Ok I have a confession, actually I really don’t need to make one, because it’s so transparent, but yes this is a linkbait. But I also promise you that each one of these blogs are great, fun and informative, and that I did my research on them. It’s not just a headless list of blogs.
I tried to avoid blogs that are more or less aggregators like Lxer and Linux.com, I focused on personal blogs of developers, activists, programmers, and leading members of the Open Source community. Hope you find this helpful!
Note: This list is just randomly ordered, higher blogs on the list does not mean better. Oh and this list is by no means exhaustive. Of course, your input will be highly appreciated, tell me what are your favorite?
1- Jono Bacon is an Ubuntu community manager at Canonical. What’s nice about this blog is that it’s not very technical, any non-techy could actually read it without any problems. You won’t find a “sudo” here or an “apt-get” there. Just simple observations and commentary about Linux and Open Source.
2- Be The Signal is brought to you courtesy of Jeff Waugh, the winner of the Google/O’Reilly Open Source award for Best Evangelist in 2005. So he definitely knows his stuff! You might as well read his blog.
3- Numerodix Blog gets half the recognition it actually deserves. Maybe because Numerodix is just blogging for his self gratification, and not really interested in marketing it. But he definitely has a lot of insightful open source articles. You must check it!
4- Mark Shuttleworth Do I really need to explain this one? Oh well what the heck. Mark is the founder and creator of the Ubuntu distro. He is well known and recognized all around the open source kingdom. Nuff said!
5- Aaron Seigo is the king of KDE, he mostly blogs about Plasma, ie his new shiny new desktop and about KDE policy /marketing issues.
6- HowtoForge While this isn’t exactly a personal blog, but it’s a great reference to 100’s of very comprehensive howto’s and guides. From setting up the perfect Ubuntu or Fedora box to building a simple home file server. You should always keep on eye on this one, you never know when it inspires you to a “why didn’t think of doing that” moment.
7- Ubuntu Geek As opposed to Howtoforge, Ubuntu Geek gives you quick tip and howto’s, it’s more focused on quick fixes or tweaks making it less comprehensive. True, that it’s Ubuntu oriented, but that doesn’t really mean the tips can’t be applied to other distros :)
8- Foogazi is a pretty nice blog, Adam Kane provides his readers with tips, tricks, and opinions. He usually holds competitions, and handing out Amazon gift cards, which is a nice touch. Simple questions like “How would you set up a recurring task of “task.sh” to run every day at 8:00am?” are asked, the most straightforward and complete answer wins!
9- GroklawPamela Jones, or PJ, is extremely dedicated to this site. This blog is an**award-winning website that covers legal news of interest to the free and open-source software community. To us mere morals, it’s just a big bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but if you just read the headlines, you will get a good idea on what’s going on in our fight.
10- PolishLinux is originally a Polish blog that focuses on distro reviews and helping people choose the proper distro. Their main goal is to “help you polish your GNU/Linux by using the tips and tricks we provide”. Pun probably intended ;)
11- Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney @ ZDNet In old fashioned ZDNetesque professionalism Dana and Paula brings you the latest buzz in the Open Source and Linux community, providing you analysis and opinions.
12- Android Developers BlogIf you are like me, and totally dissatisfied with what the current mobile industry has to offer, then you are proabably very excited about Google’s Android. So keep an eye on their blog, to see what the guys got up their sleeves!
13- Google Open Source Blog Who doesn’t love Google for their Open Source backing? Well if you work for Microsoft you probably don’t but everybody else does!
14- Fsckin W/ Linuxbrought to you by Wayne Richardson, one of my favorite Linux bloggers out there. Recently Wayne has been hired by Ars Technica to write for them. I think that’s enough of a testament on his quality of work!
15- Ubuntu UnleashedTo me this is another “aha why didn’t I think of that” kind of blog. UU, as it name hints, focuses on Ubuntu, providing tips, howtos and guides. But I think a lot of the stuff on there is applicable on other distros.
16- Mozilla BlogNo Open Source list would be complete without Firefox! Keep this blog on your RSS reader, trust me, you won’t regret it ;)
17- Linux Screw Here you will find tips, tricks, docs, manuals, hacks and more relating to different Linux distributions, FreeBSD and Sun Solaris as well as much more Open Source around information.
18- Tombuntu I know I know, there are other distros out there other than Ubuntu. But tbh Ubuntu is the most blogged about, and Tombuntu is one of the better ones out there.
19- The Open Source Advocatebrought to you by Tristan Rhodes, and pretty much blogs about what I blog about. Open Source is good Closed is evil. He provides lots of howtos, observations, and very informative articles. Thanks Tristan!
20- Open Ended brought to you by Ars Technica is one of the best Open Source blogs out there. I don’t think you can go wrong with Ars’ professionalism now can you?
21- Debian Package of the Day If you are adventurous like me, you probably need to keep an eye on this blog. As the name implies, this blog reviews a package (program) everyday ,well at least on paper, I have noticed that it’s more of a weekly cycle, but it is a great blog nonetheless.
22- PhoronixGet the latest news on Linux hardware, especially displays, graphic cards, motherboards, and processors from this great resource.
23- Boycott NovellThe name says it all! This blog is lives on criticizing Microsoft and Novell on their deal a couple of years back. This blog is very much concerned about legal matters, such OOXML, patents, intellectual property and whatnot.
24- Kernel Trapprovides you kernel news, a must read for Linux hackers out there. A bit too technical for my taste, but it has to be mentioned!
25- Planet KDEI know I have promised that I will step away from aggregators, but this one is definitely worth mentioning because it pretty much brings you all the KDE news. It links you to tons of blogs of KDE developers and hackers, which would probably bring you irrelevant blogs about the developers’ life, but still those can be interesting also.
26- Planet GNOME Same as Planet KDE but for GNOME
27- Debuntu A great blog about .deb packages providing articles, howtos and guides.
28- Firefox Extention Guru Is concerned mainly on Firefox and it’s extentions. However, it also brings you a lot of general tech news.
29- Copyrighteous Is a combination of short reflections (often humorous) and essays that tend to focus on issues of free software, copyright, and issues of free culture and knowledge. Brought to you by Benjamin Mako Hill the Debian hacker and Open Source activist..
30- Royal HeHe2-ness Last and definitely least, yours truly Rami Taibah. I have started this blog as a personal one writing about my interests such as gaming, football, tech, and of course Linux, however over the course of 6 month, it has diverged mainly into a Linux advocacy blog. Happy reading :)
That’s it! I am sure there are plenty out there! What are your favorite? Tell me :)