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Survey responses
This survey has 978 responses
What kind of subscription do you have?
What part of the planet do you call home?
[In the following section, we ask how you feel about various parts of the LWN site. The scale goes from one (never read it) to five (couldn't live without it). We will interpret scores of four and above as indicating that you consider the associated part of the site good enough to be worth getting a subscription for.]
The main articles ("daily updates") page
The Weekly Edition as a whole
Weekly edition front page articles
Weekly security page lead articles
Security page: new vulnerabilities
Security page: updated vulnerabilities
Weekly kernel page
Kernel page: patches and updates section
Kernel page index
Weekly distributions page: lead articles
Distributions page: distribution news
Distributions page: updated packages
The big distributions list
Weekly development page: lead articles
Development page: rest of the page
Weekly Linux in the news page
Weekly announcements page
Events calendar
[The list of possible enhancements to LWN is long. Here are a few things from that list; for each, could you tell us what you think?]
A wider variety of guest authors
Comment filtering based on ratings
Comment filtering with individual blacklists
Expanded (original) embedded systems coverage
Expanded Linux business coverage
User-level "howto" articles
Systems administration "howto" articles
Software development "howto" articles
More meeting, conference, and trade show coverage
An LWN podcast
Weekly edition in PDF format
How long should the subscriber-only period be?
[What else? There are questions we have certainly not thought to ask. If you have any ideas for how to improve LWN, please post them as comments on the responses screen.]
(Log in to post comments)
Kernel page index? Posted Jan 31, 2007 20:55 UTC (Wed) by jbw (subscriber, #5689) [Link] What do you mean by "Kernel page index"? I didn't understand that question.
Kernel page index? Posted Jan 31, 2007 20:56 UTC (Wed) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] We mean this kernel page index.
Kernel page index? Posted Jan 31, 2007 21:05 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] Wow! There are several articles I'm going to read right away. How come I didn't know about it? I see it now. It's the "kernel" link on top. Too bad many sites put advertising banners there, so many seasoned web surfers have a blind spot right on top of the page.Many kernel articles in the weekly kernel edition are quite interesting, but only if one has to deal with the topic in question. If I'm not dealing with block I/O right now, why should I read a long technical article about it? Yet the index will always have something relevant to the code I'm working on now.
Kernel page index? Posted Jan 31, 2007 21:15 UTC (Wed) by midg3t (subscriber, #30998) [Link]
I didn't know the page existed either, but I always avoided reading the links at the top of the page because there's no efficient way to see them all. The 5x3 grid is space-efficient, but not reading-efficient. Perhaps those links could be put in the left sidebar rather than at the top.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:51 UTC (Thu) by aschwinm (subscriber, #33817) [Link] I didn't know about this page also, it's very usefull as I see it now.
Best regards from the Netherlands,
Aschwin Marsman
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:15 UTC (Thu) by DG (subscriber, #16978) [Link] ditto; i hadn't really noticed those links before (kernel/security/distributions). They need seperating out from e.g. Subscriptions, Advertise, Write for LWN, Contact us etc etc.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:26 UTC (Thu) by Felix.Braun (subscriber, #3032) [Link] Usually I refrain from posting mere "me too" messages. But this one seems to be an indicator that one of LWN's valuable (and probably time-consuming) features has gone under-noticed...
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 6:32 UTC (Thu) by rakoenig (subscriber, #29855) [Link] 100% ACK.
I got also very much surpised seeing this jewel of information on my monitor.
This is some issue that urgently needs to be addressed.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:19 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link] Me too :-)
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 3, 2007 15:40 UTC (Sat) by nedrichards (subscriber, #23295) [Link] This chorus of 'I didn't know this amazing thing existed' seems to suggest that some kind of Interaction Design/Information Architecture/Look and Feel refresh may be handy.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 3, 2007 21:14 UTC (Sat) by hugh (subscriber, #928) [Link] I second the wow's and me-too's. I recently spent quite a while cursing the search enginge looking for one of Valerie Henson's KHB articles. I think that something needs to be done to make this valuable resource more visible.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 6:40 UTC (Thu) by goodgnews (subscriber, #31551) [Link] Me too! I didnt know about this page either. I would suggest redoing the navigation and separate things into catagories with labels. To be honest, i've always ignored those top menu items cause i couldnt make and sense of them.
Example:
Search: [....Search box...]
