As first reported by my friend and colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Computerworld yesterday, probably the most important domain name that a Linux-associated entity could ever want, Linux.com, was sold by SourceForge, and is now in the hands of the Linux Foundation.

As a press release revealed, the Foundation's plans for the domain are quite different from a Linux-oriented news site: "The new Linux.com site will transform in the months ahead from solely being a news source to a collaborative site that will be 'for the community, by the community.' Much like Linux itself, Linux.com will rely on the community to create and drive the content and conversation. While the Linux Foundation will host the collaboration forum, the site will feature the real Linux experts -- users and developers -- and give them the tools needed to connect with each other and with Linux."

So in a sense, the new content model will be one of open contribution, which could conceivably be less expensive than the news service SourceForge had been maintaining -- and which some have said that the publisher had been letting go stale. Existing news content will remain available for now, the Foundation said.

Long-time Linux follower Vaughan-Nichols told Betanews this afternoon, "I think that this move can only be good for Linux. When you go to Linux.com, you expect to see a site that's not news, but all about Linux. With the Foundation taking the guidance of the community, I have high hopes of the site becoming the hub for all things Linux."