What is linux.com trying to achieve?

Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 03 June 2009 08:50

Opinion and Analysis

It's difficult to understand why this collaboration is not done at the Linux Foundation's own website. If the Foundation has insufficient staff to manage two websites, then one would think that one website would be a better idea.

After all, it's not as though this is a company which has to differentiate between a corporate website and a community site. Linux is a community-driven project, always has been, always will be.

I asked Zemlin about the use of "reasonable" and "informed" to describe the information that would be available at linux.com. Was this, I asked, an indication that the Foundation was trying to shape the debate about Linux? In other words, was linux.com a bid to try and set the tone for coverage of Linux?

Zemlin's response was that of a PR man. "I am not sure I understand this question. The site consists mainly of user-generated content. Linux.com is a collaborative space for users and developers of Linux to share ideas and content. I have been using the site for a couple weeks and find most of the folks seem reasonable and informed. Are you finding something different? There is a mechanism for people to report abuse."

Finally I asked Zemlin about a post by Jeremy LaCroix, a writer for the old linux.com, a post which I interpreted largely as sour grapes. After all those who lost income from the sale of linux.com would not feel too charitable towards the new owner, the Foundation.

Zemlin was diplomatic. "We agree with some of his criticism and you'll see some changes to the front page of the site over the next few weeks. Jeremy seems like a good guy and I'd love to talk to him about further ways we can improve the site.

"I think he may have missed the social networking function on the site though.  People are calling it Facebook for Linux lovers. He just needs to click on the community link. Over 5000 users have created their own profiles on the site since it launched a couple of weeks ago. There are hundreds of groups including 260 LUGs, 96 developer groups, 79 distro groups, and over 400 general groups about Linux-related issues.

"There have been hundreds of posts created by users and hundreds of questions and answers in the forums. There is a user-generated events section, a user-generated directory, etc.  Maybe we need to improve the navigation so those things are easier to find."

The Foundation has shown an inclination to be inward-looking and to try and control the flow of information in the past in order to placate corporates. One only hopes that linux.com does not turn out to be one of the tools towards this end.