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Maximum Linux Exceeded: Shutdown
toaster13 writes: "Found an article on NewsForge this morning that stated that Maximum Linux (a magazine) has closed its doors. It's a shame, because even though it didn't go into extreme technical details, it was a good Linux-only copy of MaximumPC, a magazine I enjoyed for a long time until I saw the Light of Linux(C)."
DizTorDed points to this posting by Maximum Linux Online Editor Kelli Sheppard on Prospero's forums.
There's also coverage of this over at BinaryFreedom (as well as other interesting stories). Best of luck to the folks displaced by this.
I just wonder, why do Windows magazines/books sell and Linux ones don't? Is it just being abnormal?
I think you've simply made a few false assumptions. Linux books and magazines do sell, seen by the incredible popularity and variety of new Linux books available on the market now (esp. by the popular publisher O'Reilly). I read Linux Journal and it provides a nice review of products (both free and proprietary). In addition, Windows magazines and books sell, and sell very well, because Windows is the most popular desktop operating system in the world, like it or not. Millions of users make for a large consumer base to sell to, consumers, developers, business people alike.
From the posts I've read about MaximumLinux, it just wasn't a quality publication, for a variety of reasons. It didn't really appeal to the technical user as much, and from what I've been reading didn't keep with the open-source philosophy. At the moment many users of Linux are technical, and not consumer (what this magazine seemed to appeal to).
As a final note, quality books (printed and in electronic form) will always co-exist with online manuals and newsgroups. Why? A lot of documentation for programs is scattered and made as an afterthought. After all, developers generally prefer writing code to writing documentation. I myself enjoy a well-written, thorough book that teaches me how to use a product, as well as serve as a reference when using it later. The market is far from dead.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
I didn't have any moderator points at the time anyway, so fptht.
I don't think I'm unusual in that I devour electronic AND printed media about all of my favorite topics. I've subscribed to ML since the first issue, and I found lots of stuff in it to be useful, insightful, and more in-depth than even the piercing intellect of the world-renowned /. community.
Printed media gives a little commercial legitimacy to Linux in general (seeing Linux at the newstand has to be a positive), and ML was aimed down the middle in terms of OS tech, but right at people who like to think they are Power-users or gurus. Some days I'm more than that, some days less, but the mag worked for me.
Maybe I alone couldn't keep ML afloat, but I don't see why open-source supporters (or just Linux users if they're not the same) wouldn't buy a magazine. Sometimes my cable modem is down (GASP!) Or I find myself reading current lit in the, uh, er, private moments I rarely have.
Either way, Adieu, MaxLinux. Truly, we hardly knew ye.
SJ
Maximum Linux was actually a pretty bad magazine. It didn't really cover anything in technical details, it was full of product reviews,
So why does it need to be techincal? I enjoyed Max Linux, at least it was interesting. Look at the TOC for Linux Journal, it's a laundry list of *dull*, great it's techy, but geez, I use Linux every day and 99% of Linux Journal is of no use to me as a user.
Four Feature articles on Consulting --No use to me, as a Linux User
Deploying the Squid Proxy Server on Linux. --I'll never run a Squid Proxy server
Alternatives for Dynamic Web Development Projects --I'm a user not a developer
As the Log Scrolls By... --I don't run Apache
Using xinetd --I don't even know what that is
Open Source in MPEG --A history, and somewhat interesting
Kernel Korner Running Linux with Broken Memory --I read this article, and I still don't understnad it.
And so on and more so.
Yeah, I'll miss Max Linux. Linux Journal is great if you're into the tech, but it's a big ol' pile of Huh? if you're not.
Please explain where in her post you see the word book or anything about books?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Boot and Home PC were merged (or rather their unfulfilled subscription liabilities were) into Maximum PC. If either magazine had been able to survive and turn a profit on its own I expect it would have been allowed to do so, so apparently not enough people liked Boot or Home PC the way they were to keep it afloat on its own. It wasn't so much a case of "going Hollywood" as it was avoiding going under.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
...Linux users hate printed media.
Flamebait.
Do you, as a Linux user, wish to dispute this?
Yes, in fact, I was a subscriber to Maximum Linux. I've been a subscriber to Linux Journal for years, in fact I have every issue.
