A number of stories caught my attention today as being extra-attention-worthy: Linux Foundation has bought Linux.com, Revival of an Oldie but Goodie: Kiosk’s Possible Return?,and The Losing Battle Against Technology Freedom.
Linux Foundation has bought Linux.com
Linux.com went dark at the end of 2008, and that was sad for me. They published some of the best original howtos of anyone. Even if they published junk you’d think the domain name would be worth masses of pageviews all by itself. But quality all by itself doesn’t always win, you need good management, good marketing, and an economy not trashed by eight years of rampant greed and corruption.
The Linux Foundation seems like a perfect home for the linux.com domain. Jim Zemlin, Foundation director, says
“We’ll be making it an IdeaForge. We’ll build a site that gives the community what it wants. We’ll provide a community forum and let people vote on the ideas, and then help make that happen.”
Sounds good to me, and certainly better than it falling into the wrong hands and being turned into a big ugly “Get The Facts” site, or some such.
Revival of an Oldie but Goodie: Kiosk’s Possible Return?
KDE’s Kiosk feature is a great little tool for customizing and locking down desktops. You don’t have to use just as a way to keep your users reined in, it’s also a dandy tool for easily customizing a mass-rollout. It’s been in limbo since KDE 4.x was launched, so it’s good to see someone paying attention to it again.
The Losing Battle Against Technology Freedom
Penguin Pete echoes one of my favorite rants– we’re losing our freedoms by inches every day, and way too many people don’t care. In fact a sizable number of US citizens seem to favor the notion of a corporate police state, and don’t seem to mind suffering rampant corporate abuse of all kinds. I wouldn’t care, except their apathy impacts the people who do care.