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Crowdfunded Linux Voice Magazine Releases First Issue CC-BY-SA
M-Saunders (706738) writes Linux Voice, the crowdfunded GNU/Linux magazine that Slashdot has covered previously, had two goals at its launch: to give 50% of its profits back to the community after one year, and release each issue's contents under the Creative Commons after nine months. Well, it's been nine months since issue 1, so the whole thing is now online and free to share. Readers and supporters have also made audio versions of articles, for listening to on the commute to work.
They should have published this in ASCII.
Well, it's the 21st century, so no. I think we'd be alright with UTF-8.
I haven't read this magazine yet; diidn't realize it existed until today.
However, the computer industry moves so quickly -- is the information stale or outdated nine months after initial publication? If so, what's the point, other than a public relations exercise? This may be vulnerable to the same malady that killed the paper computer magazines of the 80's and 90's.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
1. There are HTML versions of many of the articles. 2. We're giving this away for free! To share and adapt. Feel free to pull the text from the PDFs and put it up on GitHub. If you're still angry about PDFs, we'll happily give you your money back... Oh wait, you got it for free! :-)
They offer HTML versions of each article on their website too. Look a bit further down the page past the pdf link and you'll find them.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
Here we go again, /. at its worst. /. appears to be all about.
A 116 page CC licensed magazine with dozens of articles, and our comments?
That their format sucks, that it's out of date, that there is a smell spelling error on page 87, and so on.
Way to go guys and gals, a fine example of what
PDF isn't a locked down format:
http://www.adobe.com/content/d...
There are extensions and other software that can encrypted and DRM pdf but I assume Linux Voice isn't going to use those.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Well, it's a bit up and down. If you're having problems, you can get the mag and audio via bit torrent from the pirate bay. http://thepiratebay.se/search/...
PDF is an open standard, has been since 2008. Didn't you get the memo?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
PDF was a proprietary format, controlled by Adobe, until it was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008,
The fact that they used a Mac to create the PDF is a slightly more valid complaint. Note I said slightly.
We (the editorial staff) use FOSS to make the magazine content: in my case Vim, AbiWord, Gimp etc. We're all geeks and not designers, so we hired one, and her tool of choice is InDesign. We would like to move over to Scribus at some point though -- and possibly even fund some missing features that we'd need to make the magazine!
Also, I was under the impression that PDF was an open format, just Adobe's reader is closed. PDF will make most people happy.
I'm surprised nobody sad TeX should have been used....
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
ASCII and UTF-8 are both text encoding schemes, not document formats.
I just wanted to say that I bought a subscription to this magazine, and it was money well spent. Great great great read. More Linux than you can handle.
Disclaimer: I'm right in their target demo: Intermediate Linux user. Computer n00bs and crusty old SysAdmins may have a different experience.
Let's not forget the ASCII cover art.
If you are using vim to create pdf's then you are seriously hard core. Hats off to you good editor.
True, PDF is an open standard and there's no DRM. It's just a real PITA to recycle content into another format. Some more comprehensible markup would be more desirable. Of course, as soon as you've imported into InDesign, the chances of getting that have gone out the window. Exporting from InDesign is a double PITA. Yeah, it's too bad that Scribus is not really ready for professional work.
P.s. This comment from someone who still hasn't forgiven Adobe for killing off FrameMaker for the Mac.
Forget the naysayers, I'm a subscriber, and you guys rock.
TeX should have been used ;)
In my experience, when someone has specified a character encoding without specifying a document format, he has meant "something that can be comfortably read using a text editor", the sort of thing that one would serve with Content-type: text/plain.
A new magazine says it will donate half the "profit."
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
M-Saunders, please ignore the hate and thanks for your enlightened views on publishing. I was disappointed when you guys "forked" LinuxFormat but I have enjoyed what I have consumed of the new magazine and podcast. I hope your business model is sustainable and look forward to catching up with the issues I've missed.
Testiculos habet et bene pendentes.
I still cannot have PINCH-to-ZOOM in the browser. Come on Linux. For F's sake, the rest of the world has had 2-finger gestures since the dawn of the touchpad.
We should definitely do this!
I have been a subscriber since the beginning (having come over from Linux Format). I just wanted to say to any Linux Voice folks in this form, great job and keep up the good work! I love the magazine!
It is now. Portable Document Format (PDF) wasn't officially open until 2008. For a while it was in limbo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
No good deed goes unpunished.
Also, I was under the impression that PDF was an open format, just Adobe's reader is closed. PDF will make most people happy.
Have you ever tried to copy the text out of a PDF? It's a horrible exercise where you spend the rest of the even reinserting spaces and reordering weird phantom jumps. PDF is a delivery format, not a format for editing.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
1. There are HTML versions of many of the articles.
Many != all.
2. We're giving this away for free! To share and adapt. Feel free to pull the text from the PDFs and put it up on GitHub.
How nice. You've put it up to share and adapt... in a delivery format, not an edit format. You presumably have source files (I doubt the copy was originally written directly in Acrobat) but you won't burden us with them, you'll just give us your blessing to fight with copying and pasting from PDF.
If you're still angry about PDFs, we'll happily give you your money back... Oh wait, you got it for free! :-)
That's no excuse. You built up a lot of goodwill (and generated crowdfunding) with your promise of adaptible content, and you've left up an irritating barrier to adaptation.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
6 years ago is far older than "now".
"now" as opposed to a time in the past when it was not open. God some people are obtuse.
Can anyone having the digital subscription tell me how it is delivered? Manual download on the website? Per email? Per cloud-drive (dropbox, onedrive, owncloud, etc)? FTP (pull / push)? Torrent? Amazon whispernet? Something else?
I like my subscription to the magazine. I appreciate their open sourcing the contents (it was a factor in subscribing) but other matters were of greater importance in making my decision.
The main one was that I'd enjoyed the writers' articles in their prior venture (which I also still read). Secondly, I thought the pricing of the digital subscription was reasonable, unlike others whose digital subscription price approaches that of the printed. Finally, I've begun to claw myself away from having to fondle the paper; a Kindle started me down the path and then I found a 10" tablet lets me easily read PDF magazines.
PDF was open enough from the beginning to have its specification available in print from the days of Acrobat 1.0: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pd...
Here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pd...
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/con... --- for some reason they don't have the first edition available (not that it's all that useful these days).
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.