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The Bad News...

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Linux
  • Linux Journal Ceases Publication: An Awkward Goodbye

    On August 7, 2019, Linux Journal shut its doors for good. All staff were laid off and the company is left with no operating funds to continue in any capacity. The website will continue to stay up for the next few weeks, hopefully longer for archival purposes if we can make it happen.

  • What Linux needs to do to reach the masses [iophk: This is a red herring. Reinstalling an OS is like changing the engine on your car. The strangle hold on the OEMs needs to be released.]

    I understand the problem is a combination of proprietary hardware and the mixing and matching of components. But Linux has managed to work flawlessly on desktop hardware for a very long time. To me this says Linux can work with similar success on mobile hardware. And it should. The landscape of current users won't revert back to the desktop any time soon. In fact, if we're to believe any of the prognostications, users will continue the mass migration toward mobile, until there's only a handful of us hardcore users still working diligently at desktop machines.

Linux Journal ceases publication

  • Linux Journal ceases publication

    It is with sadness that we report that Linux Journal has ceased publication. The magazine announced its demise at the end of 2017, then was happily reborn in early 2018, but apparently that was not to last. Editor Kyle Rankin posted "An Awkward Goodbye" on August 7.

The End Of Linux Journal

  • The End Of Linux Journal

    Due to this change in the market, most major publications have either shut down or been acquired and have lost their primary focus. The list includes IDG (acquired by a Chinese company and laid of writers), Recode (sold to Vox), Anandtech, TechCrunch (sold to Verizon), eWeek and more. The list is long.

    A very minuscule chunk of these publications is made up of publications focused on consumer Linux. As someone who once ran a ‘consumer desktop Linux’ publication, I am aware of the fact that there is only so much one can do in that space. There is nothing new to write about it from a consumer’s perspective. Linux Desktop space has stagnated and not much innovation is happening in that area. There isn’t much scope of valuable content in that space. What could have been written has already been written?

    The real work is happening at a low level. LWN is doing an incredible job of covering low-level kernel stuff. It’s sustainable and healthy.

Brian Fagioli is trolling again

Linux Journal runs shutdown

  • Linux Journal runs shutdown -h now for a second time: Mag editor fires parting shot at proprietary software [Roy: Microsoft Tim -- that longtime Microsoft shill -- is now attacking Linux collectively because of the Linux Journal shutdown. The Register pays salary to two-hat Microsoft moles (like Microsof Peter)]

    Linux Journal has closed with "no operating funds to continue in any capacity", according to a notice on its site.

    First published in March 1994, Linux Journal was founded by Phil Hughes and Bob Young, the latter being the co-founder of Red Hat. The first issue, which you can read online, includes an article by Linus Torvalds where he talks about the imminent release of Linux 1.0, remarking that "1.0 has little 'real meaning', as far as development goes, but should be taken as an indication that it can be used for real work".

    Linux took off, and Linux Journal grew with it as a highly technical publication for enthusiasts and professionals. That said, the impact of the internet on print media meant that in August 2011 the magazine was forced to abandon print and look for digital subscribers. "The lack of a newsstand presence meant we lost one of our main avenues for attracting new readers to the magazine," wrote editor Kyle Rankin in a reflection on the mag's history earlier this year.

Goodbye, Linux Journal

  • Goodbye, Linux Journal

    Linux Journal also went for a broad audience. The editors realized that a purely technical magazine would lose too many new users, while a magazine written for "newbies" would not attract a more focused audience. In the first issue, Hughes highlighted both groups of users as the audience Linux Journal was looking for, writing: "We see this part of our audience as being two groups. Lots of the current Linux users have worked professionally with Unix. The other segment is the DOS user who wants to upgrade to a multi-user system. With a combination of tutorials and technical articles, we hope to satisfy the needs of both these groups."

Houston-based Linux Journal is dead. Again.

  • Houston-based Linux Journal is dead. Again.

    But in an editor’s note on its website titled “An Awkward Goodbye,” the journal’s Kyle Rankin wrote that the publication “we didn't get healthy enough fast enough, and when we found out we needed to walk on our own strength, we simply couldn't. So here we are giving our second, much more awkward, goodbye.”

Linux Journal Closes

  • Linux Journal Closes

    So is that it for long form technical journalism? Are we reduced to bitty threads on Stack Overflow and personal blogs that often reveal as much ignorance than knowledge?

    You might say that the days of the "magazine" are over. I feel sorry for the generation who did not have the pleasure of curling up with a good issue of Byte, Dr Dobbs and yes, Linux Journal. There is a lot to be said for a curated collection of long form articles, written by people with a track record and kept in line by the hard man editor.

    These days we, as consumers, won't pay for content and we won't even look at a few adverts so that the content can be free.

I am back! I think…

  • I am back! I think…

    This comes at a bittersweet moment in my career. For a couple of years now, I was moonlighting as an editor for Linux Journal. Notice the word was in the previous sentence. If you recall, sometime in late 2017, Linux Journal, the very reputable and all things open source 25 year old publication could not afford to keep its lights on and with a broken heart, announced to the entire world that it was shutting down its operations. Upon hearing this, a hero stepped forth. Or so it seemed. London Trust Media (or LTM) offered to acquire Linux Journal and help the publication get back on its feet. In early 2018, the publication was back in business and with money in the bank. That is when I was both invited and welcomed aboard and by some of the most wonderful people you would ever meet.

    Things were looking great. The publication was restructured. The website was revamped and modernized. The team was revitalized. The business model was redefined. Subscribers were resubscribing. New subscribers were subscribing. Companies were sponsoring. We were going to make it.

    Fast forward to the present. Literally, this week. Without warning or explanation, our parent company decided to cease all Linux Journal operations. The staff was immediately let go. Our hearts are broken (and for some, a second time). For its authors and contributors, writing and supporting Linux Journal was a labor of love. We did it because we wanted to and not because we had to. I will miss working with my now-former colleagues but most of all, I will miss our audience who stood by our side in both the good times and the difficult ones.

Linux Journal Announces its Definitive and Irreversible Shutdown

  • Linux Journal Announces its Definitive and Irreversible Shutdown

    Linux Journal has announced its shutdown to its reader-base through a blog post by Kyle Rankin, titled ‘An Awkward Goodbye.’ All of its employees were laid off and the company has no funds left to continue in any capacity, while they hope that the website will stay online for a few more weeks, allowing the archiving of the content. The website faced trouble and imminent closure back in December 2017, but it was rescued by London Trust Media, the creator of the Private Internet Access VPN solution and the Freenode project.

    As Rankin details, London Trust Media helped them get back on their feet, but unfortunately, the publication didn’t get healthy enough fast enough. When the Linux Journal was left to operate on their own financial and resource strength, they quickly realized that they were clearly not viable. Rankin goes a step further to remind us of the reasons that publications like the Linux Journal fail in the year 2019, which are the same as those that hit them two years ago. Linux is not really embraced by the people of this world, and large software companies only support FOSS projects in order to use them for their proprietary solutions and/or services.

    It’s not that Linux has lost though. To the contrary, the Linux kernel is running inside 2.5 billion Android devices right now, Linux is dominating the server market, and the planet’s most powerful supercomputers are all running Linux. Even open-source software like VLC, Firefox, Chromium, GIMP, LibreOffice, WordPress, Magento, and Audacity are counting millions and millions of users. However, people don’t care about Linux, have no interest in reading about it, and they are certainly not willing to become a part of ‘the ecosystem’ by contributing code, debugging, or translating.

Linux Journal has shut down

linuxjournal.com – Linux Journal shut its doors for good :(

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