
Linux Journal at 25 - jrepinc
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-25
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jkingsbery
I've sadly not kept up with Linux Journal, but for the stretch of a couple
years when I was in grad school and during my first job it was immensely
helpful. It used to be you could get buy the print copy in New York's Penn
Station, and I would get it going back home on the train after an evening
spent at the CS lab. LJ helped expand my awareness about Linux and the free
software.

Congratulations, and thanks to putting together such a great resource!

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bluedino
Not quite 20 years ago, but finding Linux Journal at the local bookstore
proved to my boss that "Linux was legit"

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mprev
Happy birthday! I wonder what the economics of a publication like this are.
Are reader numbers and ad prices still good enough?

I guess we’ll never get back to the days of Amiga Format’s crazy high reader
numbers but I’m hopeful that there’s room for a magazine resurgence.

Paying for content that doesn’t track you or have intrusive ads ... where
you’re less likely to find content marketing ... really appeals to me. I
greatly value my Economist subscription.

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jolmg
> I wonder what the economics of a publication like this are. Are reader
> numbers and ad prices still good enough?

They were in very bad shape just a little over a year ago. They had decided to
cease publication, but got rescued by the parent company of Private Internet
Access:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15826220](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15826220)

I wonder if they've made changes since then and if those changes have helped
increase profits.

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tyfon
I subscribed to them since the mid 90s but stopped once they went digital
only. Not sure how many they lost doing that but for me at least having it on
paper was the one thing that made it valuable to me as a subscription. High
quality articles on different subjects regarding linux have been available
online for free for quite a while.

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AdmiralAsshat
>Our next big change came in 2011, when we moved to all-digital publishing,
because newsstand bookstores were dying (goodbye Borders), and the cost of
printing became impossibly high.

Gah. That brings back bad memories. When I moved to this area in 2011, there
were _five_ Borders within a 20 mile radius of me. They all closed within six
months of my moving here. B&N and Books-a-Million are pale imitations.

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Mediterraneo10
In recent years, across Europe I have seen large bookshops, even the flagship
stores of once-serious chains, become largely empty. Where once densely packed
shelves lined the walls and formed aisles, now there are half-empty shelves
along the walls with just a handful of books scattered on them. The space in
between is dedicated almost entirely to what I would call hipster
accoutrements: vinyl records, Moleskine notebooks, fancy teapots, Kikkerland
products, etc. Personally, I don’t get how these shops stay profitable. They
seem to be renting a huge amount of space, presumably expensive, and not
actually using most of it.

In any event, going back to the topic here, those bookshops have often done
away with magazines entirely. Thus, Linux Journal couldn’t have sold their mag
in bookstores even when some bookstores are still around.

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timClicks
Flagship stores don't really make money. They're there as advertising that
hopefully pays for itself. Making money in retail is determined by the
efficiency of distribution and supply chain.

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volkadav
Stumbling across the December '98 issue of Linux Journal in the Tower Records
store across from the UT Austin campus was kind of a transformative moment for
me. :) Resubscribed just for that sense of nostalgia alone.

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volkadav
And now, having looked through the online archives you get access to as a
subscriber, I realize my memory was faulty. It was the November issue with
Guido on the cover!

 _nostalgias in intense greybeard_ The other holy shit moment I had with linux
was installing slackware from a pile of repurposed AOL floppies. Ah, good
times...

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newaccoutnas
Happy Birthday - Many fond memories of reading Linux Journal on holidays when
I was younger (early 2000's) which was formative for my career (even if my
family thought it was a bit strange at the time)

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ausjke
My ten year subscription is going to end soon, while I'm not really reading LJ
much these days I still plan to renew to show the support.

I also hope LWN can produce a monthly PDF/mobi/epub for its subscribers. I
will click it from my inbox as there are too many websites to visit daily.

It's hard to make everyone happy, is LJ for beginners? sys admins? experienced
users? At the moment it is trying to get everyone some info useful.

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segphault
My career as a technical writer began 15 years ago with an article that I
wrote for Linux Journal. I'm glad that they were able to work out their
financial issues and find new sponsorship to sustain them.

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j16sdiz
I unsubscribed when the editor in chief was replaced in around 2000 (can't
remember the exact year). It became more "political" and "business" and less
"hacker"

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tracker1
I wish them all the best... Unfortunately I kept in a year after they stopped
print publication. Though may give it another shot with my tablet at home.

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reacharavindh
A happy subscriber here. Happy birthday!

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pjmlp
Happy Birthday, I have been a subscriber since the early days, thanks for
lessons learned.

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muterad_murilax
Is the very first issue available online somewhere?

