LinuxToday Acquired By Internet.com 41
debrain writes "Looks like LinuxToday was acquired by internet.com. " No numbers were specified - LinuxToday will be joining Internet.com's LinuxPlanet.
Kiss your keyboard goodbye!
I fear they will. (Score:1)
Dumb sounding press release, smart company (Score:1)
Linux users are technically savvy users. I'm not discussing someone's mother who uses their linux box, but real users, who read Linux sites.
These users, by and large, distrust commercial entities. This is the younger, hot-headed Linux crowd. Those of us who work with Enterprise systems that include Linux among a suite of operating systems are not distrustful of commercialization of Linux, because we view it as another tool, one we like, but still a tool.
This press release was an example of bad PR. Referring to themselves as a marker leader for Open Source news is a double edged sword. Business people like leaders, because leaders are more likely to prosper. However, Linux depends upon a grass-roots user base, largely young users (I'd guess that over 75% are ages 15-25) who don't like businesses snatching up Linux.
However, as a company trying to make money off Linux news, who is your target market? Is your target market free software zealots who will only use truly free software? Is it users who take pride in Linux being free (like beer, I have a misguided friend, IMHO, who is a dedicated Linux user with no qualms about closed-source code who never compiles his own code)? Or is it IT people who use Linux professionally and have no qualms about purchasing software for business use on a Linux system?
I would suggest that the latter is your focus group as a corporation. These users are not going to be swayed by a dumb sounding press release (that will catch eyes). The additional user group that this appeals to are people like my boss, a non-technical guy who is interested in technology. Market leader in Open Source appeals to him, as he is interested in Linux, and he is going to be drawn to a site like this. These are the types of viewer who will influence buying decisions, and are the people that advertisers will seek out.
By making the page more corporate, merely by issuing this press release, they make the site more valuable to to advertisers by switching the demographics from younger home users, to those interested in pushing Linux into enterprise environments.
While the press release sounded moronic, I think that it will have a positive influence on the site from a business perspective, even if it seems less "Linux"-like... It's funny how much Linux has changed since I first played around with it a few years ago.
Re:Question: (Score:1)
linuxplanet.com & microsoft.com (Score:1)
_________
Re:The Open Source Market (Score:1)
An example might help illustrate this. Let's go back to the market of children and parents playing in city parks, and let's assume that a company has managed to obtain 75% of billboards that are visible from all parks. They can rightfully claim to have a leading position in that market -- but it does not restrict the market in any way. Other billboards can be constructed. Entire new parks can be developed. The market might leave city parks and head to the beach instead. There is nothing inherently wrong with seeking that leading position in a given market, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything negative for the market.
Fun debunking the RealNames mythology [drizzle.com]
See their corporate page (Score:3)
It also mentions that they are 20% of Mecklermedia, which was acquired by Penton Media in Nov. '98. Anyone know anything about those corporations?
The copyright notice at the bottom seems to me (IANAL) to gobble up all rights to posted comments as well, but that may be typical of sites other than Slashdot.
And of course, Microsoft is listed as a major sponsor. But that probably applies to over half the web as well.
I'd like to hear confirmation from LT and their slant on this.
Yup. (Score:1)
Penton Media is a Cleveland-based business media company. They own numerous newsletters, magazines and publications dealing with various business segments. They also organize trade shows in various markets, but mainly industrial and supply chain markets.
Correction-Correction (Score:1)
Correction (Score:1)
Hmm. (Score:2)
Congratulations, Andover, you now have a competitor.
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Re:OpenSource Payback (Score:1)
hey, where'd everybody go? (Score:1)
What's next?...Rupert Murdoch buys Attrition.org?...Martha Stewart buys 2600?...Proctor&Gamble buys HNN?
-diva
(poor but having a damn good time!)
Re:selling out (Score:1)
The Open Source Market (Score:1)
Since when is there an open source market? What are they talking about? Isn't it nice to know that someone is trying to gain a monopoly stranglehold on opensource discussion venues?
Consolidate, consolidate, don't stop the consolidate!!
Progress. (Score:1)
I like the press release. The whole idea that someone can have a "leading position in the Open Source market" has a whole bunch of assumptions behind it that are mostly good news for the Open Source movement.
One assumption that's not so good is that if there is a market for Linux information sources, then there can also be a monopoly on major Linux information sources. This could be good or bad, depending on intent and who's siding with who. I'd be wary if the information sources that new users would tend to turn to start to get consolidated under one roof.
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INteresting (Score:1)
internet.com history (Score:4)
This was always one of the scarriest things to me. How can a company that owns internet.com fail?! All you have to do is put a credit-card submission form on your home page with a "give us a dollar and get your name on our site" or whatever. Remember, if you just type "internet" into most browsers, you end up at internet.com. How many newbies do you think do this? The answer, as I recall, was lots.
Ah well, leave it to a startup to not see what they've got.
Didn't they get that backwards? (Score:1)
Sigh. I'm kinda nervy about this one. "Our goal is to maintain and enhance our position as a leading destination for content, community and commerce" Not bad at first. But the last goal . . . yeah, selling Linux is good. Bringing money into the community is good (I like to eat too). But that sounds too close to the comercialization of Linux to me. Maybe I'm just being arrogant, but the idealisim nerves are firing like crazy . . . . . .
A Trend... (Score:1)
Anyway, I'm just rambling as I see all of the sites I frequent being bought out. Best of luck to Dave, Dwight, Marty, and the rest of the LinuxToday crew!
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Jeremy Katz
Re:The Open Source Market (Score:2)
worries me (Score:1)
andover.net or opensource community? (Score:2)
here's an example: appwatch.com [appwatch.com] - not a bad site at all, and yeah so maybe freshmeat did it first, but is andover.net keeping them (and anyone else who's not in their clutches) out of the opensource spotlight?
when nobody's making MILLIONS of dollars from opensource stuff, it's easy to stay fair and impartial, but when the people running the sites have to answer to management and not the opensource community, things change
:(
It all sort of sucks. Those of us who haven't made our millions off opensource yet and still code/compile/etc becuase we actually LOVE to do it seem to be the ones getting the short end of the stick while other get rich from our work.
maybe slasldot/andover should offer a financial reward for slashdotters who post stories and moderate... that seems plenty fair to me. Share and enjoy, right?
The tone of the press release bothers me (Score:1)
No, not another dying site!! (Score:1)
I hope this doesn't happen to LinuxToday as well...
Daniel
Question: (Score:2)
LinuxPlanet? (Score:1)
internet.com (Score:1)
re: storyserver and linuxplanet (Score:1)
-jeff
BTW:
http://www.netcraft.com/whats/?host=www.linuxpl
www.linuxplanet.com is running Apache/1.3.3 (Unix) PHP/3.0.7 AuthMySQL/2.20 on Solaris
Re:andover.net or opensource community? (Score:1)
Now there's an angle to get moderated way up... appeal to the moderators greed!