LWN: Comments on "LWN's 2020 Retrospective"

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

CChittleborough — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 09:48:40 +0000

Those are two very good points.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

anarcat — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 20:08:04 +0000

Thanks to the LWN team for all your work. I may not be contributing anymore, but I'm certainly reading you rather assiduously and I'm glad things are working out! Keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see into your 2021 crystal ball! :)

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

NYKevin — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 17:07:24 +0000

It's the other side of the Dunning-Kruger coin. When you're really, really good at something, it feels trivially easy, so you assume that beginners find it easy as well. The logical next question is, if it's so easy, why do all of these outsiders keep whining about it?

The lack of self-awareness is unfortunate but unsurprising. It's human nature.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

flussence — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 07:53:07 +0000

Here's to being humorously wrong about 2021, I hope.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

anton — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 17:13:08 +0000

The comments on video-conferencing mystified me. I have to thank LWN for pointing me to the free software options Jitsi and to BigBlueButton, and our group now has a Jitsi server and a BBB server, and we use them for meetings, classes, and exams; another piece of free software that LWN did not mention is NextCloud (also available to us, but we don't use it).

The linked-to coverage of the Linux Plumbers conference shows that BBB has worked, although measures were taken to avoid bumping into the potential limits of BBB. In the same timeframe, EuroForth was held, also with BBB (hosted by senfcall.de), plus a twitch feed (which provides a back channel) for more passive participants.

I also find that in our classes we don't use the video feed (only screen sharing and BBB presentations), and participants mute themselves when they don't want to speak; in some classes the students seem to prefer (or maybe think that I prefer) using the chat and always stay muted. This works pretty well, and I certainly don't miss the video feed; the advantage of using the chat is that several students can work on their questions at the same time. I expect that BBB scales even further when it is used in this way; however, we don't have enough students in our classes to test this theory.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

jezuch — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:52:44 +0000

Well, epidemiologists definitely predicted that something like that would happen, but as our esteemed editor noted, the devil is in the timing. Also, nobody would listen to them :) So here we are, utterly unprepared but not surprised (some of us, at least).

Have a nice year end's rest despite the whole thing! :)

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

notriddle — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 06:34:59 +0000

And that they won’t quit their job over the email setup.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

nestal — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 03:58:44 +0000

Thanks and be safe.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

nickodell — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 20:02:34 +0000

Yeesh, the comments on "Better tools for kernel developers" are truly something to behold. It seems like some people are offended by the implication that git send-email is hard to use, or that people use webmail clients.

Working economically sound is a necessity

ber — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:13:07 +0000

As Free Software is about freedom, not about price, it is perfectly fine to earn money from Free Software work. So there is no "on the other hand" here. On the contrary, if we want Free Software to be the default, it means that many professional software-engineers that exist will have to be paid.

In addition: any organisation needs to work economically sound, this includes charities or public authorities as well as privately held companies.

Best wishes to LWN, Free Software and all of us towards a better world in 2021!

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

dankamongmen — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:06:39 +0000

another great year of reporting from LWN. thanks to the whole gang =].

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

Wol — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:37:31 +0000

Good journalism is wearing your prejudices on your sleeve. We're all prejudiced, it's part of being human.

The worst journalism is those who claim to be impartial - because that's not possible.

And kudos to LWN for being a brilliant journal!!! :-)

Cheers,
Wol

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

niner — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 11:48:17 +0000

There's a great irony about LWN. One the one hand LWN as a publication has a clear explicit and implicit bias towards free software and its benefit to the world over proprietary software. On the other hand LWN and especially our esteemed editor takes great care to provide a balanced view on every topic, including e.g. the need for companies to create and sustain revenue streams.

There are also articles like this where our editor takes a critical look at his own predictions instead of just distracting us by making new ones. Of course the whole exercise is of a light hearted nature, but then it's also a facet of what LWN really is: one of the few remaining, shining examples of real journalism.

For this, I'm deeply grateful.

Thank you and happy holidays!

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

tjasper — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 07:32:18 +0000

Thanks for another year, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all at LWN, and all subscribers and readers.

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

anonymous_commenter — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 04:47:08 +0000

The only comment I have to say is that: thanks you very much Jon and I owe you a crate of homemade beer :)

Alain

LWN's 2020 Retrospective

amacater — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 21:07:32 +0000

And the very best to Jon, the other editors and the other folk that lurk here, throwing comments in occasionally. Happy festive season all.