Building the best Linux magazine
Work is already underway on Linux Voice issue 1, which should be in your hands and inboxes in February. We’ll put our (cumulative) decades of Linux magazine making experience into it, so rest assured it’ll be a corker. But Linux Voice is your magazine, and we want to make sure that everyone gets the most out of it. So as we get cracking, here’s your chance to tell us exactly what you want to see in the months ahead.
Maybe you want us to have a massive tutorials section, or perhaps you’d like to see more features on Free Software in the developing world. You might want us to focus our reviews on lesser-known distros, or spend more time looking at open hardware. Whatever the case, let us know your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll do everything humanly (and perhaps superhumanly) possible to cram it all into Linux Voice. Thanks!
(Illustration by Dave Saunders. May be related.)
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About The Author
Mike Saunders
Mike stores his data by printing out hex dumps and laminating the sheets. He's the author of The Haynes Linux Manual and the creator of MikeOS, an operating system hand-built from assembly language.
I'd like to see technical interviews. People going deep into details about the technical challenges that they face in order to make their projects succesful. LWN style, hardcore technical stuff. At least one section please!
I'd like to see more articles on data acquisition and processing using r.pi or embedded Linux systems for example. Also projects to build weather stations, home automation systems etc. Also it would be great to hear about how academia, science and research are utilising Linux to create new systems and products
I'd like to see fewer articles on video editing and how to use FOSS software i.e. tutorials, and as LV will be different it would be nice not to see the same articles in 18 months' time – let's keep moving forward not recycling old articles.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the magazine and becoming part of this exciting new community.
Thanks
GW.
I quite like the software tutorials duch ad how to make videos as long as once they do it with cinerra, then rith pitivi and at a laterdate commandline batch processing of videos and after that addding svg to html5 videos!
What I would like to read:
– Interviews (technical interviews, behind the stage interviews, interviews about linux history, FOSS people). I would like to know more about people like Clem Lefebvre for example. What they do, how they came to doing that, how they earn their living, how they live, how difficult and time consuming it is to develop things like Cinnamon or Nemo. What they want to do in the next 2, 5, or 10 years.
– Questions & Answers (similar as in Full Circle Magazine, but not only Ubuntu-related, open to all distros). I think that section is really really good, but easily overlooked.
– Display Servers explained. What are advantages and disadvantages of Mir, Wayland, X? Beyond bashing any of them.
Please avoid news sections as much as possible, since we can find that in other places before it can be printed.
Avoid desktop discussions like "Why KDE is better than Unity". Instead write an article: "How to make KDE look good and be really useful for anyone".
Generally focus on things that you cannot find using Google. This is key to success with a print magazine.
Maybe some of the folk at the Full Circle magazine would contribute and article or two to Linux Voice.
Like your prev mag, but with a tat more hard core stuff, a tat less newbees stuff.
Please, manage to get the Doctor (Mr Brown)…
Why not a regular on some kernel aspect?
Interviews are good, unique to the mag.
A tad less newbie stuff, a tad more hard-core stuff. Sounds pretty much like what we had in mind.
'A tad more hard-core stuff'! B***** there goes my subscription. Good luck anyway folks.
What a Silly Billy I am! I'd better read the 'tad more' technical articles first, I'll no doubt learn something useful.
as long as it is just a tad. But please still have the q&a section or a section of faq of the month?
In issue 1 would be good to get an article about the birth of the mag:
explaining why you decided to leave your previous mag,
the role palyed by the article on crowdfunding that you published in you ultimate mag!
etc…
The full story of why and how deserves to be told one day (maybe as a TED Talk? There are community, tech, media, management and business angles that we could cover), but at the moment we're looking to the future. Our priority is to make Linux Voice as good as it can possibly be.
Bloody hell these captchas are hard
Congrats!
Some less serious ideas (because I can't think of any good ones that no-one else is going to say):
1. Proprietary software quote of the month
2. Increasingly unbelievable rumours about what's happening at another Linux magazine
3. More challenges
1/ I can see that getting old, and anyway, I think we'd rather focus on what's great about free software rather than give the oxygen of publicity to some bald ape comparing the GPL to a cancer.
2/ Hmm. Maybe our sources will unearth something. Maybe not.
3/ Challenge accepted!
Interviews with people involved in up-and-coming technologies (Docker springs to mind). Interviews with people involved in large, established projects like distros and Gnome and KDE and stuff like that are always interesting.
Games! More games! Since Linux is rapidly becoming a big-player gaming platform. With indies routinely launching on Linux these days and even AAA titles like Metro, Rome 2 and Civ V releasing/announcing ports. Whether for the better or the worse (which is an interesting issue in itself), this is going to change what Linux *is* and I'd love to see you dissecting, commenting on and reporting that process as it happens.
I'd also love to see more on Linux gaming, and team challenges (getting ever more ridiculous – how about seeing how you get on using a text based web browser for a week? Or getting by using Red Star OS?)
Articles on innovative use of Linux and FOSS in public and private sector, including what proprietary software has been replaced, and how it has been received by the staff who use it.
…plus more tutorials on making music with Linux 🙂
It'd be great to have a regular column talking to people who actually *use* Linux to do their day to day work. Something akin to what you see on "usesthis.com" but hopefully more in depth so that people who want to use Linux for similar reasons can read about it.
Echo uoou's comments. I'd love to see a small gaming section. It feels like Linux gaming is thriving and about to take off in an even bigger way, so Linux Voice could really take a lead here in covering it.
Most of the above plus…
How to update my TomTom on a Linux Box. TomToms are running with imbedded Linux but how to update it without resorting to a proprietary OS?
Pretty Please.
I went looking recently for how to root my android phone using Linux. Embedded devices and how to enhance them via a Linux desktop approach would be great. Love to know how to upgrade my Garmin!
There are already some corkers of suggestions which I heartily agree with:
1. No news section, print magazines are too slow for news.
2. Avoid too many "How to set up X with Y distro" articles.
3. Avoid lots those comparison of video editors or random photo programs.
4. The more interviews the better.
5. Keep the LXF section "What on earth is X", that was always informative and gave me a good insight into what was what.
6. Lots more programming tutorials for various technologies. When I was starting out coding, linux format was a big part of where I got ideas for new projects etc (google talk bots etc).
I think a real opportunity you guys have is to encourage activity from your readers not only in the magazine but through the podcast and any other activities that may come. We have the community now to really create something lasting and great for opensource which is headed by the magazine but complemented by lots of other things between releases.
Linux Format was great, but Linux Voice can be so much better.
1/ I'm not averse to a news section as such, but definitely not in its current form. As you say (and as plenty of other people on here are saying), the best place for 'new' news is on LinuxVoice.com. Maybe we could filter a few of the stories that have generated the most debate into the magazine?
4/ Interviews are fun. We've met some fascinating people over the years and I'd like to keep doing it.
5/ OK. I like WOE as an intro to new stuff, as long at's done right. And it will be done right.
6/ I think projects are absolutely key to what we're doing here. And I'd love some area of the website where readers can share what they've done, and ideas for how to go further.
I concur that there's a real opportunity to build a community — or maybe more accurately, to provide an extra outlet for the existing microcommunities that are out there already. We've been invited to Hampshire LUG in April, and to Preston in the New Year. It'll be a lot of travelling, but well worth it. And the A59 back to York in the low winter sunshine is beautiful.
You're always welcome at tower LUG and maker space here in sunny Blackpool most Saturday's 10am – 2pm ish if we know you're coming we might stretch to fancy coffee and biscuits 🙂
I really like the point 2 and 3 above.
how do I know which photo manager is best? what if I have the hurd and i want to use kde?
Sounds like I might be on my own here but the news is one of the sections I've valued most over the ten years reading that other magazine. A succinct, selected digest of important events from a trusted, well connected source, neatly delivered on thought provoking, non-interactive paper – what's not to like!
If news goes online only could it please be kept tamed, maybe a separate lower traffic stream for those of us who don't need to know everything that's happening in FLOSS, just the juicy bits. It would be great to see something kept in the magazine somehow as well.
Votre
It would be really nice if LV could avoid LF's bad habit of making their tutorials too short. About half the time, while reading LF, I would start feeling like I was in the middle of an increasingly interesting discussion, only to have the other person suddenly glance at their wrist and say "Oh Lord! Look at the time! I must be going."
'Narrower and deeper' is better than 'broad and shallow' IMO. We have far too many 'survey' tech magazine as it is. Let's hope LV will be different.
🙂
Congratulation on reaching your target.
It would be great if you could have hardware section featuring currently available working hardware. Eg wireless cards, printers scanners, graphics cards, readers could feedback hardware compatibly/performance to help.
A tutorial on setting up your own mail server would also be nice.
yes! a look through h-node.org to find out which hardware us freedom friendly!
Congratulations on reaching your target.
It would be great if you could have hardware section featuring currently available working hardware. Eg wireless cards, printers scanners, graphics cards, readers could feedback hardware compatibly/performance to help.
A tutorial on setting up your own mail server would also be nice.
Exploring Emacs extensions like org mode for making to do lists and sharing this data with mobile devices ('the power & portability of text files!').
Customising Emacs themes.
Backup solutions with rsync etc.
Building a desktop PC (cheap) for Linux.
We'll need a backup system ourselves; how about we tutorialise whatever it is that we end up using?
yes please. and emacs org mode sounds interesting!
bash corner for scripting tutorials with examples of how to do things we can try out on our own servers
Forgot to mention… new software reviews or mentions from sourceforge, github…etc, existing software common uses and little known uses… aka tmux or Gigolo.
I'd like to see:
– A DVD (eventually)
– A regular Susan Linton column
– Maybe no news section (this could be done on the Podcast)
More specifically:
– An article on PyGTK and moving to PyGObject (I am REALLY confused about this)
– An beginners article to C (Ilike Python, but I'd like to see what C is like (Did I say I am REALLY confused about this…C??)
Please; pretty please even… don't forget the "beginners page" [command line tricks etc.].
Audience/s is/are not *all* at the Linus torvalds level yet… we could do with some friendlt help ;))
As I said on Hacker News, a bit more for professional Software Developers. Interviews with those at the forefront of tech is always good, but for me, in depth tutorials on tech I don't deal with everyday is always interesting. A series of articles entitled "An Introduction to the Kernel" would definitely be a good read.
Long calm article about the culture in the Linux ecosystem and FOSS world.
I don't care about Linux News at all, because they are always outdated on paper.
I would like to read articles that report about bigger changes distros make, like the systemd switch several distro did and some will do.
Stories about how FOSS (and Linux) enables people to do things they could not use with closed software or paid software.
Or how different Linux communities are all over the world. A feature about Linux in Japan would be interesting.
Don't report so much about new technology that could disappear in two years. I want a magazine that i could read in 5 years without being annoyed about outdated tutorials and news.
Be more[1] about concepts than specific programs.
[1] not exclusive, just more
Well done for reaching your target. I've really excited to see the latest edition. I agree with a previous post – less news the better. Really news should appear on your website.
I love enterprise tutorials and interesting people. So it would be great to see an article on :
– Ansible vs Pupper vs Chef for configuration of servers
– How to keep manage multiple servers and keep them up to date.
– Using gource to make cool video of open source projects. http://code.google.com/p/gource/
– Using bacula to back things up.
– Random articles on random bits of software that I never knew existed is really cool.
– Finally, I love the interviews. I think that alot of magazine readers want to be or are developers. So perhaps you could a section called "The day in the life of…" and you could interview a developer (doesn't have to be famous) and find out what they do and what tools they like. This could be like the Sunday Time magazine.
Women. And I don't mean in bikinis. More content by and about a diverse range of linux users, community members and contributors is needed, not just white dudes. Looking forward to Linux Voice!
