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Name of Site: IceWalkers
URL: http://www.icewalkers.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: The first thing you should know about this site is that no, icewalkers
is (unfortunately) not a site paying homage to those awesome empirical
robots from the Empire Strikes Back, it is in fact a reference to penguins,
of the Linux variety. Icewalkers.com is actually a highly usable, easily
navigable Linux software site with close to 2000 applications ready for
download. With all of them organised into two levels of categories, you'll
easily find what you're looking for. You can also find all your favourite
distributions as well as a few oddities like Gentoo and the fast growing
Peanut Linux. If like me, you haven't a clue what you're doing then there
is access to a few hundred HOWTO's and 'man' pages available too... In
fact it seems that these penguins really do have similar powers to the
star wars robots, after all the Icewalker tag line reads 'Nothing Can
Stop Them'! - SS
Name of Site: Linux Australia
URL: http://Linux.org.au/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: The Linux Australia site appears to be something of a historical
site, I say this because it looks like it was designed a decade ago! Luckily
there's a fair bit of useful content like job postings, competitions,
user groups, an (empty) event calendar, conferences and plenty of helpful
information on Linux. Linux Australia is in fact a non-profit organisation
of volunteers seeking to promote Linux and all things said and done, is
doing a pretty good job. So if you're passionate about your OS, or just
want to find like-minded people, this is the site for you, just don't
hold out for the eye candy. - SS
Name of Site: Just Linux
URL: http://www.justLinux.com/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Although I think it would have been really amusing if Just Linux
had been a site dedicated to Bill Gates and his crew, it really is just
about Linux, which - my need for constant amusement aside - is probably
a good thing. The two main features of this site are a huge forum - and
I mean HUGE (there was one user who had single-handedly made 28,000 posts!)
- and a collection of help files. The forum is powered by vBulletin and
is well organised into relevant categories with a combination of 50,000
users and some very active moderators keeping the boards alive. The help
files in turn are not just the usual HOWTO or 'man' pages, but in fact
are a collection of pages written by users in a fairly friendly, narrative
sort of way, excellent for the newbie or veteran in difficult times. -
SS
Name of Site: LinuxSucks.org
URL: http://www.Linuxsucks.org
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: Linux Sucks is run by a man who uses Linux regularly and has done
so right back to the 5 1/4" MINIX 1.5 distribution! So what is a
Linux devotee doing registering a URL like LinuxSucks.org? Well as he
mentions, while Linux may be the best thing since sliced bread, it does
still fall short of the perfect operating system in a number of categories,
and it's those flaws that are up for discussion on the forums at LinuxSucks.org.
While many of the discussion threads seem to degenerate into mud slinging
it is still interesting to see a site that doesn't worship Linus Torvalds
for once. - SS
Name of Site: Desktop Linux
URL: http://www.desktopLinux.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
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Review: Desktop Linux's mission is to accelerate the transition from M$
Windows to more open operating systems across the board. To this end they
have constantly updated news, a well used forum, polls and a directory
of Linux links. But perhaps their best feature is a huge collection of
Linux related articles, including a few 'how to get started with Linux'
and other introduction articles, which are perfect for the tentative convert.
So if you're thinking of joining the "revolution", get out your
horn-rimmed spectacles and log on to this site. - SS
Name of Site: Fresh Meat
URL: http://freshmeat.net/
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Ease of Navigation: Signposted
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Review: The interesting thing about switching to open-source is the sheer
abundance of software available. And if it's available at all, it's probably
listed at Freshmeat, where the programs are still warm and the bugs are
no doubt often still breeding! Unfortunately the types of software available
can be a bit lop-sided, as more than one person has pointed out while
Linux is without a good movie player or sound recording program, at least
there are more than 385 text editors available! Nonetheless Freshmeat
is a good place to find not just software, but articles, reviews, tutorials
and editorials on everything Linux, and if that's not enough they even
maintain an IRC channel, where I'm told the fun never stops! - SS
Name of Site: A Complete History
of Tux
URL: http://www.sjbaker.org/tux/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: For those of you who are in the dark about who or what Tux is,
he is the adorably cute and rather fat penguin mascot of the Linux operating
system. This site contains, as the name suggests, a complete history from
Linus Torvald's original email - "...it has either just gotten laid,
or it's stuffed on herring..., we don't really want to be associated with
a randy penguin (well, we do, but it's not politic, so we won't), so we
should be looking at the 'stuffed to its brim with herring' angle here"
- to how the character was created, the naming of Tux and for those real
Linux geeks, ascii representations of Tux *shiver*. - SS
Name of Site: OSDN's Linux.com
URL: http://www.Linux.com/
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Singposted
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Review: Linux.com, like Freshmeat.net is part of the Open Source Development
Network (OSDN) of sites that it is claimed is the cornerstone of the Open
Source community. One should note that the OSDN delivers some 150 million
page views a month and in conjunction with NewsForge Linux.com provides
a good portion of these with a constantly updating section of news feeds.
Above and beyond this Linux.com also provides polls and a large collection
of Linux documentation. Most importantly however Linux.com is a portal
into the OSDN family of sites that include everything from software sites
(such as Freshmeat), Development channels (including hardware, web services,
development tools) and of course newsfeeds. So if you're looking for a
new home page for your browser this is probably it. - SS
Name of Site: Red Hat
URL: http://www.redhat.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: While the core of Linux is something called the kernel (sort of
like corn really), what you actually download is called a distribution,
which is basically a packaged version of the OS with documentation and
support. Red Hat Linux is one of the most famous and common versions of
Linux, it's applications are fairly broad and even include enterprise
level versions. The site correspondingly caters to developers, administrators
and the corporate sector. For the home-user you can purchase and download
your copy of Red Hat here on the site as well as get documentation, support,
news and training. The site is slick and well presented which believe
me is not a common occurrence for a Linux-related site! - SS
Name of Site: Eternal Lands
URL: http://www.eternal-lands.com/
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: One of the downsides of using Linux is the void that is called
Linux Gaming. One step to filling this hole is the Massively Multiplayer
Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG - try saying that ten times quickly),
"Eternal Lands". This game hopes to eventually be similar to
such mainstream titles as Ultima Online and Everquest in its scope and
size. While currently still in Alpha release, it is already attracting
a following, and with the amount of work and dedication going into it,
it looks promising. So if you're an early adopter or just a geek in the
know, head down to this site and download the alpha release to get in
on the fun. - SS
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