Content
Contact
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 18:54 UTC (Thu) by markcox (guest, #29577) [Link] i have to add another 'me too', and suggest that you move the options to the bottom of the sidebar, and trim them down. e.g. 'contact us' and 'write for lwn' could be merged. 'home' could be removed because most ppl know that clicking the logo means home. etc.
i would also like to mention elsewhere in this thread the 'grumpy editor' page was discussed, i have to admit that i often skim these as sometimes the article may cover a topic i'm not interested in, and if the article goes for several weeks, i feel disappointed, i think the non-tech articles (like about email clients) should not span across issues.
the third thing i want to address is from an increasing no's of subscribers point of view, it isn't us (the subscribers) you should be asking, it is the non-subscribers, psychologically, if we subscribers think that this years lwn is not as good as last years, we will probably still re-subscribe, so i think it's short sighted to exclude non-subscribers (although, i think you should have a 'different' survey for them).
and, thanks for the good work, i always enjoy reading lwn.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 5, 2007 11:34 UTC (Mon) by yipyip (subscriber, #25108) [Link] Even simply changing the background colour of the top navigation bar would be a great start. I've always thought that on LWN, navigation == salmon background. That dead grey background on the top just disappears into the page like a slot for a blocked banner ad; I never even noticed it!
Kernel page index? Posted Jan 31, 2007 21:54 UTC (Wed) by fyodor (subscriber, #3481) [Link] Maybe you should could make it a link in the survey. I browsed to the kernel page in another tab when I saw that question, and was unable to find the "index". Of course the answer appears in front of me right after I click "submit" :). It is too bad that there isn't a question on hardware or software review articles, particularly the "Grumpy Editor" series. I really like those! I agree with another poster that the subscription period question should say "subscriber-only period", as I wasn't sure what you were asking until I looked at the choices.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:55 UTC (Thu) by aschwinm (subscriber, #33817) [Link] I also would have loved a link in the survey, I also wasn't sure what it was about.
Kind regards,
Aschwin Marsman
go, grumpy editor, go! Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:30 UTC (Thu) by nettings (subscriber, #429) [Link] i'm with fyodor on this one - the grumpy editor series is a very interesting read. clearly pointing out usability issues, but always in touch with the realities of open source community development.
go, grumpy editor, go! Posted Feb 1, 2007 6:24 UTC (Thu) by brwk (subscriber, #6849) [Link] I'd have to say that it is the single area of LWN where I would point to it and say "This made a solid improvement to my Linux Desktop Experience". Finding a good package for a particular application is a very hit and miss process and the Grumpy Editor series makes a very positive contribution to that decision making process. I definitely think it should have a top-level link of it's own.
Regards, Bevis.
"Grumpy Editor" Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:06 UTC (Thu) by terber (subscriber, #3311) [Link] > "Grumpy Editor" series. I really like those! Full ACK!
"Grumpy Editor" Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:06 UTC (Thu) by mikeraz (guest, #155) [Link] ACK .= double plus good.
The Grumpy Editor Guides deserved their own question so we could all rate them highly.
They certainly fit the "News You Can Use" niche.
They stand as an object lesson of how to review products.
"Grumpy Editor" Posted Feb 2, 2007 2:58 UTC (Fri) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link] ++
And I love the humour in the articles!
Grumpy Editor Posted Feb 1, 2007 4:48 UTC (Thu) by nicku (subscriber, #777) [Link] It was an honour to shake the hand of the Grumpy Editor at the Linux Conference in Sydney in January. Those Grumpy Editor reviews are fun to read.
Grumpy Editor Posted Feb 5, 2007 6:53 UTC (Mon) by telsa (subscriber, #280) [Link] That comment combines two of my favourite things about LWN: the Grumpy Editor, and the coverage from conferences. I have tried to take notes from talks before, and I am utter awe of the OLS/LCA/etc coverage on LWN. It can be seriously aggravating when half the people on IRC or whose weblogs you read are burbling about some conference and no-one writes up a single talk for those who couldn't make it, so the summaries from conferences are a boon.
And everyone has said everything about the Grumpy Editor already. :)
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:19 UTC (Thu) by phip (subscriber, #1715) [Link] > It is too bad that there isn't a question on hardware or software review> articles, particularly the "Grumpy Editor" series. I really like those!
