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Linux Journal Ceases Publication (linuxjournal.com)
Not too long after Linus Torvalds wrote his own Unix kernel, which he called Linux, in the summer of 1991, a magazine was founded by enthusiasts to focus on the operating system. For more than two decades Linux Journal has been an authority magazine on all things Linux, often cited by mainstream outlets, but it is now shuttering doors. In a blog post, Linux Journal's Carlie Fairchild writes: It looks like we're at the end, folks. If all goes according to a plan we'd rather not have, the November issue of Linux Journal was our last. The simple fact is that we've run out of money, and options along with it. We never had a wealthy corporate parent or deep pockets of our own, and that made us an anomaly among publishers, from start to finish. While we got to be good at flying close to the ground for a long time, we lost what little elevation we had in November, when the scale finally tipped irrevocably to the negative. Thanks for all the fish.
what a loss...
Another classical magazine succumbed to the advancement of technology it itself promoted.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Are you talking about the same Minix that's embedded in each and every Intel CPU since almost the last decade or so?
Windows is the loser OS, you have to install it. Only losers install an operating system.
#DeleteFacebook
Phil Hughes started LJ and eventually gave it to Carlie Fairchild when he left for South America. I believe that Bob Young was a seed funder but I don't think the journal ever had that big a capitalization. Running a magazine about Linux in the face of the torrent of information about it on the Internet was never an easy thing. It's incredible that she was able to keep it going this long, and I wish Carlie luck in her future endeavors.
Bruce Perens.
I always like Linux Journal, it wasn't dumbed down, like so many things are these days.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
I used to have a subscription (I think I had it for 6-7 years), but when they went only to an electronic only version and dropped the dead-tree, I did not renew.
I wonder how many other people did the same thing.
Didn't have a 'fat pipe' nor a fast one either, back in the day.
It's incredible that she was able to keep it going this long
And sold with physical media (cd or dvd) off the stands!
Plus all the tech articles it was filled with, that outnumbered the ads. It will be missed.
It was a good run. Best of luck to the people who made it all work and muchas gracias.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Because Minix gets on Intel chips through osmosis?
No, Unix-based operating systems with a better UI are what rule.
No wonder they went out of business, they shouldn't have accepted payment in fish. Harder to convert to hard currency than bitcoins, too short of a shelf-life.
I remember reading Linux Journal while flirting with the cute cashier at a local Tower Records. Today, Linux Journal is gone, Tower Records is gone, and that cute cashier is my friend on Facebook. At least the best element of that part of my life is still around...
I think a lot of what Linux Journal stood for is alive and well with Linux Weekly News. Yes, it's paywalled, but quality content costs real money to make, and the paywalled articles are made free to read after about a month.
...when this was to be the Year of Linux ?
Because when we talk about operating systems it always seems to be about markethsare.
Minix being in 100% of the Intel-powered computers made in nearly the last decade, it has a higher marketshare than Windows, macOS and Linux.
#DeleteFacebook
I was a subscriber for many years. One day they told me my print subscription had been converted to an esubscription and I wouldn’t get a refund. I never even looked at the esubscription and never renewed it. I would probably still be a subscriber if they hadn’t done that.
There is/was a Linux Journal.
Minix being in 100% of the Intel-powered computers made in nearly the last decade, it has a higher marketshare than Windows, macOS and Linux.
Not necessarily. If there are more Intel computers without Windows than AMD computers with Windows, then Intel Minix outnumbers Windows. Otherwise, Windows outnumbers Intel Minix, and the numbers are Ryzen.
However, the term "Linux" encompasses a number of different kinds of systems: GNU/Linux (the environment designed to replace traditional UNIX on workstations and servers), embedded Linux (which uses uClibc and BusyBox instead of GNU), and Android. The sum of these three may very well exceed Intel Minix.
That leaves, what? Linux Format: the 400 Lbs Gorilla of Linux reading material, with a price to match, Linux Magazine and distro-focused publications like Full Circle?
I do hope they get a chance to make a final run of the back edition PDF collection.
Many of the columns, such as David Taylor's work the shell, are timeless and quite useful.
There is value even the Letters to the Editors where smart or at least smart ass people suggested better or alternative ways to implement the various little projects detailed in LJ.
I also enjoyed the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) summaries and discovered Reuven Lerner's python series through the magazine.
And there are always the Geek Guides.
"You cannot have a General Will unless you have shared experiences. You cannot be fair to people you don't know."
If you knew the entire saying you're failing to quote. you'd understand how silly your premise is. Selling information that people want to give away is a pretty good way to go out of business. People continue to want to give away Open Source software because they feel it's much nicer than being your customer.
Bruce Perens.
No, Unix-based operating systems with a better UI are what rule.
So, Linux? Or, well, anything running X11 as its native windowing system?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Subscribed to those same three. It was sad when Byte abandoned the hobby readers by going all Windows and commercial.
> Why couldn't downsizing be an option? Surely the magazine now is in much better shape, financially or organizationally, than when it was started out as an enthusiast operation.
It's LARGER than when it started out. Very likely not in BETTER condition financially. If it's big and "no longer financially viable" that likely means "owes a bunch of money to suppliers", and maybe even to employees and the IRS. Having $6 in the donation plate is better financially than having $20,000 in the bank and a tax bill for $800,000.
I'm surprised it didn't fork...
