What's It Like To Be A Linux Journal Blogger?

Well, first of all, it’s fun, or I wouldn’t be doing it. I work with some intelligent, talented people, like Carlie Fairchild, publisher at LJ, and Katherine Druckman, our Webmistress. My job description as one of the LJ bloggers is to “write about whatever you want, as long as it is Linux related”. That’s pretty much the ideal job description for somebody like me who has been doing Linux full-time since shortly after Slackware first came out in 1993. I feel lucky to be writing for Linux Journal, which is currently celebrating its 16th year of publication, and is the original magazine of the global Linux community.

The Linux Journal audience runs the gamut from “Linux Wizard” to “Neophyte”. Given the self-selection process of the LJ readership, most of the people who come here, either directly to www.linuxjournal.com , or via to the Linux Journal Facebook page are genuinely interested in Linux.

However:

Sometimes you feel like a lightening rod. One does encounter the occasional flame comment on a posting. But, I’m used to that. I ran the LANL, The Real Story blog from December, 2004 through July, 2005, and I can tell you that nobody on Linux Journal can flame like some of those unhappy campers who used to post on the LTRS blog. One of my previous LJ posts was even dedicated to the art of flaming, and included a couple of hints on how to fan the flames if the fire seemed in danger of dying out.

Usually, though, the LJ readership is genuinely interested in the material being covered in the articles, and the comments are positive, or at least fully engaged regarding the topic:

Why did you suggest Amarok? Rhythmbox is far superior. Any idiot knows that!

It’s a pleasure to see such enthusiasm. Seriously. Apathy is no fun at all.

Another thing I enjoy about writing here is that the LJ interactions provide constant exposure to what’s going on in the Linux world. Linux is big. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t learn something new. For example, today I heard about the Clementine project: Amarok 1.4.x forked and ported to Qt4. Amarok has been my favorite music player for a while, so I’ve made a note to myself to check out Clementine.

As Carlie told me when I hired on, “Do it as long as it’s fun. If it stops being fun, stop doing it.”

Which is exactly what I intend to do.