No need to include it in the survey; everybody already knows that it rates a 5! :-)
I would have rated the Kernel page index higher if I had known what it is.
Thanks again LWN crew for all the great work!
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:30 UTC (Thu) by Zenith (subscriber, #24899) [Link] *sigh*
Sorry, but here goes another "me too" post :)
I also had some problems understanding some of the questions, that is, correlating what I read with what the LWN speak for each of the sections are :)
I also fully concur that the "Grumpy Editor" series is a 5++ section by its own, and there really ought to be a link to some sort of index of these.
Grumpy editor index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:33 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] I also fully concur that the "Grumpy Editor" series is a 5++ section by its own, and there really ought to be a link to some sort of index of these. You mean, something like this index?
Grumpy editor index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:45 UTC (Thu) by Zenith (subscriber, #24899) [Link] Hey, that's cheating! :D
Darn, I guess I really should go look next time before I start requesting stuff ;)
For other curious people, the link that Your Favorite Grumpy Editor (YFGE for future reference? :) ) just mocked me with ;), can be located by going to "Archives" and then clicking the second link.
Point taken though ;)
Although, I and many others seem to be (lazy and) quite unaware of the endless heaps of resources that can found by digging around just a bit (and this appears to involve the much unknown top-navigation link bar).
Silly as we might be, this is probably quite typical for many of the others subscribers as well, and I'm sure that they would be much more appreciated if easier to locate.
Grumpy editor index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:26 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link] Damn. I didn't know this page existed either ! I think the main thing that this survey is telling us is that the content is excellent, but we might need some reorganizing of the menus.
Grumpy editor index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 14:34 UTC (Thu) by superstoned (subscriber, #33164) [Link] fully agreed. the content of LWN is excellent. well, the survey resultsare pretty clear, i'd say. i did rate some things 1, but mostly because they just don't spark my interest, it's not that i hate them being there.
and the 'real' articles are very interesting to read and of a very high
We need a Grumpy Editor's Guide to LWN :-) Posted Feb 1, 2007 14:52 UTC (Thu) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] A tour by example, full of the good Grumpy Editor drawings and screenshots, yeh, that's the ticket!
Grumpy editor index? Posted Feb 2, 2007 11:46 UTC (Fri) by a9db0 (subscriber, #2181) [Link] Talk about a hidden feature....Fortunately, Google is pretty good at finding them.
Grumpy Editor series - excellent! 5+
Grumpy Editor series index - bonus points!
This one probably deserves a link off the main page header. I've read every one, and used several as reference when digging for solutions. I'm sure they take a lot of time to put together, but they are well worth it to this reader. Thanks!
Grumpy Editor series, random comments Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:18 UTC (Thu) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link]
Heartily agree! The Grumpy Editor series alone is worth the subscription. OK, make that One thing that annoys me is that if you post a comment, afterwards you are placed at the top of the original article again, if there are many comments you need to scroll down quite a bit to go on reading. And what I like a lot is the mail of responses. But the HTML --> text loses too much formatting, <blockquote> in particular gets completely lost, and so quoted stuff doesn't get its distinction. Perhaps mark with "> "? I do like the current left bar with Recent Features a lot. Would it be possible to mark "old" (already read) comments somehow? I do revisit old articles, and then I'll be probably more interested in comments left after my last visit.
Kernel page index Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:48 UTC (Thu) by and (guest, #2883) [Link] I didn't know that it existed, too. But it seems as a pretty goodreference to the kernel's concepts. I suppose it tends to get out of date sooner rather than later, though. Wouldn't it be a good idea to transform it into some kind wiki with links to the original articles prominently placed? It could certainly attract some additional attention for the site...
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:36 UTC (Thu) by jbw (subscriber, #5689) [Link] > We mean this kernel page index.
Wow. Didn't even know that existed. I've never looked at any of the links in the block at the top of the page. I would have been more likely to look at that if it was in the sidebar.
Can you do something like this index for all your articles, not just kernel ones? Or maybe some tagging scheme so that one can find all articles related to topic xyzzy?
Maybe also add help information to the links so that we can mouse over them to get a more detailed description of what "Kernel", etc. link to?
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 7:08 UTC (Thu) by pm101 (subscriber, #3011) [Link] Wow. That's nice. Never knew about that. I'd probably ignore the survey answers, since when I got to that question, I went to this week's kernel page, look long and hard for an index, couldn't figure out what part of the page it was, so filled the survey in with something random.
