Life and death in the IT world: a two-month summary
- 2007-06-26
-
Write a full post in response to this!
For the few that liked my blog and, after a couple of months of silence, thought that I was dead… well I am alive and kicked (no that’s not a typo; I know it should be “kicking”, but the reality is that I feel like I’ve been kicked in my back). What happened… well, a lot of work and, finally, a two-week holiday in Brittany kept me out of the real World. And, now that I am back, I am taking a look around. A number of new interesting news items stand out from the rest.
First, FSDaily is back! And, even if I will not probably be one of the most assiduous readers, it is definitely good news for everybody out there who likes free software like we do.
Wengophone 2.1.0 is out, and 2.1.1 is near. Unfortunately, this news is not as good as it should be. In fact, while many aspects of the application have improved (more features and stability to name some), there are now some serious problems in the audio support of the GNU/Linux version that will probably discourage the “normal” users from using it. The hope is now is that this will encourage some kind developers to contribute to the code. The risk for Wengophone in the mean time is that it might slide from a killer- to a killed application…
At the same time Skype, Wengo’s “target”, is working on the 1.4 release for GNU/Linux. If we had to judge from the appearance, for once they are working hard on the platform: nice graphics on the web page, and a lot of distribution-specific builds for the most recent versions. Competitors have been warned…
And now, despite the old saying “dulcis in fundo”, the bad news. A dry press release from CMP announces the closing of SysAdmin magazine, which has, for more than a decade, been a guiding light for Unix/Linux System Administrators. This is immensely sad news; for the 200 workers that are being laid off in the first place: I wish them all the best. It’s sad news for everybody that had the priviledge to contribute to the magazine: I have been one of those and this just makes my sadness even greater. It’s sad news for the readers, who will hardly find another reference point in the printed-paper market for a comparable price. To the people at SysAdmin Magazine: thanks for everything good you gave us, sorry for the bad things that eventually made our roads diverge when I was a subscriber.
Enough for now. What about the future?
Write a full post in response to this!
Similar articles
Do you like this post?
Vote for it!
Copyright information
This entry is (C) Copyright by its author, 2004-2008. Unless a different license is specified in the entry's body, the following license applies: "Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved and appropriate attribution information (author, original site, original URL) is included".
Biography
Marco Marongiu: Born in 1971, Marongiu graduated in applied mathematics in 1997; he's now a full-time system administrator for a European ISP. He's also a Perl programmer and technical writer and lecturer by passion, and is interested in web and XML related technologies. Marongiu has been a Debian User since version 1.1.10 and he helped found the GULCh Linux Users Group (Gruppo Utenti Linux Cagliari), the first one in Sardinia. He recently became a father to his first son Andrea, and he's been trying to reorganise his life since, so that he can start writing technical articles again and holding seminars.
- Marco Marongiu's posts
- Login or register to post comments
- 1241 reads
- Printer friendly version (unavailable!)




Best voted contents
-
Google App Engine: Is it evil?
Terry Hancock, 2008-04-24 -
The Bizarre Cathedral - 3
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-05-05 -
The Bizarre Cathedral - 2
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-04-27 -
Indexing offline CD-ROM archives
Terry Hancock, 2008-05-03
Similar entries
Buzz authors
All news
From the FSM staff...
- The Top 10 Everything (Dave). The good, the bad and the ugly.
- Free Software news (Dave & Bridget). A site about short stories and writing.
- Book Reviews: Illiterarty (Bridget). Book reviews, blogs, and short stories.
Hot topics - last 60 days
-
Installing an all-in-one printer device in Debian
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-05-05 -
What is the free software community?
Tony Mobily, 2008-03-29 -
Things you miss with GNU/Linux
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-05-01 -
How do you replace Microsoft Outlook? Groupware applications
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-03-20 -
Drigg (the pligg alternative) vs. Pligg: why should people switch?
Tony Mobily, 2008-04-13
Hot topics - last 21 days
-
Installing an all-in-one printer device in Debian
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-05-05 -
Things you miss with GNU/Linux
Ryan Cartwright, 2008-05-01 -
Digital Rights Management (DRM): is it in its death throes?
Gary Richmond, 2008-05-07 -
Open letter to standards professionals, developers, and activists
Pieter Hintjens, 2008-05-13


Dedicated server
SysAdmin magazine
Submitted by Anthony Taylor on Mon, 2007-07-02 15:18.
Vote!That is indeed sad news. I was an infrequent contributor to that magazine, and a frequent reader. They were the best regular source of technical information for Unix geeks, and computer geeks in general.