OSNews

OSNews is a computing online newspaper. It originally focused on operating systems and their related technologies that launched in 1997, but is now aggregating consumer electronics news. The content is managed by a group of editors and the owner.[1] As of 2014, its managing editor is Thom Holwerda, who joined in 2005.[2]

Not to be confused with OSN News.
OSNews
Type of site
Online newspaper
Available inEnglish
URLwww.osnews.com
RegistrationOptional
Launched1997 (1997)
Current statusActive
OSnews as of 2012

OSnews has been referenced by TIME,[3] Ars Technica,[4][5] Wired,[6][7] Computerworld,[8][9] LifeHacker,[10][11][12] Linux.com,[13] OMG! Ubuntu![14] and lwn.net.[15] Wired described OSnews as "an alternative operating system Web magazine",[16] and in 2011 Holwerda noted that "while the alternative operating systems scene might no longer be the prime focus of OSNews due to a lack of activity in that field, it's still where our heart lies."[17]

Staff
  • Thom Holwerda, who recently (as of 2021) moved from the Netherlands to Sweden, is managing editor.[1][18]
  • David Adams is a publisher and regular contributor.[1]
  • Eugenia Loli-Queru, the former editor-in-chief of OSNews, resigned in June 2005. Version 2 of OSNews was written by Eugenia in August 2001 when she resurrected the site after long periods of inactivity. She took on a more passive role in recent years as senior editor.[1] She started the original GnomeFiles.org (GTK+ software repository).[19]
  • Adam Scheinberg is the webmaster.[1] He wrote version 3 of the site in 2005, which added user registration, and version 4, a complete and total rewrite of the codebase. In late 2018, he led the conversion to WordPress.[20]
  • Jon Jensen is the systems administrator, dealing with site availability and DNS.[1]

Function

Besides its main site, OSNews detects hundreds of mobile browsers and handsets[1] and redirects them to a specially formatted cHTML version of the website at mobile.osnews.com. Eugenia Loli-Queru, the author of this script, open sourced it in 2008.[21]

The editors contribute original articles and manage the submissions of news bits, articles, editorial comments and reviews that are submitted by readers. OSNews serves daily 275,000 page views on average (as of October 2005).

Like other technology news sites such as Slashdot, it has a free user/subscription model, and allows viewers to add commentary to articles. In 2005, OSNews published version 3 of its website, which includes an all-new commenting engine. Instead of reporting comments to moderators, this system now relies on votes. Readers can vote comments up or down, and readers can set a score threshold, which can eliminate the down-voted comments from view.

In late 2007, version 4 was launched, which completely overhauled the backend of the website, and was followed by version 4.1[22] which added a brand new theme and look to the website.

On February 12, 2007, managing editor Thom Holwerda published the 1.0 version of the OSNews Style Guide.[23] This style guide is licensed under a Creative Commons license so that other websites and publications can use and adapt the guide to their liking. OSNews is one of the few sites of its kind with such a style guide.

In January 2008, Thom Holwerda launched Focus Shift,[24] a webcomic based on the various news items OSNews carries. Focus Shift was updated tri-weekly, until it was discontinued in mid-2008.

References
  1. "OSNews is Exploring the Future of Computing". OSNews. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
  2. "User Page: Thom_Holwerda". OS News. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  3. Newman, Jared (29 February 2012). "Raspberry Pi $25 Computer on Sale, but Good Luck Getting One". Time.com. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  4. Salter, Jim. "OSNews has published an introduction to programming on the Haiku operating system. It describes the platform architecture and basics of application development". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  5. Fisher, Ken (2002-09-30). "OS News reviews Red Hat 8.0". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  6. James Glave (2013-03-28). "Think Different: Hack a New Mac OS". Wired.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  7. James Glave (2013-03-28). "An OS Is As an OS Does - Any Questions?". Wired.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  8. Ryan Faas (2009-08-28). "What's the real deal with 64-bit computing in Snow Leopard?". Computerworld. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  9. Ken Mingis (2004-11-07). "Macintosh Highlights From Around the Web (April-June 2004)". Computerworld. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  10. 12/24/09 7:00am 12/24/09 7:00am (24 December 2009). "Cygwin 1.7 Adds Windows 7 Support and Many Improvements". Lifehacker.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  11. 4/26/10 4:00pm 4/26/10 4:00pm (2010-04-26). "Remains of the Day: Say Goodbye to the Floppy Disk Edition". Lifehacker.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  12. 4/16/09 5:00pm 4/16/09 5:00pm (17 April 2009). "Remains of the Day: XP is Officially Old Now Edition". Lifehacker.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  13. "Maemo To Switch To Qt". Linux.com. 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  14. Joey-Elijah Sneddon (2009-10-19). "Re-enable Missing Icons In Ubuntu 9.10". Omgubuntu.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  15. "Genode 10.08 Comes with Gallium3D, MadWifi, Qt4.6.3 (OSNews) and". Lwn.net. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  16. "An OS Is As an OS Does - Any Questions?". Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  17. "OSNews Browser & OS Stats". Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  18. "User Page: Thom_Holwerda". Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  19. "User Page: Eugenia". Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  20. "What happened here?".
  21. "Open Sourcing OSNews' Mobile Detection Kit". osnews.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  22. "At Long Last... A New Look for OSNews". osnews.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  23. "The OSNews Style Guide v1.0". osnews.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  24. "OSNews Announces Focus Shift". osnews.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
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