OSNews is a

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online newspaper. It originally focused on

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

s 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. As of 2014, its managing editor is Thom Holwerda, who joined in 2005. OSnews has been referenced by ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', Ars Technica, ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

'', '' Computerworld'', LifeHacker, Linux.com,

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and

lwn.net LWN.net is a computing webzine with an emphasis on free software and software for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It consists of a weekly issue, separate stories which are published most days, and threaded discussion attached to ...

. ''

'' described OSnews as "an alternative operating system Web magazine", 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."

Staff

*Thom Holwerda, who recently (as of 2021) moved from the

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to Sweden, is managing editor. *David Adams is a publisher and regular contributor. *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. She started the original GnomeFiles.org ( GTK+ software repository). *Adam Scheinberg is the webmaster. 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 WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

. *Jon Jensen is the systems administrator, dealing with site availability and DNS.

Function

Besides its main site, OSNews detects hundreds of mobile browsers and handsets and redirects them to a specially formatted cHTML version of the website a
mobile.osnews.com
Eugenia Loli-Queru, the author of this script, open sourced it in 2008. 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 ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...

, 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 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. 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'', a webcomic based on the various news items OSNews carries. ''Focus Shift'' was updated tri-weekly, until it was discontinued in mid-2008.

References

External links

*{{Official website
WAP-only version of OSNewsThom Holwerda (OSNews)David Adams (OSNews)Eugenia Loli-Queru (OSNews)Adam Scheinberg (OSNews)
Dutch news websites Internet properties established in 1997 Creative Commons-licensed authors