Sidenote: For future surveys, for the coverage of what to do in the future, I'd provide a little bit more guidance. There's a few axes. (a) Would I use a feature? (b) How important would it be to me? (c) If I wouldn't use a feature, do I have specific opposition? (d) Do I think it's a good idea or bad idea? It wasn't clear how to fit those into the survey. On a bunch of the things (pdf edition, podcast, business coverage, blacklists), I'd never use them. I think they'd probably be a waste of resources. On the other hand, I fundamentally don't care -- if other people want them, they're not hurting me in any way. I wasn't sure if that was a 1 or a 3. The only one I was opposed to is more guest authors unless you manage to set up a very good filter for quality of articles. I can get the equivalent of guest articles by following links off of slashdot or any other site. There is no benefit to me having them on LWN, where they hurt SNR.
Finally: More grumpy editor. That might be a good task for the other editors too. While Corbet is by far the best, it is very tough to get good software reviews of any form. Even if the other authors don't write as well as Corbet, so long as the reviews are comprehensive, having a good place to find out which mail client, video editor, etc. to use provides a lot of value.
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:21 UTC (Thu) by grouch (subscriber, #27289) [Link] It appears our un-indexed Grumpy Editor has a minor bug to fix in the page layout, which bug has left many readers unaware of a handy feature of LWN that would be much more utilized if more apparent. :o)
Kernel page index? Posted Feb 3, 2007 16:12 UTC (Sat) by fixkowalski (subscriber, #13396) [Link] I wasted cumulated days googling for kernel features, while as a subscriber I had access to this page. Please make this more visible. It is a shame that such a piece of information is so buried...
An LWN reader survey Posted Jan 31, 2007 20:58 UTC (Wed) by jbw (subscriber, #5689) [Link] My main request is to have a way to get a list of the titles and authors of comments shown (preferably nested to indicate which are responses to comments) in the weekly edition, without needing to go to a separate web page. You could consider making this kind of feature available to those who subscribe at the top level; it would be enough to justify that for me.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:57 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] In the old days, of course, we had .newsrc... :/
An LWN reader survey Posted Jan 31, 2007 21:29 UTC (Wed) by NCunningham (subscriber, #6457) [Link] "How long should the subscription period be" is a little ambiguous. Ithought at first you were talking about how long we can take out a subscription for. It was only as I considered the context more that I realised you mean 'How long should articles be subscriber-only'. HTH.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 0:49 UTC (Thu) by spaetz (subscriber, #32870) [Link] same here, I would have like to mark "One Year" until I notice that you actually meant "subscriber only embargo time period"
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:12 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] with the ability for subscribers to send links to others I think it's reasonable to consider extending the blackout period
Sending links ... Posted Feb 1, 2007 15:28 UTC (Thu) by kmself (subscriber, #11565) [Link] ... is that still available? I've looked for the feature a few times recently and failed to find it. Should be a good advertising technique, I'd think.
Sending links ... Posted Feb 1, 2007 15:39 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] The "send a link" feature is still available. There is some information in the FAQ on how to use it.
Sending links ... Posted Feb 5, 2007 12:30 UTC (Mon) by gerv (subscriber, #3376) [Link] Yes, I always find it hard to track down as well. Something else which could do with being more prominent.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:53 UTC (Thu) by aschwinm (subscriber, #33817) [Link] I was also going to go for one year, maybe the question could have been more clear.
Beste regards
Aschwin Marsman
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 6:51 UTC (Thu) by lysse (subscriber, #3190) [Link] On that particular question, I'm very happy with being able to specify a number of months for which to subscribe; but I'd have preferred to be able to specify a few more months than 19 in one go! Up to 36 seems reasonable.
As for how long articles should be subscriber-only - I don't know; having them delayed by a week was incentive enough for me, and I don't think just lengthening the embargo will necessarily encourage any more people to subscribe... in fact, perhaps it's already had a cost.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 8:25 UTC (Thu) by grouch (subscriber, #27289) [Link]
Same here -- I couldn't wait a week.
Easier comment thread following Posted Jan 31, 2007 21:51 UTC (Wed) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link] It's occasionally happened that I noticed an interesting comment thread that I'd read once when it had n comments now had 2*n comments... but there's no convenient way for me to look and see what's new, except by re-reading the whole thing. Since the high(er) quality discussions are one of the key things that set LWN apart for me, it'd be nice to have some way to do this.
