FOSSwire has been around since October 2006. That means we’ve got a pretty impressive (if I do say so myself) back catalogue of posts on all sorts of FOSS and Linux related things.

You can search our archives by using the Google-powered search box on the homepage, but what if you’d like even closer access to our posts from any site? Well, now you can add FOSSwire to your browser’s search bar (in any browser that supports OpenSearch, including Firefox 2 and later).

Simply click the search drop-down, and choose to add the FOSSwire Archive Search.

Now, you can select it anywhere you are on the web to do a quick search of our archives, or even keep it at the top always, for the closest access to FOSSwire currently possible!

Well, FOSSwire, we’ve had some ups and downs, but overall it’s been a good year. We now have quite a reader base compared to when we started.

But now isn’t the time for reminiscing. (really, never is the time.)

You may have noticed some changes around here. Did FOSSwire get a haircut? You’ll have to figure that out for yourself. But we did add several new features:

• Tabs: Now, instead of a bajillion categories, we now only have five, and they are shown as tabs at the top of the page. Who doesn’t like tabs?
• Tags: This is where the mass amounts of categories were thrown. We didn’t really know what to do with this new feature in WordPress 2.3, so we’re just using it as our new category home.
• The Metabar: Chris calls this the Überbar. To each their own. The important thing is this is home to many more features, including:
  • GNOME vs KDE vs XFCE wars
  • FOSSwire Video: Yep, we finally support video. Expect many more posts to have this feature.
  • PkgBase Automatic Installers: This is what we were suggesting with this post. You can now enjoy a one-click style install feature for systems that support it. And for those that don’t, instructions are given.
  • Expertise Level: Know before you read a post how difficult it will be to do. Most commonly used in the Tips & Tutorials section.
• Post Ratings: For anything that can be reviewed, such as a software or game release, we can now assign a rating out of 10 to it.
• Caching: You won’t notice anything (other than comments being delayed) except for the site running a lot faster. We’re using a custom-built caching system that is by far faster than WP-Cache.

Those are most of the features, but we’ve made some cosmetic changes here and there. We think you’ll like it.

Special thanks to Peter, who kept posting away while I was coding away, and to Chris, who did the design and kept me focused on getting this done.

Welcome to Year Two.

If you are familiar with the IRC protocol already, all you need to know is that we have opened up #fosswire on irc.freenode.net. Come idle with us.

You might have heard the term IRC thrown around in support forums or on blogs. If you are curious to learn what it is, then look no further: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and is a way of communicating with anywhere from one to thousands of people at one time using an open protocol.

IRC is a great method to get support, organize a group, or just hang out. Before we learn to connect to any server, know these things:

• Be obnoxious and most people will kick or ban you from their chat channel (room).
• People tend to join and leave some channels without greetings; this is usually because they were active in another channel on the same server and are just “idling.”
• Have a lot of patience. Someone may answer your question an hour later than you asked it.
• Typing someone’s name usually causes their computer to beep. This can be annoying if done repeatedly, so only use to get someone’s attention.

Know those four facts and you will succeed in any IRC channel on any server.

Now on to connecting…

Read the rest of IRC Part 1 - Connecting to #fosswire