The end of Shift Linux

By Simon
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Grand Master

Simon Veteran

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I think many have seen this day coming for a while.

We've made the decision to end Shift Linux, for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that we simply don't have the time. CrimsonRedMk and I have both school and other projects to work on (mine with Neowin mostly, and his on numerous other things, Firefly included).

We also can't really generate the interest on Neowin. We have tried, and there are spurs of activity, but for the most part it has been quiet in these forums. A lot of this also relates back to the lack of time: any time we have for Shift goes into Shift itself, and not promoting it.

Finally, we could never define the right purpose, and when we did we always veered off the path we wanted.

I am very unhappy to have to do this, but the time has come to let Shift go. Anyone interested in developing a Linux distro should consider helping out Firefly Linux. It's a great project that spawned from Shift.

Thanks to all of you for the support you have given. In particular, thanks to Barney for starting this adventure. We have done amazing things, and the potential was great, but the time and dedication needed was just not worth it. Also, thanks to CrimsonRedMk who did a kick ass job developing a majority of the developing and did an amazing job spearheading our Arch Linux conversion. Thanks also to DaveLegg for hosting our website and putting a lot of time into developing it, and to Ste for hosting our repository. Everyone else, too: advisors, developers, users: you all helped so much with this project. There are far too many to name.

A huge thanks to the Neowin administration. The support we have received from the site has been phenomenal, through promotional space on the front page and other venues of support.

- Simon

Edited by Mr. Andrews
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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/752672-the-end-of-shift-linux/
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Grand Master

Angel Blue01

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I'm sad to hear this, I was going to give the late (>.9) releases a try since I don't have a test box. As a future user, I never understood what direction this project was supposed to take that would set it apart from dozens of distros already out there, I didn't know that it wasn't clear the developers either. Sad to hear this die. :(

Grand Master

Simon Veteran

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I'm sad to hear this, I was going to give the late (>.9) releases a try since I don't have a test box. As a future user, I never understood what direction this project was supposed to take that would set it apart from dozens of distros already out there, I didn't know that it wasn't clear the developers either. Sad to hear this die. :(

We tried... but we didn't want something too specific. We wanted a netbook distro, but knew that wouldn't go really far under the Shift name, or on a community as diverse as neowin. So CrimsonRedMk made Firefly.

Grand Master

Simon Veteran

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We gave it all we had, and achieved the goal: I think we taught more than one person how to make a Morphix ISO, an Ubuntu ISO, and finally, an Arch Linux ISO. Boy, we've been far.

This is the important thing. Our real purpose was to learn. Lately we got caught up in making something new, because we were ready to. But the goal was to learn, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

Experienced

sorlag

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The problem is, that Linux only attracts a minority and already has its big players and fans...

You can't simply throw out Linux distro nr 1'000'000 and hope that a big community will help to make it popular and to justify its existence...

Why should a Linux guy that already is fighting agains xxxx throw away his distro and switch over?

Also if say... ubuntu with a different icon for an app and a new about graphics comes out... i don't switch to it and do that big work again when im happy with my current solution...

And just imagine having a problem and theres only a twomen show working on that distro...

You need manpower, ideas and time... not only a good intention.

But thumbs up for every intention to help the community! :)

Experienced

hopp58902 Member

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I'd just like to extend a personal welcome to Firefly Linux. Based on Shift, but with a Netbook and Virtual-Machine goal, with openness for community editions. Here's the forum, the wiki, and the Twitter. Get involved and we can go far. I also have preliminary plans for a How-To wiki covering everything the Shift team learned by making Shift - mainly how to make Live CDs the "real" way (manually, through the command-line). If anyone wants to help with the wikis, stop by. I need to learn MediaWiki formatting :unsure:

Grand Master

4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran

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We gave it all we had, and achieved the goal: I think we taught more than one person how to make a Morphix ISO, an Ubuntu ISO, and finally, an Arch Linux ISO. Boy, we've been far.

This is definitely true. I don't know how to quantify how much I owe the Shift Team since I switched to Linux almost two years ago. A sad day indeed! :(

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