Web review: This is not yo’ average Linux information site

– by Tina Gasperson –
There’s nothing fancy about YoLinux Information Portal, unless you count the Fonzarelli-lookalike Tux on the front page. I don’t usually like Tux incarnations, but this one is artsy, watercolor and charcoal rendered. Kind of unexpected considering the subject matter, but hey, we take our artistic pleasure where we can get it.But I digress.

The real reason YoLinux is worth checking out is the tutorials section. I counted about 70 tutorials, and some of these are huge lists, like the list of distributions with links to every site.

There’s a nice tutorial on creating MP3 files in Linux, with instructions for the command line and also using a GUI program called Grip. There’s also another artsy Tux on the page, this time a Beethoven playing the piano.

How about “HTML in two minutes?” or “audio streaming server set up,” “office suites for Linux,” with screenshots and detailed information on each one. You can also learn how to use DOS floppies in Linux, or how to update your kernel RPMs (if you really want to do that – most experts recommend that you compile your kernel from sources if you’re going to upgrade at all–and YoLinux has a tutorial on how to do that.) Or how about “using IRC chat to get Linux help and information.”

The tutorials alone would make a complete Web site. But there is much more, mostly in the form of links to outside sites. There’s “documentation and security,” “applications,” “links for the base install,” “peripherals, motherboards, etc.” and others, way too much to list here. Plus, there are links to the latest security information, over on the other side of Fonz.

Creative use of the medium: YoLinux has a list of search boxes for different Linux-related Web sites. You can search the Linux Documentation Project, Fatbrain, SourceForge, RPMFind, Red Hat, and others. There are also links to Linux newsgroups, commercial support, publications, and general search sites.

You have to see YoLinux to believe it. It’s like ESR, Linus, roblimo, and maddog tossed all their bookmark files together on one page, and regurgitated all their Linux knowledge on another.