Cataloguing Solaris groups
I created an OPML file of major Solaris discussion groups
that provide RSS feeds. (An OPML file is a standard file
formatfor sharing lists of RSS feeds such as BLOGs. More
onthis later.) It can be downloaded here:
http://www.speakeasy.org/~boutilier/import.xml
This is part of my attempt to start maintaining a list of
"active" English-language Solaris groups and their attributes. I've
defined"active" to mean groups that have, on average, at least a few
messages posted per day (i.e. minimum 20 msgs per week). Following
are the ones I know of. Please let me knowif I've missed any.
NameTrafficNative FormatRSS Feed?
--
comp.unix.solarisVery high Usenet NewsgroupYes
solarisx86@yahooHighMail-listYes
sunmanagers.orgMedMail-listYes
supportforum.sun.com MedBrowser-onlyYes
forum.sun.com MedBrowser-only Soon
ITtoolbox solaris-lLowMail-listNo
Key:
Very high ~= 500 - 700 msgs per week
High~= 300 - 500"
Medium~= 100 - 300"
Low~=20 - 100"
[ Posting note: The above tables don't format properly when this message
is posted on forum.sun.com -- even though I used the `code' formatting tag ]
Although there are 6 groups in the list above, two of them don't
provide RSS feeds yet, therefore they aren't included in the
OPML file. Also, one of the RSS feeds in the file is not actually
a discussion group, it's a site that does on-the-fly aggregation of
blog entries on planetsun.org that contain the word Solaris. (The URL
for browsing the site is http://test.planetsun.com/solaris.)
=== Run-on message alert ===
The rest ofthis message contains some findings,
recommendations, and how-to info on the subject of RSS/OPML.
=== End Run-on message alert ===
Personally, I have an account on bloglines.comfor reading RSS
feeds. There are two really good things about Bloglines: It's
free, and it's easy for RSS newbies (like me) to get up and running
quickly. But Bloglines is web-based, and that makes it kinda slow
and klunky. So I actually recommend using a regular RSS reader app;
and since there are a lot of those out there, I went ahead and did
some"comparison shopping" on places like freshmeat.net. These are
the ones (for UNIX/Linux desktops) that piqued my interest the
most:
-
- Snownews:
http://kiza.kcore.de/software/snownews
- RSSOwl
http://rssowl.sourceforge.net
- Sage
http://sage.mozdev.org/
- Thunderbird and Mozilla also added RSS capabilities recently, but
I think they lack a lot of features (like importing OPML files) that
are standard with dedicated RSS readers and the bloglines service.
-
Toimport the OPML file into a bloglines account, click on:
My Feeds (tab near the top left corner)
Edit (just under the tabs)
Import Subscriptions (bottom of page)
Toimport it into RSSOwl, see:
http://rssowl.sourceforge.net/tutorial/en/ht_eximprint.html
Toimport it into Snownews, see:
http://kiza.kcore.de/software/snownews/download/patches/opml2snow
Here are a couple excellent (andshort) articles on RSS:
Why is RSS Everywhere?
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.04/start.html?pg=7
Getting Started with RSS: The Fifteen-Minute Tutorial
http://frl.bluehighways.com/frlarchives/000123.html
And finally,if you like reading specs, here's the one for OPML:
http://opml.scripting.com/spec
Eric Boutilier
Sun Microsystems
Operating Platforms Group
