13 ms·

Linux Journal Ceases Publication

258 points by voidmain0001 9y ago

lisper 9y ago
I have paper copies of the first few years of LJ, including issue #1. Does anyone want them?
- sitkack 9y ago
  send them to the Internet Archive, or the Computer History Museum.
- exikyut 9y ago
  My recommendation would be to scan them, and then send them somewhere.
voidmain0001 9y ago
LJ generously offered me two options as a subscriber with issues owed: 1. "In true community spirit, Linux Pro Magazine has offered our subscribers six free issues of their magazine, a publication we at Linux Journal have always admired. In our time of need, they were the first ones there for us, and we are thankful for their gracious offer." 2. "We also just finished up our 2017 archive today, which includes every issue we’ve ever published, including the first and last ones. Normally we sell that for $25, but obviously you will get it for no cost."
akulbe 9y ago
This makes me sad. I love Linux Journal.
- mooreds 9y ago
  "loved", unfortunately. Unfortunately, lots and lots of quality publications will continue to go out of business. When information becomes radically more free to distribute, the economics of publishing are upended.
  - ianai 9y ago
    Information is so free that the noise to signal ratio is trash. It’s worth paying for a solid channel. Somehow I feel a model marrying journalism and industry certification could work. Ie if you read and do some examples from every magazine then every 3 years you’re very likely to pass a certification test from the magazine.
- cs233 9y ago
  It will be sorely missed. I loved reading it as a kid.
bobcallme 9y ago
This is great news! I stopped reading Linux Journal once they went all digital.
- DougN7 9y ago
  I'm not sure I'd call it great news. But I too have stopped reading a few magazines that went all digital. There is just too much other digital competition when I've got a browser open. But when I'm sitting at breakfast and what to read something physical, there was very little competition (I don't like getting iPads sticky, so don't use them when eating!).
  - robotbikes 9y ago
    I subscribed for a couple of years but regrettably didn't have the time to read each episode because of competing digital distractions. Print has a cost but also a permanence that digital mediums can't compete with. Even though Linux Journal had really great DRM free access to all of their magazines while I was a subscriber after my subscription lapsed I didn't have access and hadn't bothered to download them. If I tried I'm sure I could get them elsewhere, which is the odd state of media these days. Anyone can get it for free but it means something to actually participate in supporting it. I've actually been thinking of buying physical copies of music albums partly for nostalgia but also because it would provide a greater sense of investment in the music and actually listening to it.
Crontab 9y ago
Publishers have it hard but tech publishers especially so - considering all of the free sources of information on the Internet. Between online documentation, blogs, forums, and tutorials, one can generally find the information they are looking for if they seek it hard enough. All that said, there is something to be said for a well written article or book by someone with a command of language and a love for teaching.
- pmlnr 9y ago
  Interestingly I'm finding it harder and harder to find good howtos. Most of them offer too little, too specogic topic, or vaguely generic examples.
  - emmelaich 9y ago
    Yeah, the tldp is way out of date but still comes up high in web searches. I use Fedora/Centos/Redhat mostly and I find the best quality docs are on arch linux wiki Fedora site stackexchange Ubuntu answers You can also get the official Redhat docs if you sign in. I'm pretty sure it's free.
- sitkack 9y ago
  Lots of data, but not much information. Before, tech books were an oasis because there wasn't much of anything anywhere. Now it is the opposite, too much of everything everywhere, I need someone to condense it down into a form I can use.
  - billpollock 9y ago
    That can change; it depends on the publisher's perspective and goals. Our goal is always to publish fewer better books. (I stole that line from Prentice Hall. They forgot it years ago. :)
- billpollock 9y ago
  I definitely agree. Book publishing, in my opinion, needs to shift to meet the changing needs of readers. Many tech book publishers continue to publish the way they have for the last 20+ years but the world has changed. We don't need more, poorly written and poorly edited documentation. We need better books.
josteink 9y ago
While I think this is sad, it’s been clear where the wind is blowing for quite some time. Lots of equivalent publications (PC format, Amiga format, etc) called it quits long ago. Surely it must be more than a decade ago? Amazing how a magazine for a “free” culture somehow managed to postpone the inevitable(?) closure for so long really.
- dajohnson89 9y ago
  makes you wonder, what is next?
muxator 9y ago
The publishing situation is so bleak, and the saddest part is that the higher the quality, the deeper the problems. Does anyone know how lwn [0] is doing? It's one of the latest very high profile publications remaining as of now. [0] https://lwn.net/ https://lwn.net/
- mediocrejoker 9y ago
  I just bought a LWN subscription for the first time ever in an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening to them.
- gerdesj 9y ago
  As a pretty long term subscriber, I get the impression that things are OK at the moment. JC and Co are probably not millionaires but it seems pretty comfortable at the present. They have had their moments in the past. A recent series of articles were about accounting software (ie getting away from proprietary software) which is the sort of navel gazing that wouldn't happen if things were bad. I'm not affiliated in any way but if you want to read the thoughts of some seriously clever people, then LWN is the place to go. Subscriptions start at $7 per month but if you can't manage that then you can read slightly older content for free. Remember this colour code: #ffcc99 - you'll need that to make it look right 8)
