Web review: It’s cold up there in uh … I guess it’s Alaska

– by Tina Gasperson –
I knew there was a purpose for “about” pages. If you make a web page and forget to put an “about” page in there somewhere, someone like me will come along and really miss it. I think this Web site is based in Alaska. One of the editorials on the front page says something about the Matanuska Susitna Valley. Maybe the URL says it all: frozen-north-linuxonline.com.I enjoyed reading the editorials at frozen-north-linuxonline.com. There’s a short editor’s note by Greg Jetter letting me know they’re still searching for a good business accounting program for Linux. They’ve reviewed sql-ledger and decided it’s not time to give up Quicken just yet.

The second editorial, written by David Vernola, is the one that mentioned Matanuska Susitna Valley. He’s given us a nice rant about DSL techs in the area who don’t know what perl is, and who don’t understand the efficacy of firewalls. What’s amazing is how he’s done that and also managed to include some mini-rants about the public school system and marketeers, and still stayed on topic.

This site has hardware, software, and book reviews, all related to Linux. It seems to be a outgrowth of either the Susitna Linux Users Group or the Anchorage Linux Users Group.

If you check the archives, you’ll see as I did that the first issue contains a clue to the purpose of frozen-north-linuxonline.com. It says, “We are proud to announce the arrival of Frozen North Linux. A new and different periodical that seeks to chronical the happenings of the Linux community in the great land of Alaska.” Well, that’s a lot of territory to cover.

Also, if you read the back issues, you’ll see a column each month written by Tim Johnson. Tim doesn’t leave much doubt in the reader’s mind that he’s not completely thrilled with GUIs. He likes the command line. And he’s figured out a new way to say that each month in his column, Tim’s Bytes. It’s cute.

I looked really hard and I still found no trace of an “about” page. That’s the only thing I didn’t like about frozen-north-linuxonline.com. But that’s just me.