The passage of time is sometimes just too sad, but we must accept the inevitable.
One of the most popular Linux sites, Tuxmachines.org, announced on October 28th that it has been tentatively sold for $1,000. The Clarksville, Tennessee based site, owned and operated by Susan Linton, made the announcement in a short post on the site:
“I guess tuxmachines.org has been sold for $1000. I know it’s kinda low, but times have changed and the new owner plans to carry on the tuxmachines tradition.
“I suppose that’s all I should say for now until the deal is written in stone.
“Thanks everyone for everything: all the visits, all the jokes, comments, and donations. But more on that later as well.”
Although Ms. Linton doesn’t identify the purchaser, it was evidently bought by Roy Schestowitz who is perhaps best known for publishing the FOSS site Techrights. Mr. Schestowitz blogged about the purchase of the site on October 30th.
Ms. Linton first announced that the site was for sale a week earlier, on October 21, also in a post on the site:
“I’ve decided to try and see if anyone might be interested in buying and doing something with my domain and site. So, today, I’m posting this ad here: tuxmachines.org for sale.
“I’m just getting too old and tired to keep the site up with way it and its loyal visitors deserve. It may get better next spring, but this fall I’ll end up losing all my visitors I’m afraid.
“I don’t have any unrealistic ideas of what this site is worth or what anyone might pay, especially these days. I’ll entertain any offer and will probably accept much lower than one might think.
“So, if you’d like to have your own Linux site and don’t want to start from scratch, here’s a perfect choice. You’ll get the artwork, theme, database, files, pictures, domain name (and anything else I may have forgotten) – or just the domain – whatever you want.
“Just make an offer….”
That was on a Monday. That Friday she announced that she’d received a couple of offers, which she was considering:
“As of today, I have two offers for $1000, an offer to help (which I am still considering), and one with some questions (I’ll try to answer today). With the two bids of the same amount, the first will take precedence.
“For those submitting bids and visitors who are interested, I will have to decide within the next several days as it’s not proper to keep these bidders waiting.
“If anyone else is interested in submitting a bid, I will probably decide by Monday. Right now, I am leaning toward accepting the first $1000 bid unless it is outbid.”
That Monday she made the announcement that the site was sold.
When Ms. Linton, who has also been involved with DistroWatch, started Tuxmachines it quickly grew to be an important destination on news about Linux and other open source projects. Some time back, in an interview with Archie Arevalo for PCLinuxOS Magazine, she commented on the site’s popularity:
“I suppose folks like to hear what a distro offers and see what it looks like. Many wonder which distros work good and which might need further development. Seems that even the most loyal of users sometimes want to try out other distros from time to time and perhaps they use my reviews to help decide what to test. I reckon some folks like to just keep up with the development of some of those distros I watch closely like (open)SUSE or Mandriva. I think some of my visitors must be Windows users looking for their first Linux distro as I sure see a lot of IE hits in the logs. I was surprised to see a lot of Mac hits too. And then I have my regulars that I think come for the links to news and other interesting things I find around the net. I have a really cute logo too!”
So time marches on. The old guard gives way to a new guard. Good wishes to both Ms. Linton as she moves on to new adventures and to the new owner of Tuxmachines.
Editor’s note: This article was updated 11/4/2013 at 6:15 PM EST to identify Roy Schestowitz as purchaser.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
I wish her the best of everything! She will be sorely missed, hopefully the new “owners” will do as god a job as she did!!
Good luck and god bless with your new adventures.