- jrw 9y ago
  I have paid for a LWN subscription for several years now for exactly that reason. The standard rate is $7/month, but you can also subscribe as a Starving Hacker for half price. LWN is a great source of Linux-related news and well-deserves your support. On the topic of Linux Journal, I can remember many years ago when I bought a subscription of 100 issues for $100.
- Bromskloss 9y ago
  We need to start making lots of money so that we can pay a lot of money for these things that we like.
- tannhaeuser 9y ago
  > The publishing situation is so bleak ... And yet we cheer at every progress made in Web technology.
davidw 9y ago
Sad news - I remember reading that regularly back in the day.
anfractuosity 9y ago
Awh that's a shame. I used to like picking that up from Borders, although after Borders closed I don't remember seeing it in the UK.
watersb 9y ago
Linux Journal actually helps me every time, every month. I have been a subscriber for a long time.
hn17 9y ago
Here's link to digital versions of magazine and archives: http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/categories/Back-Issues-%252d-Digital-Downloads/?sort=newest http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/categories/Back-Issues-%252d-Dig... Anyone can help by buing something. They should start kickstarter or donations.
_arvin 9y ago
:(
ausjke 9y ago
long time subscribers here(10+ years), also subscriber to lwn.net for many years, both are great. this is a sad story. I loved LJ's kernel korner and its four-embedded-linux series a few years back. Linux is getting more and more widely used, while google gives you many info and it is still meaningful for a magazine such as LJ to exist. i remember at one time lwn.net was asking for life support, since then it seems to be doing well, maybe LJ can do the same? I tend to think LJ needs rethink about its content, that could be voted by its potential subscribers as well.
exikyut 9y ago
PSA: I found an archive link amongst the comments (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-ceases-publication#comment-3642365235 http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-ceases-pub...) It's being sold for $11.99. Here's the purchase link: http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/linux-journal-archive-1994-2017/ http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/linux-journal-archive-1994-2017/ Apparently it's HTML-format. No mention is made of whether it includes images or how big the download is. My suspicion is that it's pure-text, which is really sad. If anyone wants to look into scraping the site, I wouldn't mind jumping on board. (Suffice to say that... not everything submitted into the Web Archive is let back out.)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- sitkack 9y ago
  I made the mistake and never bought the Doctor Dobbs Developer DVD and it isn't available anywhere. I even wrote the new owners of Doctor Dobbs, they had no original. http://www.drdobbs.com/tools http://www.drdobbs.com/tools Luckily the Internet Archive has nice collection, but it isn't the same as the content of the DVD. If you are in Seattle, the living computer museum has a small nook sized library with some really old issues. https://archive.org/search.php?query=Dr+Dobb%27s https://archive.org/search.php?query=Dr+Dobb%27s
  - exikyut 9y ago
    Some quick poking around found - http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/ http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Web... - https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22ddj_dvd6%22 https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22ddj_dvd6%22 and - https://www.mail-archive.com/cctech@classiccmp.org/msg02278.html https://www.mail-archive.com/cctech@classiccmp.org/msg02278.... I'm unsure if this is what you're referring to though.
    - sitkack 9y ago
      I think that torrent hasn't had any seeders in a really long time.
mrbill 9y ago
I miss "Sys Admin". It and LJ were two of my favorite magazines.
- vram22 9y ago
  Yes, SysAdmin is another one I used to like. Also that reminds of me on Unix Review, another good one. See my other comment about DDJ and CUJ in this thread.
  - mrbill 9y ago
    UnixWorld was another. https://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/blast-from-the-past-1993-unix-world-magazine-cover/ https://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/blast-from-the-past-1993...
    - vram22 9y ago
      Can't remember whether I had seen UnixWorld earlier or not. Thanks. Will check it out.
lovelearning 9y ago
Did they ask for contributions before going bankrupt but not get much, or did they never ask? I feel these tech magazines should be more open and transparent about their finances and horizons, so that people who feel like contributing can start doing so at the right time.
- tyldum 9y ago
  When they went from paper to digital only everyone knew it was just a matter of time. My paper sub had like a year left at that point and I was granted a multi year digital sub instead. It didn't have time to expire even. They played very nice with paper subscribers, and that might ultimately have killed them. To be honest I kinda stopped reading when they went digital as the content at that point felt geared towards newbies and not tech people.
- vram22 9y ago
  The Guardian newspaper (online) does that.
chris_wot 9y ago
Can’t they donate their archives to archive.org?
usr1106 9y ago
Linux foundation could support them, they have big corporations and big money behind them. Big corporations also need good employees from this magazine's readership, so it wouldn't be wasted money even economically.

