Weekly Edition
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An introduction to the new development page
As was announced to readers
last week, long-time Development Page editor Forrest Cook has moved on to a
new set of challenges. As a result, LWN is now faced with a new challenge
of its own: maintaining quality content with fewer hands at the keyboard.
To respond to this challenge, we are making some changes aimed at making
the production of LWN more sustainable while maintaining (or improving)
content quality.
At recent events, your editor asked many readers what part of the LWN Weekly Edition would be missed least if it went away. The answers were surprisingly consistent; it seems that relatively few people plow through the long lists of software releases which have long appeared on this page. So that's what is going to go; this week inaugurates a new, thinner Development Page. The most important aspects of this page, we hope, will remain. It will still be led by our original content. We will still watch the stream of software release announcements as we did before; the difference is that only a small subset of them will be selected for mention on this page. Announcements will show up here if they are a major release of an important package, or if they highlight an application that we think our readers would be interested in, or if somebody just thinks it's worth posting. The value of LWN, we believe, has always been in selective judgment and conciseness, rather than in scooping up and posting everything. We hope that a more focused Development Page will increase that value. As this page evolves, we will certainly welcome any comments you may have, either posted as comments or sent directly to lwn@lwn.net. (Log in to post comments)
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 8:06 UTC (Thu) by andka (subscriber, #974) [Link]
I do realize that it might be difficult to replace Forrest Cook, and that something has to go from the LWN pages. but I'm not sure what readers you asked, I did not see the question in any case.
I have always found the "Development" page one of the most useful. I first read the front page and then the Development page (and after that the Kernel or Security pages). I have found lots of interesting new applications this way.
I will miss this page.
/Andreas
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 11:26 UTC (Thu) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link]
Doesn't freshmeat.net provide a way to keep up with software releases? Or is that *too* much detail?
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 9:12 UTC (Thu) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link] The value of LWN, we believe, has always been in selective judgment and conciseness, rather than in scooping up and posting everything. Hmm, that is true as far as I'm concerned, but the Development page has always been one of my favourite LWN pages. I loved seeing what went on in all the different corners of the Free Software landscape, much more than the rehashing of blog posts and subsequent discussions that have become a significant part of LWN over the years.
The old format will be missed Posted Mar 4, 2010 10:07 UTC (Thu) by rasjidw (guest, #15913) [Link] I must have missed the discussion about the development page's future. I currently have four LWN Development pages open in my tabs at the moment, which generally means that there was something there I wanted to follow up on. It was the page I most looked forward to each week. It was ordered nicely so I could jump to the parts that interested me most (Database and Python), and in general had a good balance between letting me know what was happening vs swamping me with too much detail. Looks like I will need to supplement my LWN news with something else. :-(
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 12:40 UTC (Thu) by njp963 (subscriber, #60079) [Link]
I echo the comments of andka and rasjidw.
The Development page is the one I find most useful and inspiring. Even if I'm busy, it is the one page I read, without fail, in its entirety.
I find it broadens my free software horizons, introducing techniques and applications that I wouldn't otherwise stumble across in my day-to-day work.
Inspiring because, so often, it spurs me to learn, explore and contribute to new avenues which I can apply to my day-to-day work.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 13:46 UTC (Thu) by xav (guest, #18536) [Link]
Well, my 2 preferred pages are the kernel page, and a bit less the front page.
As far as I'm concerned, the rest can go, except maybe the occasional in-depth article on the development age.
Oh, and I miss the letters to the editor. But I'm pretty happy with LWN as it is now.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 15:44 UTC (Thu) by morhippo (subscriber, #334) [Link]
You should hire someone new to do the development page - I have paid for LWN for years and I would miss the Development page...
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 17:14 UTC (Thu) by mebrown (subscriber, #7960) [Link]
I understand the need to produce content more efficiently and agree with the direction to simplify the development page.
The kernel page and development pages have long been my favorite pages. But the long lists of released software add little value. I like the development page for the in-depth coverage of important releases. I like that you'll be better highlighting the significant releases. I can easily go elsewhere to find the minutia (freshmeat, etc).
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 17:53 UTC (Thu) by Quazatron (guest, #4368) [Link]
I mostly skipped the development page, so the new format is an improvement.
There are other sites that track software release announcements.
The old development page will be missed Posted Mar 4, 2010 19:50 UTC (Thu) by rriggs (subscriber, #11598) [Link]
It was the one page that I most looked forward to reading, and the one that made me a subscriber. I can go without most paid content on LWN, but I always looked forward to Thursday morning -- specifically for the old development page.
Crowd source Development page? Posted Mar 4, 2010 20:51 UTC (Thu) by boog (subscriber, #30882) [Link]
As this is becoming an informal poll, I found the Development page quite (very) useful to learn about new (and existing) software projects - it's always so hard to keep abreast of available software. The pages I nearly always skip are Distributions (except occasionally the top article; I see no reason not to run Debian...) and Announcements (somehow I seem to have already seen the ones that interest me).
To what extent could the Development page exploit user input? I wonder whether a form input for people announcing or noticing new projects/releases could simplify assembling the announcement/list part of the page. Even the category and a small blurb could be solicited automatically. All that would be needed would be some light copy editing :-)
The economic undertones to Forrest's announcement (to whom I wish the very best for the future) and recently seeing our Editor almost snap at somebody in print made me wonder whether an update on the financial health of LWN was in the pipeline. I hope all is well.