I echo Sam's request for women. I saw an interesting article in the Telegraph recently http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10405226/Coding-still-a-mans-game.html and it seems like an area where there should be more focus. After all, are we saying that only 50% of the population has anything to do with computing?
As for the rest if the mag, a letters page would be helpful. I've used Linux since 2006, but only as a fairly mediocre user, so tips on beginners stuff is welcome, and despite the suggestions that there should be no news, or simply limit news to podcast, I think reading about news items is very important, especially for people who a) can't be bothered searching for Linux related news online, and more importantly, b) deaf people who can't hear the podcast.
And, while I'm thinking about it, how about an article that looks at Linux distros that focus on assisted technologies for people with disabilities. I know they were covered in LXF recently, but I really think some proper attention and promotion of such lifelines is due.
I'd love to see a decent in depth article on how to set up myth TV
I agree with some of the other comments above, that often the articles in lxf were too short on more technical subjects – this is especially the case with myth TV where any mentions that were in lxf or the podcast were that "its too hard to set up"
This would help me remove windows from the last PC in the house running it!
You gotta do it jm… and spend the time to get cec (controling the mythtv using your tv remote control over the HDMI cable) working… it's a winner!
I would like there to be lots of different not so well known free software.
What would also be cool is if there were a set of articles/tutorial that show a coherent setup, phone/tv/pc/nas/home automation/etc… all working smooth together, e.g. streaming from phone and pc to tv, KDE Connect, auto backups, etc… Could potentially be a set little section in each release which shows another tool or device which adds more awesomeness to a full experiences.
Huge congratulations guys! Really looking forward to my first print copy (courtesy of my wife for christmas). I would love to see the irreverent style of Amiga Format and maybe some tutorials on painting a cityscape in deluxepaint IV. I mean the GIMP 🙂 Guest articles from Nick Veitch? Also, how about a pub meet-up?
Pub Get together: you have created a community with your crowd funder. Perhaps a community gathering once a year. It would be fun and helpful to keep in touch with your market!
I agree with Saspiron about the integration thing, but further on this line, tutorials on getting (specific) hardware going in Linux. Often easy in Windows, and just as often apparently mind shatteringly complex on linux.
I agree with Sam and Sultan of Swing about the need for more women. Both to redress the balance of a publishing culture disproportionately dominated by (white) men and also to give a broad range of role models to inspire everyone in an IT culture tarnished by this ongoing problem.
I'd love to see Linux Voice take this seriously. In one years time what percentage of the words in the magazine will have been written by a woman? Or be about a project that is lead by a woman? I would encourage an overt strategy to make a change. Giving 50% of profit away and opening up more to readers is all good but it could be a bit hollow if it's still "oh and girls too of course".
It would be fantastic to see Linux Voice leading the way, not just making token gestures. You could talk to some prominent activists who have given proper consideration to this to get their recommendations on how best to make real progress.
+1
Really important IMHO.
Maybe interviewing someone from http://adainitiative.org would be a good starting point if one is needed.
I'd like to see the Linux Voice equivalent of your Coding Academy but for people who have no coding experience. I'd also like to read about the people in the background of open source projects i.e. the folks who write the documentation, tutorials etc.
If we can write something that we think will get more people into coding, then we will. Plus, that sort of thing will remain useful long after it's first published, so will live on after we've relicensed it CC-BY-SA.
First of, this is awesome! Congrats on reaching the target guys. Thumbsup!
