesting BSD sites so you can “rabbit trail” to your heart’s content. Just make sure you leave some pebbles on the way so you can find your way back to Daemonnews.org.

If you know of a site that is worthy of the NewsForge spotlight, send us email.

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.