Linux Journal shuts down

[Posted December 1, 2017 by corbet]

We were sad to encounter the announcement that Linux Journal will be shutting down. "The simple fact is that we’ve run out of money, and options along with it. We never had a wealthy corporate parent or deep pockets of our own, and that made us an anomaly among publishers, from start to finish. While we got to be good at flying close to the ground for a long time, we lost what little elevation we had in November, when the scale finally tipped irrevocably to the negative." Linux Journal was out there tracking what was happening in our community long before anybody else; it will be missed.

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The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 19:57 UTC (Fri) by kay (subscriber, #1362) [Link]

these are sad news ... hope lwn will not follow any time soon ..

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 3, 2017 3:02 UTC (Sun) by jcm (subscriber, #18262) [Link]

Those of us who work for corporations that benefits certainly owe it to ourselves to ensure LWN is well supported (and we do advocate for such).

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 8, 2017 19:39 UTC (Fri) by solarion (subscriber, #112402) [Link]

Corporate subscription? Personal subscription? Why not both? :)

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 8, 2017 20:19 UTC (Fri) by jcm (subscriber, #18262) [Link]

Personally, I do have both. It's important though to ensure our companies know why we have both - so if they get any stats on usage they understand we use it but just care a lot ;)

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 5, 2017 12:55 UTC (Tue) by xjtuwjp (subscriber, #91330) [Link]

I became a subscriber after this news.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 20:11 UTC (Fri) by amacater (subscriber, #790) [Link]

After BYTE closed, Linux Journal was my favourite physical copy magazine, then digital, then gone.
LWN is it now for intelligence and timely information on Linux. (ex)-subscriber and sad person

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 20:12 UTC (Fri) by ArgylePwnage (subscriber, #110409) [Link]

I wonder if they will make readily available their Blogs, Review and How-Tos section.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 20:28 UTC (Fri) by bcrl (subscriber, #5934) [Link]

Perhaps LWN could offer to give their archives a place to live on?

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 20:39 UTC (Fri) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

Unlikely -- they mention having gone into debt, in the same breath as they mention their archives. Their archives, especially from the early years, would be really valuable.

I'm so down that I recycled my paper copies of LJ some years ago...

It was LJ that brought me into touch with Qt, which is the single most important free software toolkit in existence, it was LJ that was, to me, the successor to Byte, but for the past years, I never ever glimpsed even a glimmer of relevance in their website.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 21:05 UTC (Fri) by zlynx (subscriber, #2285) [Link]

LJ is giving their subscribers a free download of their 800 MB full archive. Although when I tried, Google Drive said there'd been too many downloads and I'd have to wait.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 22:09 UTC (Fri) by dc123 (subscriber, #117760) [Link]

Link?

TIA

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 22:14 UTC (Fri) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75) [Link]

Sadly, giving subscribers a free download of their whole archive doesn't give anyone else the right to share it.

artistic immortality

Posted Dec 2, 2017 0:45 UTC (Sat) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

LJ had an "artistic immortality policy" encouraging authors to contribute their work to their favorite freely licensed projects after publication.

http://m.linuxjournal.com/article/6240

Authors who still have their original work can protect it by finding some project documentation where it's a good fit and submitting it.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 2, 2017 7:32 UTC (Sat) by WolfWings (subscriber, #56790) [Link]

It's available for non-subscribers as well to purchase a copy currently:

http://lj.mybigcommerce.com/linux-journal-archive-1994-2017/

I've purchased it and can confirm it works fine at the moment at least.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 2, 2017 16:03 UTC (Sat) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

Thanks for the link. I've ordered my copy as well. Maybe it helps them with their debts... And I can forever go back and wallow in nostalgia for the nineties.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 11, 2017 16:12 UTC (Mon) by cavok (subscriber, #33216) [Link]

I've just done the same, I've the zip file.

Thanks for all the fish.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 3, 2017 19:09 UTC (Sun) by salimma (subscriber, #34460) [Link]

Thanks for the link. Looks like the site is not working well at the moment - I'm unable to add the item to the cart. Will come back and try later.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 3, 2017 20:32 UTC (Sun) by Thomas (subscriber, #39963) [Link]

If you click on the "Add to cart" link in the left panel it works. Main page link did not work for me either.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 4, 2017 13:18 UTC (Mon) by przemoc (subscriber, #67594) [Link]

Thanks for the link. I also purchased the archive. It's great that they provide it and its price is affordable for practically anyone. It's bad when things disappear quickly, without prior notice, therefore not allowing anyone to perform some backup routine, just to preserve the legacy, which is IMHO important especially for longer endeavors or projects spanning multiple years. Thankfully it didn't happen here.

