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New Free Open Source Enterprise Magazine
An anonymous reader writes "A new free Open Source Enterprise magazine was launched today. The publication was built entirely with Open Source tools, including the GIMP, Scribus and Open Office. It is distributed in PDF format, and focuses on Open Source Solutions related to Enterprise Data Networking. The first issue looks at some interesting stuff include MultiLayer Switching in Linux. A torrent is also available."
someone was willing to take it upon themselves to work their asses off in their free time and get the best content from developers, users, etc... and were to try and create a physical add supported magazine would you subscribe?
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
We in the Open Source community need to stop being so introspective, and start MARKETING the advantages of open source to the suits.
Um, that's what this magazine does. This issue includes information about rolling your own telephony system with open source tools to reduce costs and infrastructure requirements.
It's a one-two punch: a magazine ABOUT open-source solutions, created WITH open-source solutions. Just on virtue of them using open-source software to create the magazine they've demonstrated one area where open source can shine. Every time they publish a new issue this fact will be highlighted.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
I've looking over issue #1 and am wondering who exactly the target audience is. At first, I would have assumed it was for hard-core FOSS-lovers who want to know how they can convince their boss to use the latest OSS application (or who want to know about "the next big enterprise OSS" thing that they should give a try). However, consider some of these quotes:
An article on page 15 ("Opening the Jar on Google Honeypots") explains: "With this growth in the Internet, a problem arose: finding the page with the information you are actually looking for. This is where search engines come into play, allowing Internet users to find the page that they want."
On page 23, they have an article "An Introduction to Linux and Open Source for Business" written in a Q&A style. The first question is "What is this 'Open Source' thing I keep hearing about?"
You get the idea. These articles are clearly targetted at people who have no experience with OSS, but are curious. They even seem to be targetted at management-types who may be interested in learning about new trends in technology. There are other articles that are clearly aimed at a more experience and techno-saavy crowd. So I guess they are really trying to cover the board, and get a wide variety of people reading their magazine.
I guess I'm wondering if that's the best strategy. For a printed magazine, I can understand trying to appeal to newbies and zealots alike, since they both have good reasons for buying the magazine. For a web-only magazine, however, I strongly suspect that the only people who will ever read it will be the geek crowd anyways, in which case it seems like a bit of a waste to have so many introductory articles.
In some cases, yes, despite it being more expensive in the end due to higher administration costs.
Open source is happening; I am a pretty darn senior IT consultant by day, and large enterprises in the IT space are building stuff with it.
Smart ones are also doing true life cycle cost estimates, and functional and reliability trade studies and analysis, and in some cases are chosing not to use open source or only use it for limited applications.
But it's here, for real.
I am not an open source zealout; I spent several years at a Sun VAR and am quite familiar with "commrecial" OSes, enterprise infrastructure and business applications, etc. I still have a good relationship with local Sun VARs and will recommend Sun/Solaris/Veritas/(pick your major brand storage)/Oracle etc when technically and financially and operationally appropriate. Which they still are for significant parts of the enterprise IT problems set.
But Linux is clearly heeerrreeeee....
A laptop is too awkward for casual reading of PDFs.
I've found that a laptop can work quite well for magazine/ebook style PDFs. Rotate the page 90 degrees and set the page to full screen. On my iBook I use Acrobat when I decide to do this. Rotate it clockwise (cmd-shift-+), hit cmd-L for full screen and flip the thing so the power cord is sticking out of the top. My thumb is resting right near the button to flip the page. If I need to go back a page I just reach up and press the left arrow. If you're going to be doing any extended reading, you may want to set the background color to a light cream color (it's in the accessability options). I realize this is purely a matter of taste, but like I said, I've found it comfortable enough to read through a few PDF ebooks this way...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
"The publication was built entirely with Open Source tools, including the GIMP, Scribus and Open Office. It is distributed in PDF format..."
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
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