Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Some open questions for Doc Searls
Author: Eric Kidd Posted: 5/3/1999; 2:54:28 PM Topic: Linux' wide open spaces Msg #: 5576 (In response to 5562) Prev/Next: 5575 / 5577
Don't worry about my either/or logic. History suggests that you can't have a half geek, half non-geek magazine for ever, but you can keep it up for quite a long time.That's true, with Byte as the most obvious case in point. But I'd like us to try. If we succeed, there are all kinds of ways we can take it.
Oh, as a reader of geek magazines, I could give you all sorts of examples. Even things like the Communications of the ACM tend to get fluffy over time.
I think it's mostly a matter of demographics and advertisers. Programmers and non-programmers are very different groups, and there's a lot more non-programmers. So a little bit of demographic research will tell you that's there's more money if you appeal to the non-programmers.
But in the short term, the Linux community is supersaturated with inquistitive geeks and top-notch hackers. O'Reilly does quite well by targeting this group of people. I figure that the LJ will be able to persue a split strategy for several years, at least.
In the long run, I'd like to see both sorts of Linux publications: a good, glossy end-user magazine, and super-geeky journal for interesting hacks.
I do believe this is also the idea at SSC. If it can be done, even if in a clunky way, at least try to do it. Going with Mac or PC clients would be too easy.
With that attitude, we'll make a Linux hacker out of you yet. ;-) Have you ever spent a day pounding version 0.10 of some software package into submission just for sheer kicks?[1] If so, the condition's chronic.
Cheers, Eric
[1] I like my computers to be user-friendly about 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time is a deliberate learning exercise. Keeps me busy, and all that.
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