RadioTux is a German internet radio

Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

 show. The topics are mostly around free and open source software

Free and open source software

Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...

, free operating systems like *BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution

Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...

 and Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, as well as on sociopolitical issues. It was founded in 2001.

There have been made more than 100 transmissions and many interview

Interview

An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...

s with famous people like Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Richard Shuttleworth is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2010, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system...

, Miguel de Icaza

Miguel de Icaza

Miguel de Icaza is a Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects.-Early years:Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México but never received a degree. He came from a family of scientists in which his...

, Hans Reiser

Hans Reiser

Hans Thomas Reiser is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer. He is the creator and primary developer of the ReiserFS computer file system, which is contained within the Linux kernel, as well as its attempted successor, Reiser4. In 2004 he founded Namesys, a...

, Jon “Maddog” Hall, Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman

Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...

 and so on.
Since 2005 there are also several podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

s available one is the interview feed in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Everybody can participate on RadioTux. All topics are welcome: there are no limits.
The site of the project is based on a wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

, which means that anyone can use his/her web browser to enhance the contents of the pages by editing them. This makes it really easy for everyone to participate.

Internal communication works over a mailing list

Mailing list

A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...

, which is open for everyone to listen in.

Radio on demand

Shows are produced on a monthly basis. Several volunteers are involved in this process, They include reports, essays, interviews and free music. Depending on the material these shows take 30 to 60 minutes. Users interested in the information only can download a stripped down version without music.

The shows are available in MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 as well as in the free Ogg

Ogg

Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...

/Vorbis

Vorbis

Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...

 format.

Up to now (July 2008) more than 80 shows have been produced. Some of them have been broadcasted live at the Berlin radio station.

On the website everyone may leave suggestions for upcoming shows.

Podcasts

When RadioTux started, podcasts were not yet known, so it can be considered being one of the first podcasts which came up and which is still existing.

Single articles and interviews are made available as podcast. So current news are instantly available. Due to categorisation users can subscribe to the newsfeeds of topics they are interested to and load them directly to MP3 player. This compatibility with current mobile playback devices is the reason why the podcast uses the MP3 format.

Live

RadioTux often participates at Linux and similar events and reports live. Live broadcasts as comprehensive programming have been transmitted from LinuxTag

LinuxTag

LinuxTag is a Free Software expo with an emphasis on Linux , held every summer in Germany. It is relatively large, claiming that it is the largest expo of this kind in Europe, drawing visitors from many countries....

, the Linux World Conference & Expo and the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage.

On live events RadioTux is being supported by the free radio station Kanal Ratte which provides studio equipment, streaming servers and airtime. Several shows are presented by Kanal Ratte staff and transmitted live into their programm whis is available via FM, cable and livestream.

At the Linux World Conference & Expo 2006 in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

RadioTux for the first time has been media partner of an event.

Since November 2006 the weekly show RadioTux@HoRadS is presented at the Hochschulradio Stuttgart on FM and livestream. The common topics on Linux and free software were discussed there with studio guests, articles from the RadioTux archive (podcasts, interviews) provide appropriate background information.

External links

• Homepage
  • Podcastfeed with English interviews
  • livestream of the comprehensive programming (only at events)
• LinuxPodcast.de: all RadioTux shows as podcast