Changing world of open source

Back when I started college (2001), I remember a world where tech was, well, ‘fun’. I was a die-hard free software guy willing to put up with far-to-much in the interests of ‘tweaking’ my computer. Running Linux was like drive a custom made hot-rod. I knew every piece of the system and was happy to tweak it all day long. I followed slashdot, freshment, linux games, and laughed out loud while reading userfriendly.

Perhaps today I’m simply waxing nostalgic, but damn if I don’t miss those days. I’m not sure where the old ‘hacker’ ethos has gone too, but now that I’ve had some time to settle into a professional career, and gain some semblance of free-time… Well, damned if I didn’t look and it just feels missing.

I noticed over the years as some sites closed their doors (linuxgames.com) or renamed and then became read-only (freshmeat.net). Out of habit, I’ve still kept tabs on slashdot. Over the years though, it’s gone from featuring front-page articles about postgresql and Ipv6 on FreeBSD, to a front-page dominated by highly political click-bait trash.

This site used to have a fairly amazing google page-rank for multiple subjects, at least before I let it get snatched by a domain crasher and go fallow for years. I hope there are others out there that enjoy hacking in some community somewhere – I’m looking.

2/26/02 Entry

I’ve gotten true type fonts working with XFree86 and KDE3, antialiasing is disabled in the shot though.

Big structural changes in the distro going on, HaX and I are busy at work trying to get things setup for a wide BETA, and trying to get other things setup for current Beta testers.

I’m working on setting up a NICE set of default fonts, an area that Linux is sometimes (needlessly) lacking in. The fonts running in the screenshot are in general toyfonts though. Hehe.

On the tutorial front, I’ve been pretty busy lately, but tuts 4 and 5 are on their way, so keep an eye open.