Your point is already moot by your very presence here on Slashdot!
Proves nothing of the sort... Just because someone likes electronic media doesn't mean they can't like paper media as well, let alone that they have to hate paper media.
This isn't exactly an Open Source business, but a business catering to the "Open Source" community that is in trouble. Much like Tucows BSD section, the rest of the computing world really can't get in.
When I was an NT Administrator, I got Windows NT Magazine, and so did everybody I know. They had GREAT articles and tips that would help any NT Admin out in running a site.
However, the Linux group doesn't play by the same rules. I occaisionally buy a book (O'Reilly's SAMBA book comes to mind), but that's about it. The rest of the time I use online docs. For my BSD boxes, I find that the man pages are the most useful things. I never think to get a Linux magazine.
I think that it's a cultural thing. In the Linux world, I don't feel "mainstream" and don't feel like buying mainstream publications. I don't think to spend money.
For programmers, Open Source can work. I know that I've hired Open Source program writers to install applications, etc. (I mean, for corporate use, when my guys are worth $X/hr, and it will take Y hrs to learn and do it, if X*Y > Consultant fee... I hird consultants), but for people catering to hobbyiests, it may be the end.
The demographic that used to support all the PC hobbyist books/magazines are pretty much all using Linux. It was a group of tweakers, and you can't tweak Windows anymore (well, some, but it's not useful). That market is dead, replaced by websites and newsgroups.
I just wonder, why do Windows magazines/books sell and Linux ones don't? Is it just being abnormal?
Alex
I wrote for Max. Linux and submitted this story yesterday when I heard the news. But all I get is this:
2001-02-16 20:57:55 Maximum Linux Mag is toast (articles,news) (rejected)
Gee thanks guys.
Anyway, I'm sorry to see them go. I wrote many articles (Email compare, XF4, xinerama, more). I will miss them.
-- DuckWing
They misprinted that. They corrected the statement the following issue.
-- DuckWing
"Hi. I was reading an article online and it said that Maximum Linux was shutting down. I was wondering if you know anything about it or what will happen with subscribers?"
...after a minute...
"I'm sorry sir. I haven't heard anything about that yet. Can I put you on hold for a minute."
"I checked into that and no one seems to know anything about it. If something were to happen you would get some sort of noticfication about your options."
"So are you saying that no one there has heard about it?"
"Yes. I know it seems odd for no one to know but we don't."
"Thanks then. I'll be waiting for the letter."
Let's have a moment of silence for those soon to be out of a job and were told by customers before management got the balls to tell them.
I'd like to strongly disagree on this one.
Almost every month I buy both the Linux Journal and Linux Mag. I love the detailed articles on LJ and the lighter but still somewhat meaty LM.
I bought an early Maximum Linux and was slightly embarassed by the fact that it read so much like a PC Gamer mag from about 5 years before. My girlfriend just bought me the latest (and last?) ML mag, and while the Route66 article was pretty good, the rest of it was pretty thin. I was hoping to learn something detailed about ICQ clients, I didn't. The Heavy Gear review was no better than the one that I had read in LJ (and LM too if I recall..)
Linux, while fantastic, still isn't as big as Windows or Mac. It's hard to sustain threee magazines that cover different aspects of Linux. I mean, LJ is really for admins/programmers, LM for "mainstream" users (does such a thing exist?) and there just isn't enough going on in the gamer/home market to sustain a "light" mag like ML is/was.
All the same, it's sad to hear. I'd rather it be them than LJ or LM.
Anyway, as long as the magazine is good, I'll keep buying Linux mags. I really wish that there had been a mag with at least a little space dedicated to BeOS. At least most of the Linux stuff in LJ applies to FreeBSD (and indeed any Unix.)
Hey, I found a cool British mag called "The Linux Magazine" not to be confused with Linux Magazine. It was pretty good. Maybe it'll take off.
Just as with the dot-coms, so shall it be with Linux magazines. Those which offer use, which are supported by subscribers and not just advertisers, shall survive.
And the rest shall die like flies.
So it was with hobbyist electronics, so it was when TV became a big thing, so it was when radio (and ham radio and such) came upon the earth.
Cry not for these failed zines, for it is from their ranks that the survivors shall pick the best contributors, the article writers, the peons who publish.
