Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Some open questions for Doc Searls

Author:Doc Searls
Posted:5/1/1999; 3:51:03 PM
Topic:Linux' wide open spaces
Msg #:5512 (In response to 5507)
Prev/Next:5511 / 5513

Linux Journal is as geeky as ever, and there are no plans to make it any less geeky. (Though if you renew your subscription, or look on the racks at Borders or Barnes & Noble, I think you'll see a magazine with better design than it had a year ago.)

Our plan is not to "go non-technical." It's to add non-technical content, in any one or more of several ways: 1) within LJ, resulting in something like Byte at its best; 2) in a separate publication that would perhaps originate as a section of LJ; 3) on the Web; 4) some combination of the above.

You say,
>The way I see it, the LJ has two choices: remain a technical magazine
>with a limited but enthusiastic readership, or completely alienate
>its current subscriber base and try to drum up readership among
>growing "non-programmer" segment of the Linux community.

Why the OR logic? What is it about ADDing nongeek content (and subtracting no geek content) that will "completely alienate" the current subscriber base?

Re:
>If the LJ's going to remain a technical magazine, though, you'll have
>to become a hard-core Linux geek yourself. ;-) If you don't find it
>fun to spend long nights battling some obscure system gremlin, you'll
>have trouble relating to your current readers.

Let me put it this way: I have been told that I had best deliver my editorial matter written in VI. And learning VI for a client-with-a-mouse guy like me is a major bitch; although I'm glad to do it.

As with many corporate creatures in the Linux world, there is an extreme alergy within LJ and its parent, SSC, to anything from the non-Unix world, especially from Windows and Mac (unless it's really cool, like the BeOS). I'm working to change that at least a bit, since the Linux (and for that matter Unix) world is largely a server-based one, while the Mac and PC worlds are mostly client-based. It is in the interest of Linux developers to embrace the zillions of Windows and Mac clients out there, or at least to admit they exist.

Confusing things even more is Red Hat, which talks constantly of such slick notions as "branding" and "consumer markets," while the most useful Linux activity is on the server side. But all that branding talk is what attracts investment and grows interest in Linux overall.

On the client side, there are not many productivity tools available for Linux. Worse, the open source development model doesn't seem to be delivering them.

Case in point: if you want to do serious publishing, you have to use Photoshop. While the open source GIMP is a marvelous tool, and very much a replicant of Photoshop, it won't create the CMYK files that are necessary to do color separations and publish magazines. So LJ uses a Windows machine for this one purpose (while a Mac might be preferable, using one -- with its brainless one-button mouse -- would be even less thinkable). LJ's graphics people have pleaded with the GIMP development community to give the world CMYK compatibility, and nobody is interested. My good pal Eric Raymond says "don't underestimate any hacker's ability to solve a problem." But here is a real problem that has been presented to precisely the right hacker community, and nobody wants to work on it. I'm not sure what to make of that; but it doesn't support the notion that no-owner open source is the best development platform (or framework, or whatever).

But hey, it's early. And I'm excited, no matter where this thing goes.









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