Just downloaded it and to be honest I hoped for PDFs, because HTML/Web publishing doesn't produce as nicely typed or laid out documents as what is usually prepared for print. Sadly, all images are low resolution (and with even smaller duplicates, which I find quite wasteful). Cover images are actually tiny: 162x217. But at least text is text and it's there.

To sum it up, the archive is not some great bargain, but I find the price ($12) to be rather fair for what you can find in their zip. And I hope that by buying it I helped them even if very tiny bit.

All past efforts of LJ crew are appreciated and I wish them good luck with whatever they're doing presently or will be doing in future.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 4, 2017 14:10 UTC (Mon) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

As other people mentioned, current subscribers can download the archive for free.
In addition, current subscribers can download all issues since April 2005 in PDF,
and all issues since September 2011 in EPUB and MOBI.
(Personally, I've never used the latter two formats, but storage is cheap, and AMANDA is my friend ;-)

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 7, 2017 18:24 UTC (Thu) by amk (subscriber, #19) [Link]

Was there a ZIP or other archive available with the .ePub files, or did you have to download them one-by-one?

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 14, 2017 14:19 UTC (Thu) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

I downloaded them individually, each month.

The Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 3, 2017 23:11 UTC (Sun) by mdolan (subscriber, #104340) [Link]

I've been a subscriber and was able to download the archive. It's impressive how nicely organized they have it.

Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 1, 2017 22:53 UTC (Fri) by unixbhaskar (subscriber, #44758) [Link]

A bad news, indeed.I am so hooked on it...learned so many things ...heck. So sad to se ya go..wish I could help.

Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 2, 2017 4:51 UTC (Sat) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link]

I cut my "linux" teeth on this magazine! Very sad......I will be certain to keep subscribing to LWN as long as I can. I have some LJ CDs in my computer shack....I will cherish them, and gladly pay $$$ for what I don't have.

Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 2, 2017 13:14 UTC (Sat) by amacater (subscriber, #790) [Link]

The archive is $11 from their site to download. That's all that's there in their shop now. Subscribers with a current subscription are getting the full archive for free and should have been sent a link to download from valid until December 31 2017. It's a 707Mb zip file or so.

Taking out a new subscription wouldn't help, sadly. Thanks to all the contributors over the years who've made it so worthwhile.

Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 4, 2017 13:08 UTC (Mon) by tomponline (subscriber, #120053) [Link]

A very sad loss. I've been a reader of their online edition for years. I've now purchased my first LWN subscription though! :)

Linux Journal shuts down

Posted Dec 5, 2017 0:13 UTC (Tue) by dsommers (subscriber, #55274) [Link]

I have so mixed feelings about this. I'm sad, as LJ was one of my favourites back in the late 90s and early 2000, together with Linux Magazine (before they redid their layout and target audience). I usually bought the printed versions in local shop whenever there were some nice articles (which was quite frequent back then).

Later on I wanted to subscribe, but only the digital subscription was available. I did that as well and subscribed for a couple of years. But I don't know if I had grown out of their format - or if they had lost their good path - or both. I honestly thought the quality much lower than in the "old days". And with column promoting non-FOSS software and solutions. Advertisement for various non-Free products. I honestly felt they had forgotten where Linux came from. And whenever there was some editorial articles, it had a strong focus on Ubuntu primarily. When I realized I more generally read Reuven M. Lerners, Dave Taylor, Kyle Rankins and occasionally Doc Searls (and earlier days also Mick Bauers) articles and skipped the rest; I didn't find it worth the subscription. Those three first ones are the primary reason I extended my subscription the last time.

It's sad to see it go; as I truly learnt a lot in the early days and it would be good if they had found a new path forward. But I'm also not surprised it goes away. I did buy a copy of the last archive though; mostly due to nostalgic reasons and the price was fair (I already had an older archive so I mostly knew what I would get). Skimming through the issues, it is depressing to see how much LJ in many regards did not move much forward. It is those I've already mentioned who to me had some consistent path forward. Some of the more guest articles were great too, of course, but most of them didn't catch my field of interest too often.

And just to pile up on this non-FOSS attitude of LJ. The web server provided on the archive is based on a proprietary product (FlyingAnt CD web server by Wrensoft). Is it truly that hard to make something similar using Python or node.js (or whatever) together with SQLite? Okay, I get that cross-platform can be a bit more daunting. But still, why not stay true to the roots of where Linux came from; the free open source communities? I'm quite sure several of their regular article writers could handle such a challenge.

I hope we will see some new magazine(s) appearing, with new ideas and new spirit, to follow up on the new tech within the FOSS landscape. And LWN.net will hopefully stay around for a long time forward, as their work is something I do appreciate.