Bob Whitinger takes ownership of LXer

As many of our readers may have noticed, I have been fairly absent from day-to-day activity on LXer for well over a year. When I began LXer, I had plenty of time to devote to it. Over time, however, my gardening site Dave's Garden grew and grew until today it supports over a million visitors a month and is the second largest gardening site online.

Considering that it is providing the livelihood for the families of two employees, it deserves my full attention, and that's what I've done. The downside is that over the last year LXer has suffered greatly. Features have been left unimplemented, bugs went unfixed and updates to pages are not done. No new advertisers have been sought and the new layout for LXer that was generously created by Sarah Vessels didn't get launched.

If it wasn't for Don Parris and his team of editors keeping the newswire alive, I'm confident that LXer would have just disappeared into the ethers.

So, what's the long-term solution to this? How can I make the time for LXer, giving it the kind of attention that it needs? I can't. The good news is, I'm not the only Whitinger. :)

Recently I went to Tennessee and, as part of that trip, spent some time at my Dad's house. He has been an advocate of non-MS operating systems for as long as I can remember, using OS/2 back in the day and Linux since the mid 90s.

Actually, it goes back even earlier than OS/2. He was one of the first six people to develop a microprocessor based system, and for that system he had to invent the world's first in-circuit emulator and write his own "kernel". And then after that, there was CP/M.

He is similar to me in many respects, being an experienced programmer, a good writer and he has a strong business sense. He's also extremely humble, like me.

We talked at length about LXer and the problem of my lack of ability to continue maintaining it and decided that he would take over operation of the site.

Early last week I transferred LXer.com and LXer.org over to him, and gave him the root password to our server. I briefed him on the code and helped him get familiar with "how we've been doing things around here." He already has a strong grasp of the system, and even managed single-handedly the launch to the new layout this past weekend.

He is also working on making new additions to the site. He's excited about LXer, he's capable of all I'm capable of, and he has the kind of time that I used to have to run the website.

I'm staying around, keeping my account and holding on to 10% ownership of the site. You may even see me more often now that the burden of its publishing is off my back. It's likely that I'll be writing articles from time to time. I feel relieved and excited that LXer is finally going to get a breath of fresh air.

So, please help me welcome the other Whitinger - Bob Whitinger. The new publisher of LXer. :)

best,
dave