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Sys Admin Magazine Ceases Publication
keithl writes "I received a postcard in the mail today informing me that Sys Admin magazine has ceased publication. 'We regret to inform you that the magazine has ceased publication effective with the August 2007 issue.' Only paid subscribers with remaining issues receive this mailing. If you do nothing, they will send you a copy of the Sys Admin archive CD (1992 – August 2007), or you can return the card for a full refund of all unsent issues. The deadline to return the postcard for a refund is October 1, 2007." The magazine's Web site has no word that I could find on the closing down of print publication.
...bad idea.
The editor put the news in the final issue as well, which was mailed out a couple of weeks ago. I'll be looking for my postcard now though - thanks for the heads-up!
While it's true that printed media has a hard time competing with online resources, SysAdmin was one of the few magazines I looked forward to reading cover to cover each month, so I'm sad to see them closing up shop.
It's nice to have information "pushed" to you sometimes; I learned several things over the years on topics I probably would never have gone looking for on my own.
sysadmin magazine was a good idea in theory, and I have read a few of their (print) issues, but it always seemed like they were shooting for too much of a novice crowd. They did highlight some interesting things, but the articles were rarely very in-depth, and the code snippets were usually pretty basic. I had contemplated getting a subscription a few times, but it seemed like 90% of any issue would be basic stuff I already knew or could easily figure out on my own. A junior sysadmin may be able to learn a lot from the magazine, but probably not anyone at a higher level than that.
For a magazine that was supposed to be geared toward professional sysadmins, I would have liked to see some more hard-core technical content, including some actual code magic rather than "magic" that anyone with experience in the language would find very basic. I would have rather seen more kernel tuning and less "sorting your calendar in PHP" crap.
Maybe they were hitting at exactly the wrong spot: their focus was too narrow to be an overview type of magazine, but it was too broad to really get into the nitty gritty of any one thing.
That's because the true UNIX sysadmin gurus already know everything.
Neglected, pure and simple.
a ting_Systems/Unix/
... insight.
They had the platform, the had the forum, they had an audience.
When it came to subscribe once again, I had to think - has this magazine answered, delivered, proposed anything of consequence? [not counting Amy's column]
It was supposed to be about UNIX (?), not just Solaris.
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Oper
System Administrators want answers about the OS. [and the sum thereof]
I wanted Sys Admin to give me configuration tips, tuning tricks
I WANT magazines, not PDFs, I want something to refer back to, in these last few years I just skimmed it, read Amy Rich, then it went straight to the shelf.
It's too bad.
I liked the idea of the magazine, but they suffered neglect, from staff and ultimately reader interest alike.
~hylas