The individual membership program was launched last year, inviting Linux enthusiasts to pay annual fees in order to receive several privileges. Members received a linux.com e-mail forwarding account and discounts on various conferences hosted by the Linux Foundation, as long as the annual fee was paid.

The Linux.com domain was obtained by the Linux Foundation from SourceForge earlier this year and has been transforming it into a social network for the Linux community.

One of the changes is that users can now pay a one-time fee to make the e-mail address forwarding permanent. New members can get a package of one-year membership and lifetime e-mail for $250, the lifetime e-mail address forwarding by itself is $150, the annual fee is $99.

Another significant change is the discount from hardware manufacturers such as Dell and HP. Members can also get discounts from ThinkGeek.com, O'Reilly, No Starch Press and Linux Journal.