The Search for the Ultimate Linux Guru Begins

I am pleased to announce the launch of the new Linux.com, the fruition of many months of hard work from nearly everyone at the Linux Foundation, but especially Dan Lopez and Brian Proffitt. While I’m sure we still have much work to do, I think the site has turned out very well. I’m especially pleased with how we’ve worked with the community through our Ideaforge site to collaboratively develop ideas and content on the site. (Ideaforge users have had access to the site over the last few weeks in a private beta.)

Highlights of the site for me:

• The Linux Guru Directory. We have a saying, ‚Äúcode is the new resume.‚Äù With the transparency of the Internet, those who participate and showcase their skills are best positioned for success. Users of Linux.com can gain Linux guru status for answering questions, reviewing products, submitting tutorials or much more. The top user every year receives a dream laptop signed by no other than Linus Torvalds. You can find out more here.
• DistroCentral. Linux is strong because of choice, but sometimes the myriad of distributions can be confusing to users. To alleviate that we went directly to the source, the community managers and developers of the top Linux distributions: Debian, Fedora, OpenSuse and Ubuntu. You can read content directly from these experts as well as browse a directory of distributions (and applications for Linux.)
• Linux Groups and User Directories. I‚Äôve received quite a few requests over the years for a listing of Linux User Groups or other Linux groups that want to collaborate more easily. I think our new site fulfills this need. Users can form groups, add existing ones and showcase their meet ups and events for others to find them.¬† In future phases we‚Äôll have this easily sortable by geography. There are already over 50 groups created since we launched the private beta.
• Original Content. While we‚Äôre not a news site, we feature news and content from around the Internet, including content from our workgroups. But we also will feature original content such as
  • A case study on how the Gendarmerie have used Linux to cut costs
  • The Linux career guide for IT and developers and links to Linux Foundation training
  • A migration guide for Windows users interesting in moving to Linux
  • And check out the community blogs. Already some amazing content from the community.

I’d also like to thank our inaugural sponsors:  Intel, NetApp, Novell and Red Hat. It’s certainly no surprise to see those names associated with Linux but we truly appreciate their leadership in helping us make this site a reality. Most importantly, I’d like to hear from you: feedback, praise, complaints, bugs. You can reach me at amanda (at) linux dot com.

On second thought, you won’t get points for sending me an email, so you may prefer to comment on the site if you think you have what it takes to become the ultimate Linux guru.