Please ensure Linux Voice contains materials that can help people to become Independent in their computing needs – that it become the "source of know-hows" for things they can learn and expect to keep for good ( as opposed to learning a company's product that the company can make irrelevant at any time by throwing a new version and forcing it down people's throat )
Have a healthy dose of articles on terminal commands, Have articles on how to protect our privacy, security and freedom. Have articles on Open-source Hardware too in addition to Open-source Software, Have articles on Orca & Assistive Technologies – Be the guru for Independence
Let Linux Voice Be The Voice Of Liberty In Computing
Just a personal story, I'm a visually impaired user who relies on the Orca screen reader on a daily basis. I was drawn to Linux because of the independence that the Linux ecosystem offers. When I was starting Linux, I fumbled around alot and find myself in need of practical Linux skills and know-how – and that was what brought me to your previous magazine Linux Format…( and many thanks to you guys, I learned a lot from there )
And now I just can't wait for the first issue of Linux Voice! 🙂
what uoou said: gaming, even if I am not at all into games, about the process and how it could change Linux as a whole
what Sam said: women; sad there seems to be no women commenting on their interests so it may be illegal but try to hire/enroll women to tell you what interests them
what Sultan of Swing said: accessibility, especially how to overcome the hurdle of installation
And what interests me most is how to fullfill on the promise of the Internet, levelling the playfield between sender and receiver, p2p has been a good start and there are some distributed search engines but what about secure speedy redundant distributed hosting, distributed clouds, distributed social networks, etc and the easy secure servers (like p2p) needed so that any user can host them even in consumer machines
I forgot, what is being done to level with proprietary, siri? google now? And also I like "my story" from full circle magazine very much so something alike
I agree with the above comments about tutorials that are deeper, but perhaps more narrowly focused. Since I started learning Linux under a year ago, I've learned how to use VIM when using the command line. Now I'm curious about EMACS and would suggest it for a tutorial. I figure, with properly focused tutorials, that series could run for some length of time.
I'd also like to see sections on effective use of REGEX. In addition, I found Dr. Brown's write-ups on AWK and SED very interesting and hope to explore at least AWK in more depth.
If there could be sections or tutorials on the various "flavors" of Linux, I'd appreciate it. After all, there is an Ubuntu way of doing things (requiring little beyond the GUI), a Debian way, a Slackware way, etc. Perhaps look in some depth at how to configure some of these systems. After all, one of the great things about Linux is flexibility; if you don't like something, change it. Does that only mean pick a different DM if you get tired of KDE or Gnome, or does it go deeper than that?
Also, configuring wireless internet in Linux can still be problematic, if Network Manager or wicd can't be made to work right. Various ways to get that job done could be discussed.
Finally, contributing. If somebody wants to contribute to Linux and open source software, which programming languages should they learn? How else can we contribute? I often see "documentation," and that certainly will vary by distro or software project, but what do they mean, like technical writing, how to do stuff with the distro/software?
I've enjoyed reading LF for the past 20 months or so. I'll look forward to your new magazine and will see which one suits me better. I have found some of the LF tutorials a bit shallow, and I don't get much use from the HotPicks section. The DVD is nice to have but I don't often do much with them.
Good luck!
Please do an article on setting up an environment for a freelancer or small business. This would include:
* openVPN
* File Server
* Connecting multiple linux machines
* External router setup
We'll definitely be doing at least some of this when we set up our hardware, so we'd be daft not to turn the experience gained into a couple of tutorials.
A page in every issue that teaching a little bit more about bash. To the point where if you have all the magazines, you could become very comfortable with the commandline. One time it could be about navigating directories and moving/copying files, then the next issue could have something about regex basics, then easy bash scripts, then gnu screen, etc.
I second this! Maybe a 'Using BASH to do awesome things that you can't do by clicking your mouse' or something less wordy
Ooh, good luck keeping everyone happy! For my part, I LOVED the raspberry Pi tutorials, and all the programming tutorials. So, for me it's all about the tutorials. Most freely available tutorials are very difficult to follow.
Dr Brown's Administeria is one of the most interesting and useful (and sometimes entertaining) parts of LXF.
Poach him, please!
Also, often learn quite a lot from the questions bit, though sometimes the answers look like they were thrown in without too much research!
Plus everything everyone else said. Good luck with that!
