"Just works with Linux" [LWN.net]

"Just works with Linux"

Posted Dec 15, 2005 12:39 UTC (Thu) by zooko (subscriber, #2589)
Parent article: "Just works with Linux"

I find myself less and less interested in Linux, and more and more interested in Free Software. I think part of this is because of the success of Linux -- it works reliably enough that I can stop tinkering with it and just use it as an invisible underlying platform on which to build.

I'm kind of hoping that a lot of LWN subscribers and writers feel the same and that LWN will gradually transition into the FSWN or OSSWN. I work with Linux, Windows XP, and Mac OS X every day (except no Windows XP on weekends). Someday I might jump from Linux to Solaris at some point, but hopefully 90% of the LWN content would still be relevant and interesting to me after the switch.

So, to swerve back onto topic, I too am very disappointed when I find out that some hardware has been advertised as "it works with Linux" and then it turns out that it requires proprietary drivers.

So rather than a "It Just Works With Linux" database, I would like to see a "It has freely available, open specs and/or Free Software drivers" database. For example, the OpenBSD folks have put some serious effort into opening up wirelss cards. Where is the summary of the current status of that effort?

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"Just works with Linux"

Posted Dec 15, 2005 14:03 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

I couldn't disagree more. LWN is valuable to me precisely because it covers a single subject and covers it extremely well. If you want a Solaris periodical, there are at least five to choose from and most are free to qualified businesses. Despite the CDDL, Solaris is still a closed platform. Why on earth would you want to find any relevant content in LWN (much less 90%?!)

A few years ago, with the exception of Robert Love and GregKH, LinuxJournal articles started getting very shallow and broad. Just this year I reluctantly let my 8-year susbscripiton lapse. Back in the day it was a really great magazine; now they could just call it LDAP Installation Monthly. But, in theory, it appeals to a broader audicence.

"Just works with Linux"

Posted Dec 15, 2005 14:42 UTC (Thu) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

You wrote: "LWN is valuable to me precisely because it covers a single subject and covers it extremely well."

I agree that LWN has usually high-quality content. But is it narrow in focus? With the exception of the "Kernel" page, almost all of the content is interesting to our hypothetical reader who doesn't use Linux but who uses Free/Open Source Software. Look at the contents of this current edition:

Front Page:

* "Just works with Linux". Well, that's how this conversation got started. corbet (and I) feel that the important and interesting issue is more general than Linux -- it's Free Software drivers and open specs.

* GStreamer to support DRM. Not Linux-specific.

* Gnome v. KDE. Not Linux-specific.

Security:

* Community Help as an Attack Vector. Not Linux-specific.

* New vulnerabilities. Approximately 25 out of 27 vulnerabilities are not Linux-specific.

Kernel:

All Linux-specific

Distributions:

All Linux, except Nexenta (Solaris) and PC-BSD (FreeBSD).

Development:

By my count something like 35 out of 38 items are not Linux-specific.

Linux in the news:

Honestly I don't read this page, but it's probably fairly Linux-specific.

Announcements:

I don't read this page, but I'd guess around 50% of announcements are Linux-specific.

Letters:

I don't read this page, but I'd guess around 50% of letters are Linux-specific.

So in sum, the stuff that I personally really like in LWN is:

Front page, editorials (occasionally Linux-specific)
Development page (usually not Linux-specific)
Kernel page (always Linux-specific)

The stuff that I personally mostly like in LWN is:

Distribution page (almost all Linux-specific)

The stuff that I personally barely like in LWN is:

Security page (usually not Linux-specific)

The stuff that I personally don't read in LWN is:

Linux in the News, Announcements, Letters

You mentioned that if I were interested in other things that Linux that I could read other periodicals, but in fact I am not aware of any periodical devoted to Free Software which has the regular high-quality (and not-Linux-specific) content that LWN does. If there is one, please let me know!

LinuxJournal

Posted Dec 16, 2005 18:47 UTC (Fri) by pflugstad (subscriber, #224) [Link]

I couldn't agree more - LJ has gone downhill a lot. The issue that had the "supporting high-end hardware" (June 2005) trumpted on the front and the article proceeded to have almost zero "high-end" content (it was an article about RHEL4) was my last straw. I let my many year (I had issue #10 IIRC) subscription lapse...

LinuxJournal

Posted Dec 17, 2005 18:37 UTC (Sat) by N0NB (subscriber, #3407) [Link]

Last year I took part in a six month readers survey for LJ. At the end I took an opportunity to add a number of personal thoughts. I've been a subscriber since late '96 and I watched LJ grow from mostly a hobbyist centered publication to one focused on the sysadmin in a large organization to the past few years focusing on LAMP. I asked for more home/hobbyist articles and I've noticed a few more over the past year.

I would like to see the direction Nick Petreley takes LJ before deciding the fate of my subscription.

OpenBSD's efforts

Posted Dec 15, 2005 17:36 UTC (Thu) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

You can find the results of OpenBSD's efforts on their hardware pages (e.g. the one for i386).

When I recently bought a wireless card this was quite useful to me, in combination with Jean Tourrilhes's Linux wireless drivers page.

I think that OpenBSD's efforts to open up hardware have been extremely beneficial to the Linux community, and I hope they continue.