Will in Seattle
1)Linux users are very web-aware. We all get our info from the web, informed places like Slashdot for example.
2)Magazines depend on adverts, and are commercial. This is in direct contradiction to the aims and virtues of the open source way. Magazines will always have suspect editorial policies, because they are not independant.
3)Linux users dislike buying Linux related material on principle. Magazines have strict copyright policies regarding articles, and Linux users don't like this.
I thinnk it is a real shame. If only everyone could be a little more easy about things then perhaps we would all be a lot happier. I do love Linux, though I use Macintosh's mostly for Art purposes, but my ex-boyfriend really got me interested in Linux. I even have a Mac that runs Linux.
It is just that a lot of the users of Linux seem to be very principled, which is good, but I am not used to it. My mac using friends don't really care so much. If only we could all have some middle ground :P
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
The first problem I had with ML was the USD$29 subscription rate for six issues a year. The copies that I had purchases on the newsstand were too thin for me to consider this a very good price for such a short run.
The second problem I had was the "game magazine" feel of the publication. I have no problem with the idea of a "non-business" orientation, however, ML felt as if it was trying to be one of those magazines that caters to 16-year old male console gamers. There just wasn't enough meat in the articles to really drag me in.
The last problem was just the fact that most of the articles were really just introductions to Linux concepts or applications. It was fine for the new user the magazine said they targetted, but once that new user had been introduced to something, they were never given more indepth information afterwords.
So, I went for Linux Journal, instead.
Its always out of date by the time I see it.
This magazine had a couple of good qualities that other linux magazines didn't have;
1) It didn't "talk down" to new users (such as myself).
2) Each issue came with a CD that had current apps on it. Saves a lot of downloading.
3) The hardware/software reviews were in-depth, complete, and interesting to read.
There really is nothing comparable for the newbies among us.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
still had some months left on that one.
hate to say it, but since marg left linux journal, it has been run by trollish little vermin, so i won't be getting that.
i liked max linux. it was more light hearted than other linux stuff. we all need a break from solid tech now and then.
what's the take on linux magazine? who owns it, what are the financials, etc.? any good stuff in it?
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
Maximum Linux was actually a pretty bad magazine. It didn't really cover anything in technical details, it was full of product reviews, and none of the articles really grabbed your gut. They had neither good social nor good technical commentary. Overall, it was a pretty mediocre, and not worth your money. I remember picking up an early copy of MaximumLinux, and reading a column by this gal named Mae Ling Mak. I read the first 3 or 4 paragraphs of her article before putting the magazine down in disgust - it was such a fucking piece of groupie crap, it made me embarassed to even be holding the magazine in my hands. The only hard-copy Linux mag that I've run across that really covers the stuff, in technical detail, and does articles on interesting issues, is Linux Journal. That mag is worth all of your money - it reminds me of the old PC mags before they all turned pansy and product-oriented (does anybody remember the old BYTE magazines? They used to ROCK, had programming articles, assembly code, and all sorts of cool mojo. Nowadays, BYTE is just another ad-filled shit-for-news publication). Anyway, dont mourn the loss of MaximumLinux, pick up a copy of Linux Journal. They've been covering Linux from the start, and they're still as good as their first print. -Laxitive
Thats amusing.
Anoying though. I just signed up for a subscription at Linux World Expo in NY and was looking forward to trying the mag out.
Now I find that they've gone under.
I haven't received an issue yet, but I did get a nifty t-shirt for signing up.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I think that was a minunderstanding on the box. The EULA was for the MaxLinux-owned contents of the CD, the box art, etc, not the actual software ON the CD.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Actually, there is nothing wrong with saying the CD-ROM must only be installed on one computer and may not be copied. It's there conglomeration of software, and they're free to do with it what they please. You can, however, copy the GPL software that was on the CD, since the GPL overrides the copyright on the whole CD. Either way, a correction was issued in the third issue stating taht the license was a mistake and that they were not trying to propriotize GPL software. People like you make so many things so much worse. You go out looking for trouble, and perceive every little discrepancy as trouble. Its like those people who assume that every time they get bad service it has something to do with their race/religion/gender/hair-color/marital-status/etc . People! Sometimes its just a mistake!
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...