Linux Journal Goes — Surprise! — Digital 184
Mr_Perl writes "Linux Journal sent out an email to subscribers today announcing that they are going 100% digital. Subscribers signed on for a paper version of the journal, and now have been switched to an electronic version, apparently at the exact same subscription rate. No news yet on why they did it, and no sign of any offers to reimburse unused subscriptions for subscribers who are disappointed."
No thanks. (Score:4, Interesting)
I like having hard copies of journals, books, and magazines. I don't want to read stuff on a fucking tablet of some sort.
People go on and on about how paper is fragile, but it's a lot more durable than the shitty Chinese-made devices that you have to use to read this "e-content". It gets worse when the publishers and vendors can arbitrarily delete material from your device, even after you've paid for it. Fuck that.
Why the fuck would I pay the same amount of money and not get something physical in return? No thanks.
big mistake (Score:3, Interesting)
I just started buying this magazine at the news stand to take with me places I can't bring electronics. Now I guess I'll stop reading it.
Re:No thanks.: Ditto (Score:5, Interesting)
When I sit down with a dead tree version of anything, I read it with as much full attention as I can muster. I don't know why, but I really have to make a conscious effort not to get distracted when reading online and I want to skim. And then there's the read an article, see what's on /., read part of an article, go to Fark, read some more ....etc ....
It's annoying but I find that my bad habits from online reading are moving over to the "real" world - I'm skimming more. I'm getting lazy with my reading habits. If the point isn't made in the first paragraph, I loose interest.
The whole World is becoming tl;dr
Re:Been done already... (Score:4, Interesting)
linuxjournal is squatting linuxgazette.com. You may want to try the net [linuxgazette.net] domain for the real thing.
I stopped buying linux journal when the articles became too predictable - rehashes of the same articles from the same month the previous year. Boring!
Re:From the Editor (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever since I discovered HTML, it’s been my preferred format for writing. Every word of mine that’s gone into Linux Journal, since I started in 1996, has been written and delivered in HTML.
Hahaha, totally typical. When I edited Randall Schwartz's column for Web Techniques magazine, he delivered his manuscripts in Perldoc format. (Note: This was neither cute nor geeky, it was just a pain in the ass.)
What’s different for me this time is that I’m not paying attention to my monthly 900-word limit (or less if images are involved). While a word limit does impose the discipline of brevity, the fact remains that brevity is not the only virtue of good writing. Yes, it’s a good one to have when your column appears on the last page of a print magazine. But when that magazine is no longer confined by the dimensions of printed pages, you’re free to go longer—or shorter, as the case may be.
It's my belief that this is precisely what is wrong with a lot of online-only writing. Nobody is bothering to edit it anymore. Writers are free to ramble on for as long as they choose, and most readers end up tuning out after the first page (or not reading TFA at all). When an editor pretends that an online brain-dump is actually better than a well-edited article, watch out: the publication is about to take a nosedive.
Linux Journal always has been a publi- cation for the Linux Community. Linux Journal will now be a publication by the Linux Community as well.
Oh, so no editing, and no actual writing either? Where's my checkbook?
Won't be renewing (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I don't like digital-only periodical subs (Score:3, Interesting)
... it also means you can print it if you so desire, so all the "whaaa give me paper" assholes can be happy too.
You have a printer that will produce a full color, bound magazine that doesn't smuge for cheap? All I have is a crappy inkjet that smudges and cost a fortune to print in full color. Or I can get a color lazer printer that doesn't smudge and cost less per page but the images are garbage. In both I still end up with a bunch of pages that I have to hold together by stapling the corners. It looks and handles nothing like a published magazine.