I suppose the Right way is to provide news://lwn.net.
(Agreed that the "subscription period" question could be phrased in a clearer way.)
Easier comment thread following Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:45 UTC (Thu) by emj (guest, #14307) [Link] ah! the seldom implemented "view-post-since-last-visit", it's hard since it's usually "view-new-comments: that I'm interested in" which would mean you only want the new comments on the stories you have read...
Easier comment thread following Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:49 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] going from n comments to 2*n comments is probably worth re-reading them all to have the context for the new ones.
however the one that bugs me is when an article goes from 90 posts to 100 posts, finding the 10 new comments (and seeing their context) is _hard_
Easier comment thread following Posted Feb 1, 2007 4:25 UTC (Thu) by tgb (guest, #745) [Link] ...there's no convenient way for me to look and see what's new, except by re-reading the whole thing. It's not perfect, but http://lwn.net/Comments/ makes following comments a fair bit easier...
Easier comment thread following Posted Feb 1, 2007 9:01 UTC (Thu) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266) [Link] I'd say the Comments page doesn't look that useful to me; a quick glance and I was already lost in conversations that started who knows where. It'd be ok if comments were self-contained, but they're usually not at all. Heck, people don't even quote.
I'd like to go further, though, and say that I'd like an easy way to watch the whole article for comment responses; Currently you can only watch the thread that branches from your first reply. There are some articles where I have nothing to say but would like to read the comments as they arrive; for other articles I post replies but would like to watch all the threads anyway, even the ones I'm not participating in.
An LWN reader survey Posted Jan 31, 2007 22:14 UTC (Wed) by csawtell (subscriber, #986) [Link] I really enjoy the 'Grumpy Editor' articles. They would be greatlyenhanced by being typeset and available as pdf files. ( ratioed for both printing on paper as well as viewing on the screen )
It would not upset me at all if you put Google ads at the bottom in the
I have enjoyed reading the LCA articles. You might care to do similar ones
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:56 UTC (Thu) by james (subscriber, #1325) [Link] It's a pity the "Grumpy Editor" series wasn't mentioned in the survey. I know they take a long time to write, but they are seriously useful and interesting -- and well worth re-reading.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 16, 2007 3:54 UTC (Fri) by csawtell (subscriber, #986) [Link] The 'Grumpy Editor' needs a ghost writer to help.Anybody know of a suitable person?
An LWN reader survey Posted Jan 31, 2007 22:17 UTC (Wed) by freemars (subscriber, #4235) [Link] For what it's worth, LWN is the ONLY online publication I'm willing to pay for.
The Grumpy Editors here - all of them - clearly have their heads and hearts in the right place on issues related to free/libre software -+but+- the writing style is blessedly free of pounding the drums and anti-[evildoer of the week] vitrol. I believe our editors see themselves as reporters, not advocates. That's a good thing; after all, this is Linux Weekly NEWS, not Linux Weekly OPINION.
I depend on LWN for prompt reporting of security flaws and fixes. Thanks, guys.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:17 UTC (Thu) by DG (subscriber, #16978) [Link] I second that
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 3:20 UTC (Thu) by jbw (subscriber, #5689) [Link] > For what it's worth, LWN is the ONLY online publication I'm willing to> pay for.
Same here! LWN is my only subscription in the last 20 years, online or printed!
Agreed also that the Grumpy Editor series is marvelous. More, please.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 4:24 UTC (Thu) by mgh (subscriber, #5696) [Link] Agreed, LWN is the _only_ online publication I pay for and have ever paid for and I am on my third subscription. GE articles are great and often funny.
keep up the good work!
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 2, 2007 3:09 UTC (Fri) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link] ++ again! This is the only thing I subscribe to and I'm frankly astonished that it doesn't have more subscribers. Maybe it is simply because of all the competition - there are so many places to get your news from and most of them are free.
I just got a new credit card and couldn't remember whether that influenced my subscription here, but a quick check and an update to my subscription so it doesn't run out until 2009 and I was calm again.
An LWN reader survey Posted Jan 31, 2007 22:52 UTC (Wed) by botsie (guest, #1485) [Link] I really think LWN could do with a redesign. Not so much the looks, but I suspect that a lot of LWN's content is not as accessable as it should be. I never knew about the kernel index until I saw it mentioned in the survey.
