An advanced Linux Mag - was Re: [Gllug] Algorithm question for your Friday morning

[Ben Fitzgerald]

On Sat, Nov 18, 2006 at 08:01:04AM +0000, Jason Clifford wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Nov 2006, Ben Fitzgerald wrote:
> 
> > Let's hope so as it's the best linux magazine I'm aware of (others being
> > mostly newbie stuff the last time I checked - which was some time ago).
> 
> A few years ago I floated the idea of a Linux magazine aimed nearer to the 
> LJ readership than the LF/LU&D lot. There was a little interest however as 
> never went anywhere.
> 
> Do you think there would be demand for a Free Software mag like that and, 
> more importantly, people willing and able to write good articles for it 
> and produce it?

My feeling is no, there is not the demand. The problem is you are
appealing to admins / developers who want the latest information on
advanced topics. IMHO the major competitor for this is "the internet".
There will always be more information on the net even if you specialise.
Putting the info in a magazine is convenient for the reader but as the
target audience are technical they are comfortable finding the
information online for free. Very hard to see how you can get round
this.

LJ has morphed into the worst thing - a halfway house between linux
format (that franglais guy with the hat) and interesting technical stuff
(plus things that go over my head but that I'm glad LJ brought it's
existence to my attention). This way half the mag appeals to half the
readers and half is seen as not what they want. I have to say I don't
mind plenty of advertising to fund the mag provided there is a good
amount of quality reading in there.

On a related point - did anyone ever read the LJ letters bit? That drove
me crazy. Why put in pictures of some kid with the magazine next to it?
Is this considered clever in the US? Plus who writes into a magazine
with a question like "my root filesystem has gone missing and now my
system doesn't boot" then sits for a month until the answer arrives on
their doorstep! Sorry, just had to get that one out...

Ben.

-- 
Registered Linux user number 339435
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug