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Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

jeffcovey.net

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Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#61

Post by davidw »

js2 wrote: post #5

For the LNUX IPO, VA made F&F shares available to anyone who had contributed to Linux. They were fairly liberal in how they interpreted this, and I think the contribution I used to justify my purchase was the "-e" switch to chpasswd. Anyway, as I recall I was able to purchase 140 shares at $30. The day of the IPO it hit $300+ and I was too stupid to sell (gotta get those long term capital gains rates..doh). I finally…

You're not alone in not having done the smart thing and sold immediately. Argh!

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#62

Post by contingencies »

liedra wrote: post #27
contingencies wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, never knew you did that! Hey, since you're in the UK, and he's just passed his two year anniversary, as a fellow Aussie you should make some academic excuses and go visit Assange in London already. I'm sure he'd enjoy catching up on your area. (Re: reply. Err .. as an ethicist I'm not sure how you actually wrote that! If push came to shove - and I highly doubt they'll give you personal problems for visiting - ha…

Yes, I'm an ethicist, but I also am a realist. In the current HE environment in the UK having a "permanent job" means very little these days. I'm all for bucking the system, but I have to be able to be in the system to effect change, and a lot of that isn't through token activities like this but working to change policy and governance structures (and educate the next generation!). I'd rather have a solid base from wh…

It greatly saddens me to read this, C. Best of luck with your future battles, whatever they may be.

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#63

Post by harrystone »

zeruch wrote: post #54

I used to check FM every morning for years as part of my ritual to look for "neat stuff" to install and play around with on my various boxen. It was great while it lasted. I worked at VA and a common form of watercooler talk in the late 90s was akin to "hey, I found $APP and I think it might really let me do $USEFULTHING or at least be an interesting waste of time"

Same here, I checked it every day for many years. It was one of those fundamental parts of the linux experience in the late 90s.

It surprised me how much emotional impact this announcement had for me. I hate to see freshmeat go, even if it wasn't much anymore compared to what it was. Oh well, you can't go home again.

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#64

Post by rachelbythebay »

Gracana wrote: post #4

Here's an old archive.org snapshot for anyone who (like me) had trouble recalling what freshmeat was all about: https://web.archive.org/web/20050301154742/http://freshmeat....

It wasn't always freshmeat.net, though...

https://web.archive.org/web/19980419152907/http://freshmeat....

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#65

Post by inDigiNeous »

Ah, freshmeat.net, one of those essential sites back in the day, when Slashdot.org was still relevant, when Slackware Linux was something cool to use and when compiling source by hand was a fun thing to do.

I used to scroll down the front page every day, looking at some cool new projects to test out.

Uploaded my first Open Source project, umix.sf.net, there too. Was really fun to see people downloading my software and see the statistics for how many clicks it had gotten.

Good time to kill it already, didn't even remember it still existing.

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#66

Post by buster »

Gracana wrote: post #4

Here's an old archive.org snapshot for anyone who (like me) had trouble recalling what freshmeat was all about: https://web.archive.org/web/20050301154742/http://freshmeat....

I remember that i had freshmeat on my bookmark bar and browsed it every day once for new stuff. The old design really was MUCH better.

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#67

Post by liedra »

pierlux wrote: post #42
macintux wrote: post #36

I recall my then-wife looking over my shoulder as my web browser auto-completed "freshmeat.net". Unsurprisingly, she immediately grew suspicious and expected to see a porn site pop up. An institution for a very long time, definitely something from a different era. Farewell old friend.

I remember hitting my first summer job company's content firewall which thought this was a porn site because of the URL lol

I remember having to go home and tell my mum I now worked for freshmeat.net, looking at her face, then realising ... "NO! It's not a porn site!!!"

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#68

Post by [deleted] »

contingencies wrote: post #62
liedra wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I'm an ethicist, but I also am a realist. In the current HE environment in the UK having a "permanent job" means very little these days. I'm all for bucking the system, but I have to be able to be in the system to effect change, and a lot of that isn't through token activities like this but working to change policy and governance structures (and educate the next generation!). I'd rather have a solid base from wh…

It greatly saddens me to read this, C. Best of luck with your future battles, whatever they may be.

[deleted]

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#69

Post by vidarh »

harrystone wrote: post #63
zeruch wrote: post #54

I used to check FM every morning for years as part of my ritual to look for "neat stuff" to install and play around with on my various boxen. It was great while it lasted. I worked at VA and a common form of watercooler talk in the late 90s was akin to "hey, I found $APP and I think it might really let me do $USEFULTHING or at least be an interesting waste of time"

Same here, I checked it every day for many years. It was one of those fundamental parts of the linux experience in the late 90s. It surprised me how much emotional impact this announcement had for me. I hate to see freshmeat go, even if it wasn't much anymore compared to what it was. Oh well, you can't go home again.

It would have had more of an emotional impact if I hadn't checked in on it now and again over the last few years, and essentially "grieved" already by realising how uninteresting it had become. Largely because I have so many other channels to discover interesting stuff without the chaff of a new version of yet another irc client.

Also, when they tried to transition away from "Freshmeat", I pretty much accepted it was over...

Re: Freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

#70

Post by vidarh »

walterbell wrote: post #59
mtdewcmu wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News is auto-curated (at least partly). I'm not sure how much faith I would put in an editor, and projects like Ubuntu and Homebrew already act like gatekeepers. It would be valuable to come up with a good way of recording the opinions of the crowd, though, and it would be more cost-effective, too. Searching for free software on Google Code or Github isn't bad, but they only index their own projects. There mig…

How about https://www.ohloh.net ?

Ohloh might be good alternative if it was not so focused on tracking metrics and contributors rather than information more interesting to users.
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