Mike here from the Linux Voice team. As you can see, we've made many articles available also as plain text, or HTML. And you know what? These are extracted from the PDF. Many changes are made at the layout stage, so it's not like we just use the original plain text that's sent to us. We're looking at ways to improve this workflow, but be reasonable -- we wouldn't be "purposefully obstructive" as you so nicely put it. Why would we even do this in the first place, if so? Why even bother if we didn't want people to share our work?
Well, let's wait and see. When we started this, Slashdot was chock full of the same comments: print is dead, nobody will back you, you'll be gone in three months, etc. etc. etc. Here we are almost a year later, successful and growing, so we're not worried about what the naysayers think.
And I don't think Linux has become a boring infrastructure OS. There's been a boost of interest in open source and open platforms since the NSA/PRISM etc. revelations, and the Raspberry Pi is getting loads of people into Linux as well. I'd say it's actually the most exciting time for Linux and FOSS, but then I would say that, wouldn't I:-)
Well, our 3,200+ (and growing) subscribers have a different view, clearly. Not everyone has the time or inclination to search around the web, and while there's certainly lots of very good content out there, "it's like drinking from a fire hydrant" as the old quote goes. Our readers like a montly dose of Linux-related features, tutorials, interviews and reviews, neatly packaged up into one bundle, from a team they can trust.
Sure, the market for computer magazines is much smaller today. But there clearly is a market, otherwise we wouldn't have raised £127,000 in a crowdfunding campaign and have a very satisfied readership (only three subscription cancellations since we started!).
And of course some of the reviews on that page are a bit dated -- it's from nine months ago! But the tutorials should still be useful, and everyone is welcome to update them and share with the community.
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!
Linux Voice is heavily tutorial based, and we try to make them last as long as possible.
But yes, some information can get outdated -- and that's why we're releasing content CC-BY-SA! Anyone can now take it and update it, put it online elsewhere, to benefit the whole community.
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!:-)
We only have one page of news per month. We're not competing with the internet for speed -- we're aiming to have the best quality technical content.
"Getting information off the internet is like drinking from a firehose." Sure, there's a huge amount of useful stuff out there, but it can be hard to find it all. Those who are happy to trawl through it may not want our magazine, but those who like a monthly dose of features, tutorials, interviews and other content can get it with us.
Hi!
We know that a lot of people dislike PayPal, and we're looking into alternatives. You can subscribe via bank transfer -- email mike AT linuxvoice DOT com for details.
I hate Microsoft as much as the next man, but I'll be entertained to see how some Slashdotters twist this into being "bad for Microsoft" or something. Every other day I see some comment like "The end is here for Microsoft" or "It's all over for MS" or some such nonsense. Let's see:
1) Record profits in the last year 2) Fastest-selling OS in history
It's only getting better for them, isn't it? We need another way to fight them...
Slashdot Mirror
Mike here from the Linux Voice team. As you can see, we've made many articles available also as plain text, or HTML. And you know what? These are extracted from the PDF. Many changes are made at the layout stage, so it's not like we just use the original plain text that's sent to us. We're looking at ways to improve this workflow, but be reasonable -- we wouldn't be "purposefully obstructive" as you so nicely put it. Why would we even do this in the first place, if so? Why even bother if we didn't want people to share our work?
Thanks ponfgong-e, much appreciated!
Well, let's wait and see. When we started this, Slashdot was chock full of the same comments: print is dead, nobody will back you, you'll be gone in three months, etc. etc. etc. Here we are almost a year later, successful and growing, so we're not worried about what the naysayers think. And I don't think Linux has become a boring infrastructure OS. There's been a boost of interest in open source and open platforms since the NSA/PRISM etc. revelations, and the Raspberry Pi is getting loads of people into Linux as well. I'd say it's actually the most exciting time for Linux and FOSS, but then I would say that, wouldn't I :-)
Thanks mcphail! Great to hear that you're enjoying the magazine.
Well, our 3,200+ (and growing) subscribers have a different view, clearly. Not everyone has the time or inclination to search around the web, and while there's certainly lots of very good content out there, "it's like drinking from a fire hydrant" as the old quote goes. Our readers like a montly dose of Linux-related features, tutorials, interviews and reviews, neatly packaged up into one bundle, from a team they can trust. Sure, the market for computer magazines is much smaller today. But there clearly is a market, otherwise we wouldn't have raised £127,000 in a crowdfunding campaign and have a very satisfied readership (only three subscription cancellations since we started!). And of course some of the reviews on that page are a bit dated -- it's from nine months ago! But the tutorials should still be useful, and everyone is welcome to update them and share with the community.
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!
Linux Voice is heavily tutorial based, and we try to make them last as long as possible. But yes, some information can get outdated -- and that's why we're releasing content CC-BY-SA! Anyone can now take it and update it, put it online elsewhere, to benefit the whole community.
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! :-)
We only have one page of news per month. We're not competing with the internet for speed -- we're aiming to have the best quality technical content. "Getting information off the internet is like drinking from a firehose." Sure, there's a huge amount of useful stuff out there, but it can be hard to find it all. Those who are happy to trawl through it may not want our magazine, but those who like a monthly dose of features, tutorials, interviews and other content can get it with us.
Hi! We know that a lot of people dislike PayPal, and we're looking into alternatives. You can subscribe via bank transfer -- email mike AT linuxvoice DOT com for details.
Who said that? We are making a profit... And we're going to give 50% of it back to the FOSS community at the end of the year.
I hate Microsoft as much as the next man, but I'll be entertained to see how some Slashdotters twist this into being "bad for Microsoft" or something. Every other day I see some comment like "The end is here for Microsoft" or "It's all over for MS" or some such nonsense. Let's see:
1) Record profits in the last year
2) Fastest-selling OS in history
It's only getting better for them, isn't it? We need another way to fight them...