258 points by voidmain0001 9y ago

lisper 9y ago

I have paper copies of the first few years of LJ, including issue #1. Does anyone want them?

sitkack 9y ago
send them to the Internet Archive, or the Computer History Museum.
exikyut 9y ago
My recommendation would be to scan them, and then send them somewhere.

voidmain0001 9y ago

LJ generously offered me two options as a subscriber with issues owed: 1. "In true community spirit, Linux Pro Magazine has offered our subscribers six free issues of their magazine, a publication we at Linux Journal have always admired. In our time of need, they were the first ones there for us, and we are thankful for their gracious offer." 2. "We also just finished up our 2017 archive today, which includes every issue we’ve ever published, including the first and last ones. Normally we sell that for $25, but obviously you will get it for no cost."

akulbe 9y ago

This makes me sad. I love Linux Journal.

mooreds 9y ago
"loved", unfortunately. Unfortunately, lots and lots of quality publications will continue to go out of business. When information becomes radically more free to distribute, the economics of publishing are upended.
- ianai 9y ago
  Information is so free that the noise to signal ratio is trash. It’s worth paying for a solid channel. Somehow I feel a model marrying journalism and industry certification could work. Ie if you read and do some examples from every magazine then every 3 years you’re very likely to pass a certification test from the magazine.
cs233 9y ago
It will be sorely missed. I loved reading it as a kid.

bobcallme 9y ago

This is great news! I stopped reading Linux Journal once they went all digital.