Also, there's no way to browse older articles by subject. You may want to start tagging articles by content.
-- b
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 0:39 UTC (Thu) by dberkholz (subscriber, #23346) [Link] Yes, I've discovered a number of really cool features purely by seeing other people mention them in comments or other happenstance: the kernel index, the security database, the comments RSS feed...
Libre Weekly News Posted Jan 31, 2007 23:25 UTC (Wed) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link] LWN is the only online publication that I am happy to pay for. (I also pay for economist.com, but I'm not happy about it.)
I'm a long term, loyal, happy reader and I recommend LWN to others.
My main suggestion is vague and thematic rather than specific: change LWN from meaning "Linux Weekly News" to meaning "Libre Weekly News". (Okay, tongue in cheek, but...)
I'm very interested in Free Software applications whether or not they run on Linux, and I'm interested in Free Software operating systems other than Linux, and I'm interested in issues of Freedom other than as it related to Linux (e.g. patents, copyrights, DRM, censorship, network availability, search engine manipulation...).
Granted, the Linux Kernel Page is the brightest spot in LWN and deserves to keep its favored status, but there's no reason to discriminate against other, non-Linux-specific topics.
In fact, now that I think about it the most common source of irritation on this subject isn't content actually generated by LWN staff and contributors, but rather comments posted by readers griping about "competitors" or alternatives to Linux even when those alternatives are themselves Free Software.
But really, I have friends who run NetBSD instead of Linux and I'm interested in exploring OpenSolaris and I even, dare I say it, participate in communities which are promulgating Freedom and Free Software on Mac OS X and on Windows. It would be cool if I could recommend LWN to those folks without them wondering why I was recommending a "Linux" publication to them.
Libre Weekly News Posted Feb 1, 2007 5:12 UTC (Thu) by ewan (subscriber, #5533) [Link] I agree, though I think that's pretty much the case already, so I'm happywith the status quo. Interestingly enough, the site barely, if at all, uses the name 'Linux Weekly News' any more. It actually just calls itself LWN.net everywhere.
Libre Weekly News Posted Feb 1, 2007 7:17 UTC (Thu) by richardr (subscriber, #14799) [Link] I agree, it's the only online resource I pay for, and I am happy to do so. I also go with the "vague and thematic" suggestion too. I use several operating systems and am interested in free software on all of them.
Libre Weekly News Posted Feb 1, 2007 17:19 UTC (Thu) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] The name of the publication was officially changed from Linux Weekly News to LWN.net several years ago.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 0:43 UTC (Thu) by johoho (subscriber, #2773) [Link] I'm a happy lwn reader for about 8 years now. It's the only online news source I'm willing to pay for. Reasons for that are the high quality articles and the low noise-to-info ratio in the comments.
Please do not go into this community-building thing and spend too much time "enhancing" the comments sections. Maybe a cookie with "what are the new comments" would be helpfull, as one comment has requested.
Another issue that I agree, is that the article-archive needs some overhaul. Tagging articles might be one way to do that. You should definately give that a try.
Oh, despite the fact that a lot of people seem to like howto's, please do not become another www.rootprompt.org...
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 0:55 UTC (Thu) by pimlott (guest, #1535) [Link] Assorted comments:I can't find anything called "main articles" or "daily updates", but I assume this is what you get at http://lwn.net/, yes? I'm very mixed about more guest authors. To date, their quality has varied widely, some splendid, some junk as far as I'm concerned, and I wish that they were held to a uniformly high standard. Further, some have a grating tendency to mimic Jon's writing style. While it works brilliantly for him, I don't enjoy reading poor imitations. I'm a bit bothered by the positive response to the "howto" suggestions. Howtos are everywhere on the web, and while I'm sure LWN could do them better, it might just be adding to the clutter. It just doesn't seem to be a good way for LWN to distinguish itself and use its scarce resources. Further, this sort of material is best incorporated directly into the projects' documentation, I think. But maybe I have to see a few articles before judging.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:19 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] good how-to articles don't need to be written by the LWN staff, in fact they are a perfect way to get contributions from others.
the key problem is how to get ones that are in depth enough to be worthwhile without being overly complicated.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 13:45 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] I agree. The problem with non-trivial howtos is that they are necessarily tied to a particular version of a particular distribution.
