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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...