DougN7 9y ago
I'm not sure I'd call it great news. But I too have stopped reading a few magazines that went all digital. There is just too much other digital competition when I've got a browser open. But when I'm sitting at breakfast and what to read something physical, there was very little competition (I don't like getting iPads sticky, so don't use them when eating!).
- robotbikes 9y ago
  I subscribed for a couple of years but regrettably didn't have the time to read each episode because of competing digital distractions. Print has a cost but also a permanence that digital mediums can't compete with. Even though Linux Journal had really great DRM free access to all of their magazines while I was a subscriber after my subscription lapsed I didn't have access and hadn't bothered to download them. If I tried I'm sure I could get them elsewhere, which is the odd state of media these days. Anyone can get it for free but it means something to actually participate in supporting it. I've actually been thinking of buying physical copies of music albums partly for nostalgia but also because it would provide a greater sense of investment in the music and actually listening to it.

Crontab 9y ago

Publishers have it hard but tech publishers especially so - considering all of the free sources of information on the Internet. Between online documentation, blogs, forums, and tutorials, one can generally find the information they are looking for if they seek it hard enough. All that said, there is something to be said for a well written article or book by someone with a command of language and a love for teaching.

pmlnr 9y ago
Interestingly I'm finding it harder and harder to find good howtos. Most of them offer too little, too specogic topic, or vaguely generic examples.
- emmelaich 9y ago
  Yeah, the tldp is way out of date but still comes up high in web searches. I use Fedora/Centos/Redhat mostly and I find the best quality docs are on arch linux wiki Fedora site stackexchange Ubuntu answers You can also get the official Redhat docs if you sign in. I'm pretty sure it's free.
sitkack 9y ago
Lots of data, but not much information. Before, tech books were an oasis because there wasn't much of anything anywhere. Now it is the opposite, too much of everything everywhere, I need someone to condense it down into a form I can use.
- billpollock 9y ago
  That can change; it depends on the publisher's perspective and goals. Our goal is always to publish fewer better books. (I stole that line from Prentice Hall. They forgot it years ago. :)
billpollock 9y ago
I definitely agree. Book publishing, in my opinion, needs to shift to meet the changing needs of readers. Many tech book publishers continue to publish the way they have for the last 20+ years but the world has changed. We don't need more, poorly written and poorly edited documentation. We need better books.

josteink 9y ago

While I think this is sad, it’s been clear where the wind is blowing for quite some time. Lots of equivalent publications (PC format, Amiga format, etc) called it quits long ago. Surely it must be more than a decade ago? Amazing how a magazine for a “free” culture somehow managed to postpone the inevitable(?) closure for so long really.

dajohnson89 9y ago
makes you wonder, what is next?

muxator 9y ago

The publishing situation is so bleak, and the saddest part is that the higher the quality, the deeper the problems. Does anyone know how lwn [0] is doing? It's one of the latest very high profile publications remaining as of now. [0] https://lwn.net/ https://lwn.net/

mediocrejoker 9y ago
I just bought a LWN subscription for the first time ever in an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening to them.
gerdesj 9y ago
As a pretty long term subscriber, I get the impression that things are OK at the moment. JC and Co are probably not millionaires but it seems pretty comfortable at the present. They have had their moments in the past. A recent series of articles were about accounting software (ie getting away from proprietary software) which is the sort of navel gazing that wouldn't happen if things were bad. I'm not affiliated in any way but if you want to read the thoughts of some seriously clever people, then LWN is the place to go. Subscriptions start at $7 per month but if you can't manage that then you can read slightly older content for free. Remember this colour code: #ffcc99 - you'll need that to make it look right 8)
jrw 9y ago
I have paid for a LWN subscription for several years now for exactly that reason. The standard rate is $7/month, but you can also subscribe as a Starving Hacker for half price. LWN is a great source of Linux-related news and well-deserves your support. On the topic of Linux Journal, I can remember many years ago when I bought a subscription of 100 issues for $100.
Bromskloss 9y ago
We need to start making lots of money so that we can pay a lot of money for these things that we like.
tannhaeuser 9y ago
> The publishing situation is so bleak ... And yet we cheer at every progress made in Web technology.

davidw 9y ago

Sad news - I remember reading that regularly back in the day.

anfractuosity 9y ago

Awh that's a shame. I used to like picking that up from Borders, although after Borders closed I don't remember seeing it in the UK.

watersb 9y ago

Linux Journal actually helps me every time, every month. I have been a subscriber for a long time.

hn17 9y ago

Here's link to digital versions of magazine and archives: http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/categories/Back-Issues-%252d-Digital-Downloads/?sort=newest http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/categories/Back-Issues-%252d-Dig... Anyone can help by buing something. They should start kickstarter or donations.

