The Linux Foundation (LF) has followed up on its acquisition of Linux.com with a promised relaunch of the site. The revamped Linux.com now offers blog hosting, a how-to section, user reviews for products in the directory, and an Ultimate Linux Guru contest, the non-profit organization says.

(Click for larger view of new Linux.com home page)

The LF announced its acquisition of Linux.com from SourceForge in early March. While the LF has assumed control of the site, SourceForge will continue to sell advertising. Linux.com, which saw 21 percent growth in traffic in 2008, according to the LF, offers industry news and forums devoted to Linux information, software, documentation, and technical answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas.

The redesign aims to “mirror the Linux community process by hosting a collaborative framework where users and developers can connect and increase the collective Linux knowledge and resources for new and advanced users alike,” says the LF. Inaugural Linux.com sponsors include Intel, NetApp, Novell, and Red Hat.

The new Ultimate Linux Guru contest lets visitors earn points from various site activities that count toward a higher ranking as a “Linux Guru” (see Guru ranking page below). Each year, Linux.com will award the top-scoring guru as the “Ultimate Linux Guru,” says the LF. The winner will receive a fully loaded Linux notebook personally signed by Linus Torvalds, and the top five contributors will be invited to the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit and contribute to the Linux.com planning meeting as community representatives. The site will also list the top ranking gurus, who can add the award to their resumes.

Linux Guru ranking page
(Click to enlarge)
Major new Linux.com features are said to include:

• News — original content and analysis, plus content from LF workgroups, including FOSSBazaar and MoblinZone.
• Community — new user blogs and reviews, and tools for promoting Linux and open source related groups
• Distribution Central — showcase of original content from each of the major community distros, with contributions from Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu, and contributors including Jono Bacon, Joe Brockmeier, Paul Frields, Martin Krafft, and Karsten Wade
• Learning — centralized repository for Linux documentation, including Man Pages and how-to tutorials from the Linux Documentation Project, plus technical Q&A forums
• Directory — user-contributed and user-reviewed database of Linux applications, Linux-compatible hardware components, books, hosting, and other Linux-related professional services; plus aggregated Linux application downloads to create an application store

Stated Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation, “Code and online participation is the new resume, and we want Linux.com to provide a framework for Linux experts to help each other and showcase their talent, knowledge and skills and ultimately improve their careers.”

Availability

The revamped Linux.com should be available here.

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