Web review: Do you Linux.ITToolbox?

– by Tina Gasperson –
The Linux.ITToolbox looks stunningly like Yahoo! — so much so that when I left
the window and came back to it later, I actually thought I was at Yahoo until
I took a closer look.And in a way, this is a Yahoo! for Linux. No, it’s not nearly as deep, not
anywhere near as broad, not even close to being the monolithic monstrosity
that Yahoo! is. But, if you’re familiar with the frustrations of clicking on
link after dead link at that big site, you’ll probably agree with me that
being as monstrous as Yahoo! is not goal number one (unless you’re into making
lots of money … uh… nevermind).

When it comes to links to cool Linux stuff, this site has them. And they are
all sorted very nicely into interesting categories like shell scripting,
desktop environment, fonts, logs, audio, and of course, installation. I’d bookmark this site as a good all-around reference for Linux just because of the skillfully done categorization.

If you’re looking for a fully-fleshed out site, though, you may be disappointed by this one. Tempting tabs teasingly offer things like a forum, jobs, and mail lists. The forum and jobs are both empty. The mail lists tab is a link to another site, OpenITX — that’s another review, for another time. I did notice that for each major category of links on the Yahoo-ish links page, there’s a subscribe box for a related email list at OpenITX — an interesting prospect, and one I’d try if I didn’t get quite so much email already.

There’s also a tab for free email, but since free email accounts are as plentiful as reboots in a Windows user’s day, I didn’t care much.

This site has been up since November of 2000, so there’s been enough time to either build up the sagging portions of the structure or rip them out. If it was my site, I’d stick to the links and get rid of the rest. You may have a different opinion after you visit the Linux.ITToolbox.