I also. Reading short squibs on the Internet is one thing, but reading an article is something else, particularly if I might want to be using my computer while doing so...but also if I'm not at home.
It's too bad, but electronic media are barely tolerable, and usually unusable. And it's not like they hadn't been told that before they made their decision. Perhaps I'll someday get an e-book reader, and that might solve at least part of the problem, but tests have shown that even under optimal conditions people learn more slowly from electronic media than from books. If they've figured out why, I didn't see the results.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
you treated Japanese like Nazis treated Jews
Interment camps Concentration Camps - just one difference, we kept families together. Another, we didn't send countless Japanese into gas chambers, and stripped their body of hair, gold, glasses, and any other valuable before sending their corpses to incinerators that rained down ashes on nearby cities.
But hey, why am I explaining this to you, in Germany - I'm certain they covered all this in your German History classes.
Ken
Why couldn't downsizing be an option? Surely the magazine now is in much better shape, financially or organizationally, than when it was started out as an enthusiast operation.
You imagine Linux Journal had exactly how many full-time employees when they turned out the lights? I suspect the staff numbered in the several - remember, at the end, it was essentially an advertising-supported website, little more than that...
Ken
No it’s not. It’s stored on a parition of the SPI flash used by the Quark CPU that runs Intel ME.
Are you talking about the same Minix that's embedded in each and every Intel CPU since almost the last decade or so?
That seems like a win for the microkernel over the monolithic. ;-)
I presume he is talking about macOS, iOS, and Android (and possibly ChromeOS). These add up to a pretty sizeable chunk of market share, but X11 isn't on any of them (at least, not by default and not as the primary display server).
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It did. There's a giant fork stuck in it.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Sad to see such a publication go, but it is interesting that in the FOSS world all comes down to money in the end as well. Also shows that documentation is the first thing to go in the FOSS universe, no different than in the profit oriented closed source world. So where are all these volunteers who make things happen for the better of the universe?
Seems like this fella Petreley is the poster child of the FOSS spokesperson. I tried to actively engage in many low and high profile open source projects. The low profile ones fizzled out before I could contribute meaningfully. The high profile projects all suffer from these megallomaniac superego waterheads pulling the strings. They think they are God, the only God. Anyone who disagrees is scum, anyone who claims that Apple or Microsoft might be on to something is digitally shunned, they spend more time on dissing people than on fixing issues reported by many. The worst of them all are the folks from Mozilla. Kudos to them that they are still around despite all the hate and anger they produce. There is also the other kind like the OpenOffice folks who are assuming that anyone new to the team knows everything. It makes joining close to impossible. Add to that the chronic level of reality loss. That Petreley guy writes about Linux superiority in 2006. Sure, Linux is a damn good OS. No surprise it runs the top 500 supercomputers in the world. No wonder that big companies like Apple and Microsoft now warm up to Linux. Nevertheless, there is a reason why I run Linux only on the Raspberry Pis for fun. Linux and the Linux desktop are far from usable in the mainstream. Too much is still reliant on manually editing files and command line interaction. It's 2017 folks, give me a GUI or go home! Although, even with a GUI things are nightmares at times. I tried so hard to make Linux or better to say Samba on Linux be the system running my local file shares, but in that regard it is as ignorant as Windows, as quirky as OS X, and as convoluted as, well, there really isn't anything that is that bad. There is no Linux superiority when usability and ease of access are as dismal today as they were in 2006. A whole decade and nothing much has changed. Why don't all the egocentric Torvalds clones of the FOSS world address that? I guess we are not worthy.
BUT, there is a HUGE exception! The PaleMoon team is a great example how a FOSS project can engage with any type and level of contributors. Even when disagreements come up they are very courteous and lay out their reasoning. I might still disagree, but their arguments are plausible and very informative and educational. Even more importantly, they produce a product that is top shelf! I hope they write a paper on successfully running a FOSS project so that others can follow.
Contributing to FOSS projects is often futile. I tried and small projects fizzle out quickly while large projects typically suffer from delusional egomaniacs who spend more time on bashing people's comments than engaging volunteers to contribute. I offered services for quality assurance, UI design, and documentation/translation, but although those are sought after I met massive resistance just by asking what the best way to contribute is in these areas. That goes beyond the many bugzilla reports that often gain a lot of 'me too' comments and then get shot down years later without addressing at times rather fundamental issues (biggest problem still is not being able to share a Thunderbid profile across multiple systems).
If FOSS projects want people who are not developers (!!!) to contribute they have to put in some effort and cater to that group. I do agree that some level of technical expertise is needed. I wouldn't offer services to a FOSS project that I couldn't reasonably market for a professional engagement. I do not expect consistent hand holding, but at least manage and organize contributions and be reasonable. Volunteers like myself cannot spend 60 hours a week on your one project, because we already spend 60 hours on the jobs that pay the bills. That said, if anyone is looking for help contact me and let's talk.
Well he did specify with the better GUI, so that limits it somewhat.
I also assumed he meant rules in the Linux r00ls sense, not the rather dull marketshare sense.
And yes I am being obtuse. I think X11 is the best. I don't like OSX much, or Windows.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It's nice to see all of these comments.
Here's my side of it, as a columnist since 1996: http://blog.lerner.co.il/sad-d...
Hats off to you, Ken! I am so tired of the constant U.S. bashing by people in Europe who've had to be rescued by the U.S. from their own TWICE last century!