_arvin 9y ago

ausjke 9y ago

long time subscribers here(10+ years), also subscriber to lwn.net for many years, both are great. this is a sad story. I loved LJ's kernel korner and its four-embedded-linux series a few years back. Linux is getting more and more widely used, while google gives you many info and it is still meaningful for a magazine such as LJ to exist. i remember at one time lwn.net was asking for life support, since then it seems to be doing well, maybe LJ can do the same? I tend to think LJ needs rethink about its content, that could be voted by its potential subscribers as well.

exikyut 9y ago

PSA: I found an archive link amongst the comments (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-ceases-publication#comment-3642365235 http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-ceases-pub...) It's being sold for $11.99. Here's the purchase link: http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/linux-journal-archive-1994-2017/ http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/linux-journal-archive-1994-2017/ Apparently it's HTML-format. No mention is made of whether it includes images or how big the download is. My suspicion is that it's pure-text, which is really sad. If anyone wants to look into scraping the site, I wouldn't mind jumping on board. (Suffice to say that... not everything submitted into the Web Archive is let back out.)

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
sitkack 9y ago
I made the mistake and never bought the Doctor Dobbs Developer DVD and it isn't available anywhere. I even wrote the new owners of Doctor Dobbs, they had no original. http://www.drdobbs.com/tools http://www.drdobbs.com/tools Luckily the Internet Archive has nice collection, but it isn't the same as the content of the DVD. If you are in Seattle, the living computer museum has a small nook sized library with some really old issues. https://archive.org/search.php?query=Dr+Dobb%27s https://archive.org/search.php?query=Dr+Dobb%27s
- exikyut 9y ago
  Some quick poking around found - http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/ http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Web... - https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22ddj_dvd6%22 https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22ddj_dvd6%22 and - https://www.mail-archive.com/cctech@classiccmp.org/msg02278.html https://www.mail-archive.com/cctech@classiccmp.org/msg02278.... I'm unsure if this is what you're referring to though.
  - sitkack 9y ago
    I think that torrent hasn't had any seeders in a really long time.

mrbill 9y ago

I miss "Sys Admin". It and LJ were two of my favorite magazines.

vram22 9y ago
Yes, SysAdmin is another one I used to like. Also that reminds of me on Unix Review, another good one. See my other comment about DDJ and CUJ in this thread.
- mrbill 9y ago
  UnixWorld was another. https://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/blast-from-the-past-1993-unix-world-magazine-cover/ https://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/blast-from-the-past-1993...
  - vram22 9y ago
    Can't remember whether I had seen UnixWorld earlier or not. Thanks. Will check it out.

lovelearning 9y ago

Did they ask for contributions before going bankrupt but not get much, or did they never ask? I feel these tech magazines should be more open and transparent about their finances and horizons, so that people who feel like contributing can start doing so at the right time.

tyldum 9y ago
When they went from paper to digital only everyone knew it was just a matter of time. My paper sub had like a year left at that point and I was granted a multi year digital sub instead. It didn't have time to expire even. They played very nice with paper subscribers, and that might ultimately have killed them. To be honest I kinda stopped reading when they went digital as the content at that point felt geared towards newbies and not tech people.
vram22 9y ago
The Guardian newspaper (online) does that.

chris_wot 9y ago

Can’t they donate their archives to archive.org?

usr1106 9y ago

Linux foundation could support them, they have big corporations and big money behind them. Big corporations also need good employees from this magazine's readership, so it wouldn't be wasted money even economically.