A request for information [LWN.net]

As you have no doubt already read on this week's Front Page, subscriptions are going well, but not well enough (yet) to support the current LWN staff. As a result it will no longer be possible to ferret out the distribution information that has been presented in this page in the past. Some feedback has indicated that tracking a pile of minor distributions has little value in any case.

So, in the future we would like to focus on quality rather than quantity, and we would like to get reports from people, telling us about their distribution and its progress. Without that we will have little to report each week.

This week's page reflects this policy. Almost every item in this page was sent to us, either as a plain text announcement, or a URL accompanied by a brief description of why the link might be of interest to LWN readers.

Please help the Distributions page survive during this transitional time, by sending us the information that you want others to see about your distribution.

Thank you.

(Log in to post comments)

A request for information

Posted Oct 3, 2002 16:07 UTC (Thu) by amh (guest, #1902) [Link]

I just wanted to say that I do find the tracking of minor distributions useful: it's pointed me towards some potentially very useful ones (eg rclinux) which I would have missed otherwise.

I'm not sure how to help you track them, though. Perhaps an automated page (sorry!) which readers & contributors could use to update information without it going through email to you?

Andrew Hilborne

A request for information

Posted Oct 3, 2002 18:28 UTC (Thu) by jsm (guest, #4011) [Link]

I think that moving towards quality and away from quantity will
really make LWN better. I love the kernel page, because it goes indepth
and really informs me. The development and the distribution pages
are basically a rehash of what has already been on tons of websites
by the time this is posted. I would love to see the Desktop page
come back, that was my second favourite because its quality
was close to that of the kernel page. If I want a list of security
updates and new programs released there are already many sites that
focus on that. What I want from LWN is indepth articles.
So please keep trimming the fat so that what you do publish is of
a higher quality.

A request for information

Posted Oct 4, 2002 10:41 UTC (Fri) by hensema (guest, #980) [Link]

Seconded. I'd love to see some high-level, yet in-depth distribution news. The RH Null beta is (was?) an interesting distro to comment on, with the KDE/Gnome 'merge', exclusion of mp3 players, etc.

It may be impossible to review new (versions of) distributions, but this is what I'd love to see too. I'm currently running Suse 8.0. Do I want 8.1? I dunno, tell me LWN! :-)

A request for information

Posted Oct 8, 2002 17:01 UTC (Tue) by bockman (subscriber, #3650) [Link]

Agreed.

I value LWN because for its deep understanding of whats goes on inside the linux world (both business and community). I don't need summary-of-summaries of each distribution. This page could just produce a single article per week wich focuses on some big news in the distro world (if any), and then a set of static links to places where people can find the news of their distribution of choice.

Occasional news on little-known distribution should not be discarded althogether, however, since these are harder to find on the Web, and could provide useful info to someone with special needs. Maybe one article out of N could be dedicated to these little specialised distros.

A request for information

Posted Oct 4, 2002 7:30 UTC (Fri) by ogj (subscriber, #3024) [Link]

For me the distributions page has been almost worthless, and I feel that those distribtions that want to get covered should be expected to do their own announcements.

Minor vs Major distributions

Posted Oct 4, 2002 13:53 UTC (Fri) by ayeomans (subscriber, #1848) [Link]

I too find information on minor distros useful - more so than the major distros, as it's difficult to miss their press releases. And the full list is a valuable resource, rather better than DistroWatch.com for pointing newcomers towards, due to your descriptions.
I doubt that it's worth pro-actively trying to track updates, rather invite readers to contribute major status changes. Or outsource to another distro-tracking site!
Andrew Yeomans

A request for information

Posted Oct 7, 2002 15:20 UTC (Mon) by ken_i_m (guest, #4938) [Link]

OK. I have a distro update. How do I submit the info?
[digs around on the site for a bit - eventually finds a 'contact us' link]
This 'contact us' link should appear on every page IMHO.

I think, therefore, ken_i_m
Chief Gadgeteer
Elegant Innovations