Crowd source Development page? + suggestions Posted Mar 4, 2010 22:43 UTC (Thu) by boog (subscriber, #30882) [Link]
Our Editor is nevertheless correct in as much as I tend to skim the page for the nuggets that interest me, rather than read everything in detail. However, I have certainly come across useful software that I wouldn't even have thought to search for otherwise (and that I doubt would meet the "significance" criterion of the new page). And I would always scan the page with the expectation of stumbling upon some gem.
On the suggestion front, one class of software that I use regularly is rarely mentioned here. That's LaTeX and co. Obviously, it's old and in no way Linux-specific, but it is likely to appeal to free software people and does tend to work better on Linux than windows (viz. all the dying freeware IDEs). Despite its rather historical reputation and link to dead-tree technology, I feel there has been some very encouraging new development, in particular the very active asymptote graphics project (http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/), Philipp Lehman's Herculean labour to replace bibtex with biblatex and biber (http://biblatex-biber.sourceforge.net/) (for the academics amongst us), the expansion of various IDEs (Kile etc.), the beamer package and of course LyX.
I remain disappointed by the state of Linux CAD software (with the exception of electronics). It still seems that anything decent is not at all free. Maybe somebody who knows the field could review it for us (and hopefully prove me wrong).
Crowd source Development page? Posted Mar 5, 2010 2:14 UTC (Fri) by sandmann (subscriber, #473) [Link]
One reason I'm sad that this page goes away is that it helped getting pagerank to the linked projects.
If it's useful, I'd be willing to spend a couple of hours each week to help out with getting the announcements back.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 4, 2010 21:51 UTC (Thu) by kunitz (subscriber, #3965) [Link]
I loved also to read the development page. It helped to keep me uptodate of what was going on in userspace.
Toolchain articles Posted Mar 5, 2010 8:54 UTC (Fri) by grahame (subscriber, #5823) [Link]
I've always enjoyed the toolchain articles here; introductions to new development tools that have become available are great.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 5, 2010 20:57 UTC (Fri) by nicolas@jungers (✭ supporter ✭, #7579) [Link]
I shall also regret the old development page. I was not reading it from bit to bit but frequently spotted projects which did interest me, and of which I was completely unaware.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 5, 2010 22:20 UTC (Fri) by ccurtis (guest, #49713) [Link]
I'd like to say that I agree with our Editor generally, and admit that the Development page is one I tended to skim rather than read. The top page article is always of interest, but now the Brief section appears a bit too brief.
What I would like to see or read about is development in a community sense - what kind of stuff is happening with tools (compilers; GCC and LLVM, specifically) and linkers? With PHP/Python/Perl/Parrot? With databases? With GNOME and KDE? Or maybe more generally with technologies - Web Servers, HA, Networking, Desktops, Object or Component frameworks, Windows integration, etc.
Sometimes this may include a release announcement (KDE 4.4 for instance) but it's more interesting to me to read what sorts of developments are happening in development space. New approaches and technologies. Ideas being discussed, experimental paths being pursued (eg, forks). The soap opera that is the community.
What I may be thinking is that the Development page appear in a similar, albeit abbreviated, form as the Kernel Development page, but covering the entire user-space ecosystem. This sounds like a lot of work, but may lend itself easily to multiple authors, each of which would likely have a story only a few times per year. It could also be a "dumping ground" (or "staging area") for those articles that just aren't quite material enough for the front page.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 6, 2010 13:14 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
'Dumping ground', 'staging area'... you could call it 'the index'. ;}
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 10, 2010 15:00 UTC (Wed) by phip (guest, #1715) [Link]
This sounds like a great idea to me! It wouldn't even have to be
new editorial content; you could have essentially the same old contents, just organized by around a specific theme each week, presented by a guest editor.
On a related note, we haven't seen any updates on LWN's financial
Maybe this comment will show up in Google...
Thanks again for all the hard work that goes into making LWN.net
-Phil
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 8, 2010 13:51 UTC (Mon) by njwhite (subscriber, #51848) [Link]
Certainly if there was one area which had to be cut, I'd make it the development announcements. I generally skip over them quickly or completely, which isn't true of the rest of lwn.
The reason I love lwn is the quality of the articles (and a far higher than average amount of the comments); there are numerous other venues for (semi-)aggregated "content" online, for people that find value in it.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 8, 2010 22:21 UTC (Mon) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]
FWIW: Yes, that's *always* the value of periodicals: editorial outlook.
It's the thing we're losing in these days of disintermediation on the Internet, largely because it's traditionally been subsidized -- as has most journalism -- by one thing or another, more or less obviously.
Two case in point examples of this are Harry Newton of Computer Telephony and Jack Rickard of Boardwatch.
Anyone remember either of those?
If you do, it's because of their editors. Both sold out, and the publications went in the toilet.
Wayne Greene of 73 and the early Byte, and several other editors will jump to mind as well.
I'll be reupping this weekend, back at the Rich Bastard level, since I can afford it again. Hopefully everyone else will follow suit.
An introduction to the new development page Posted Mar 16, 2010 21:49 UTC (Tue) by filipjoelsson (subscriber, #2622) [Link]
I'm coming late to the lament, but I'd like to echo the sentiment that the old dev page was really good. Not just good. I frequently found tips on software outside my area of focus, which has enhanced me both professionally and as a hobby musician. Oh well, I will probably get used to the new format too in time.
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