For instance, I'm in the middle of writing a KVM howto: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM . I'd love to submit something like this to LWN for publication. The problem is, it would take days for me to make it distribution-neutral. And, if it did cover most of the popular distributions, it would probably be incomprehensible. Ever try following code with tons of #ifdefs in it? Now picture that with English...
HOWTOs are great. I'm just skeptical that they could be turned into something worthy of publication on LWN.
(I suppose one solution would be a wiki-type-thing, where readers could translate HOWTOs to different distros themselves. That sounds a little far-fetched though...)
Howto Suggestions Posted Feb 1, 2007 4:36 UTC (Thu) by siesel (subscriber, #5021) [Link] I also bother about the "howto" sugestion. So I would like to know more about LWN's understanding of "howtos". What I would like is a "howto" approach similar to the "Grumpy" Editor articles. Just taking a real world problem, e.g. remote desktop/ssh access to a colleagues desk and giving an overview about possible solutions and there advantages/disadvantages. IMHO to try to replace or enhance The Linux Documentation Project by creating detailed step by step howtos doesn't make sense. Even in a portal to tldp.org I see little value.
Howto Suggestions Posted Feb 1, 2007 13:23 UTC (Thu) by pimlott (guest, #1535) [Link] What I would like is a "howto" approach similar to the "Grumpy" Editor articles. Just taking a real world problem, e.g. remote desktop/ssh access to a colleagues desk and giving an overview about possible solutions and there advantages/disadvantages.As you put it that way, I can see potential. It might even (as sometimes the grumpy editor reviews do) point out problems for which we have no entirely satisfactory solution. So despite my reservations, I would like to see a trial. Most howtos only step you through one approach, but critical, comparative analysis is harder to find, and could play to LWN's strengths.
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 12:26 UTC (Thu) by kamil (subscriber, #3802) [Link] I second the negative attitude toward howtos on LWN. LWN is about news. Howtos are not news. Good howtos, while always welcome, simply don't belong at LWN, IMO.
However... Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:23 UTC (Thu) by liw (subscriber, #6379) [Link] The biggest change in LWN I desire is less use of the word "however".
I am very, very happy with LWN.
various thoughts (sorry, bad english) Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:26 UTC (Thu) by airman (subscriber, #7341) [Link] 1) keep up the good work
2) think of the article of Joel on features in software before removing some parts of LWN (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/12/09.html)
3) one of the things where LWN did really help me with my job is when there are articles on usefull apps or categories of app (grumpy editors): I mean I have no longer the time required to scan through the immense wealth of linux apps to find the tool I don't know of that solve my problem of the day. Many times I discovered something really useful here (or in the comments that said hey how coan you not mention program XX)
4) please add one or two more subscription levels (eg: linux-friendly-company-backed-department-director, etc...). there are some who can contribute more. please let them do it.
5) as many people here (according to results), I long to discover some articles on user mode dev and sysadmin. What I dream of is for dev: introduction article to some useful library I don't know of, or some dev tool that can change my life, for admin: stories of real-life problems and what solutions were applied. And of course the most important comments: bad solution, you should have done XX, or good solution, but you can do better if you do YY
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:36 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link] My main idea is to more brutally focus on doing that which Lwn does uniquely good, and sacrificing that which 101 other sources do in a similar way.
