Linux Foundation and Sourceforge Partner to Rebuild Linux.com

by Kristin Shoemaker - Mar. 03, 2009Comments (1)

The Linux Foundation and Sourceforge have joined forces to rebuild a community on the prime web real estate known as Linux.com.

In its former life, Linux.com featured a mix of unique content and aggregated stories from the wider Linux community. While it hosted forums and allowed reader comments, it wasn't fully collaborative. Late last year, Linux.com ceased updating the aggregated stories, and at the start of 2009, announced that the original content was also coming to an end, but that other (bigger) plans were afoot. The old Linux.com forum software then replaced the articles on the main page, and many were left puzzled about where on earth this rather memorable domain was headed.

The Linux Foundation and Sourceforge have put the transformation in motion -- but where the domain is headed is very much up to the Linux community. Linux developers and users alike are invited to give their thoughts on the IdeaForge on Linux.com.

The hope for the new Linux.com is that it will be a site "for the community, by the community." Rather than a simple news source, the Linux Foundation and Sourceforge hope that it will become something akin to the office water cooler, a place where developers, users, and future developers and users come to connect, share ideas, and learn from each other. The Linux Foundation also wishes to use the site to extend its current content, tools, and community initiatives on the site, bringing these services to a wider audience.

Linux.com remains today a work in progress. It is, without question, a domain with a nearly infinite amount of potential, and building a community and a presence there that truly captures Linux's most impressive feature -- the people involved -- is the best possible, and perhaps only logical, use for the site.

The Linux Foundation is currently working on a beta version of the site, which it plans to officially launch in a few months. During that time, all interested parties are invited to sign on at the Linux.com IdeaForge, and offer ideas, opinions, and suggestions to the Foundation about what the community would ultimately like to see the site become. Current site features (older content and the existing forums) will remain available for existing users while the transformation gets underway.


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1 Comments
 

Kristin you may have this incorrect. Slashdot is reporting that the Linux Foundation bought out linux.com from Sourceforge and SF Inc will supply the advertising on it.


Sourceforge has been out of the game for a while and it is great to see someone giving linux some stewardship.


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