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Is PC World Still Worth the Subscription?
alexwcovington asks: "I've subscribed to PC World magazine since 1996, but my subscription is up for renewal this year, and I'm not sure if I need it anymore. I love reading the Stephen Manes rants and hoarding back issues in my closet, but I find myself getting virtually all the hard information I used to turn to PC World for from the Internet. What's the relevance of a print IT publication in modern times?"
In my opinion, no. I quit reading compuer magazines in mid-90-ies because they do not really give anything new that is not present in the Internet. And besides, the magazines publich everything on the internet as well. Plus on internet you have various sites like Slashdot that first, filter only the most interesting articles, and second, provide very insightfull and witty discussion, third, help you understand whether article is a genuine news article or a hidden advertising for one big company or another.
It may come to pass that the newspapers are no longer published, but I for one detest being tethered to the internet just to get my information.
I don't want to sit in front of a PC screen to find out what's on at the movies - I want to be able to look at my newspaper while waiting on yet another two minute traffic light and decide whether I should divert to the Mall Movie and see the latest release.
And, do I want to lug around a 7 lb laptop, or a 6 ounce paperback book to read the latest Sci-Fi thriller on the plane to the next worksite or vacation destination (Would I even want to take the laptop at all to the vacation destination?)
And, if someone steals my 7 lb, $2495 laptop, that's an issue. If they steal my $7.95 Sci-Fi paperback, I'll go buy another one...
Paper still has too many advantages, I think, to be tossing it out the window.
I don't know about PC World. I think if I ran Windows, it might be worthwhile, but I don't know.
I really like linux magazines, and I think they offer good counter examples to the print dynamic that a lot of people describe. Yes, it's true the web is free, and yes, it's updated all the time. But I find that print magazines tend to point out things to me I hadn't noticed before, and that they often have pretty good writeups.
It's not that you can't find information about some software project on the web -- it's that you might have heard of that project before, so you don't know to google it. The magazines do a good job of flagging interesting new stuff.
My main problem with these mags is that the ones from Europe are priced at insane levels here in the States. I was looking at one the other day on the newsstand, and I wanted it, but it was something like $15.99. It comes with a DVD, but what's that worth when you have broadband?
The problem isn't that the content isn't good, and the problem isn't that $16 is a huge amount of money in the scheme of things. The problem is that you sort of feel taken advantage of at that price. No one wants to feel like a chump, but at $16, that's where you end up.
But a linux journal subscription, which is something like $25 for a year, is a great deal.
And the reason is simple. A magazine is the perfect size to take into the toilet with you. Unless you want to sit there with a laptop? A magazine is the ultimate in portability, as well.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
When the dot com boom was at its height, all the major publishers got fanatical that print was dead, everyone was going to read everything on the net, and it was time to readjust. Byte arbitrarily canceled my subscription, since they were going to a web only base. The rest of them shrank to half the page number, and what was left was mostly advertising. Even the trade rags got rid of most of their decent columnists, since they somehow concluded nobody wanted opinion pieces, basically making them boring and worthless. The only print mag I read now is Smart Computing, since they have some interesting tips and good reviews every now and again.
No, I didn't leave print mags, they left me...
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