Many of the Lwn-kernel-articles explaining details of how the kernel works are unmatched anywhere else. The grumpy Editor series is among the finest reviews of software found anywhere, they work so well because our Editor fundamentally "gets it", he is one of us. I have no interest in reading: "I never used anything other than Windows until last week --- here's my take on mutt" type articles. It also helps that our beloved editors are just plainly good writers. The articles are funny, witty, frequently tongue-in-cheek, rife with internal references and jokes and just generally on-the-level. I realize that means they're completely useless for my Grandmother who is looking for an email-client, but it means for *me* they're perfect. The "lets-take-two-steps-back" articles are also vital. It's easy to find articles focusing on what happened this week. It's a lot harder to find articles where it shows that the author has a memory. Where the larger, longer lines are drawn. "What's up with X this decade -- where does it come from, where migth it be headed." kind of articles. Linux in the news is often interesting, more often than not due to the intelligence of many readers here. You frequently get to hear takes on things that you'd be unlikely to find on say /. Your deliberate choice to cover only what you consider important ("Recommended reading") is brilliant. Quality beats quantity every time. On the other hand, some other sections are distinctly non-special and in many cases there's lots better sources. I don't particularily *care* which 3 (of the total zillion) distributions updated their libfoo to deal with the bar-vulnerability reported X weeks ago this week. I migth wonder if *my* distro has fixed the problem, but apt-get, yum or whatever tells me that. I don't particularily *care* how to set up HylaFax 3.1.2 on a Sparc. I'm guessing perhaps 0.01% of your readers actually care, and those that do are unlikely to care at the precise moment that you choose to cover it, so don't. It's not news. Lwn is not TLDP (and shouldn't try to be) The event-calender is worse than useless. The large major events *migth* be sligthly interesting. Those that it's remotely possible that 10% of your readers care about. Those events that Lwn would consider covering. But the local events swarm them. How large a percentage of your readers care that the Baltimore LUG has a meeting where Samba will be presented ? Lwn ain't nearly complete enough to be *useful* for local stuff either. So, what I see is something like: 5 large international actually-interesting events. 100 miniscule special-interest or extremely-limited-geographically events. And at the same time, the local events in *my* (or any one) geographic area are very very unlikely to be listed at all. My advice ? If Lwn wouldn't consider covering an event, it's not interesting enough to be included in Lwn. (put it under a "click here to see local events" if you really want to keep these at all)
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:46 UTC (Thu) by ortalo (subscriber, #4654) [Link] Nice summary. I globally adhere to it so, no need to paraphrase it... ;-)Just a few possible additions: - it seems to me that LWN does not have enough corporate customers, given the technically oriented focus and the high-level of satisfaction of all the personal subscribers: maybe you should get another marketing plan or even find some resellers? Note that I don't say that for you to get more $$, it's just that we need to inject more linux-oriented technical knowledge into companies... ;-) - I'd certainly like to see an expansion towards the BSD world (for example, the security page is certainly an opportunity to talk about OpenBSD ), after all, every good newspaper must have good "International/foreign" pages! - concerning the subscription period, in fact, the problem is that you would probably need to adjust it depending on the reader: "western" corporate ocasional readers should ask their company to purchase subscriptions instead of simply waiting 2 weeks so they deserve a longer period, students should get a nearly free subscription asap, developing countries certainly need a rebate, etc, etc. (You certainly know these issues better than any of us, no?) So, my idea: either go back to my first point, or try to find a technical-only solution to adapt the subscription delay (e.g. regular comers from IP networks resolving to .com companies could be treated differently than those from a .edu...).
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 5, 2007 12:34 UTC (Mon) by gerv (subscriber, #3376) [Link] <applause>. Although I note that this basically means "We like all the time-consuming stuff; the auto-generated stuff isn't so useful". Which is not the best news for the editor. But hey, it's the truth :-)
Please change the title tag Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:38 UTC (Thu) by tekNico (subscriber, #22) [Link] A small nit: could you please change the title tag?
I use ScrapBook, a wonderful Firefox extension that locally saves web pages, and shows titles in a tree in the sidebar.
The first title characters are very significant, in the small sidebar width: for that reason, I ask you to change your title template from
LWN: ${RealTitle}
to
${RealTitle} - LWN
because currently, each and every time I save a LWN page, I have to go in there and move the "LWN" name to the end.
Thank you for this, and mostly for your wonderful work.
Please change the title tag Posted Feb 1, 2007 1:54 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] this would also help those of us who have a dozen (or more) tabs open.
on the other hand, they do far better then other sites, the typical thing would be "Linux Weekly News Article: ${RealTitle}" ;-)
An LWN reader survey Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:35 UTC (Thu) by angelortega (subscriber, #1306) [Link] I would suggest just a little improvement; always add the author near thearticle's title, even if it's one of the editors. I've liked many articles in the "Development" section (special those about music software) that I think are written by Forrest Cook, but I'm never completely sure and would like to know. And I want to see your faces! I want a vanity/fetish editor page for us LWN groupies.
Keep the good work!
more thoughts Posted Feb 1, 2007 2:55 UTC (Thu) by dune73 (subscriber, #17225) [Link] Most of the things have been covered above, but i'll add my 2 cents nevertheless.
Every LWN edition is an example of good journalism. I seem to be among the many subscribers unwilling to pay for content, but making an exception for LWN. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