I would really love if there was a section or space where, as you say in your original post, you talk about Free Software helping developing countries. In this aspect, an specific niche I'm trying to fill myself (and it's not easy) is how Free Software can really help in politics nowadays, not only empowering citizens with free collaboration tools that could make a huge impact on how decisions are taken but also allowing the institutions to build custom and free options in order to obtain technological sovereignty.
Good luck and my best wishes for the new magazine! Very excited to read the first issue!
Cheers from Spain.
Congrats on the successful founding!
I would love to see a Kernel column where the current developments in the Linux Kernel are being discussed. Out of personal interest I think it would be great to see some Howto-articles about Kernel modules/driver development.
Hi, congratulations on reaching the goal
I am still new to linux and would like to see just a short bit in each issue which was a how to do something basic, something that people wished someone had told them when they started using linux.
Roll on feb
More on linux in developing countries.
Congratulations on hitting the target, I'm looking forward to the first issue!
I'd like to see some articles on using Linux in the enterprise, moving away from Windows stack and replacing it with Linux offerings e.g. ServiceDesk software, accounts packages, moving between Office documents etc. An in-depth look at OpenStack would also be appreciated.
I agree with suggestions above for tutorials on bash scripting and on poaching Dr Brown!
Linux around the world, from underdeveloped to developed economies.
Bash tutorials on machine automation; make my Tux a proper robot.
Skip the comparison head-to-head unless the software's purpose is constricted (e.g. media players, browsers). They were often sort of forced upon software not competing in the same area.
Feature or cover creative, original uses or venues for FOSS.
Programming tutorials.
You are not going to please every one. But balance is key, a recognisable structure is crucial and entertainment essential.
Suggestions
Coding corner
Gadget garage
Snappy Apps
Along with the regular features
Saunders’ Solutions…a good consistent flow from common problem to solution ideas to practical application
Gregory’s Allegories …ideological dilemmas and fanning the fan base
Everard’s Very Hard stuff…Advanced programming and applications
Congratulations on floating the good ship Linux Voice. Here's some thoughts on future course.
I'd like to see Susan Linton's column re-appear in Linux Voice. I always wondered why it disappeared in LXF.
If Doctor Brown would contribute to Linux Voice that would be magnificent as his articles are great.
Plenty of RPI articles to read would be fantastic, especially interfacing RPI and Linux to the external world via hardware would be really interesting topic for a number of articles.
For the bandwidth challenged a DVD would be great in the future when you are really up and running.
I'd like to see LV be more technical and have less emphasis on newbie articles so leave that to the LXF readership.
Keep up the tutorials as they are valuable for self learning.
Hoping Graham Morrison returns to LV refreshed.
Good luck to you all for the new venture
I think susan is still in tuxmachines or something?
Fun and funny stuff. That's what attracted me to Linux Format originally.
Embedded gadgets.
So many cheap and cheerful and fun and powerful embedded linux gadgets available these days.
My current flavourite is a $49 Cyclone V base Arm + FPGA running embedded linux devkit.
Congratulations on reaching your funding goal. My suggestions and comments:-
1) No news section – keep that on the website – it's time sensitive
2) More Practical (and detailed) examples of using Linux software and fine-tuning it to a users unique requirements, eg:-
how a normal (ie non-sports) Club Treasurer could use Linux to control and manage both the accounts and membership records for two distinct types of members – one that has all communication sent by post and pays the membership fees by cheque or in cash and the other members that would like to pay their future subscriptions on-line through the club's existing Joomla CMS based website, which could then have a private members only area and/or forum included.
3) Promotion of Linux Voice local meetings in various parts of the UK.
4) Identifying from your subscriptions data, where there are clusters of supporters, and trying to find someone within that area to act as a local co-ordinator, with the ultimate aim of trying to form a local linux voice group.
5) If item 4) not possible for whatever reason, could your website include a section where people interested in trying to form a local group can identify themselves for others of a like mind to contact them through a secure forum/email system?
Looking forward to getting your first issue.
While I agree news become olds pretty fast, a concise summary of important events are important for those of us who are not able to follow up events due to studies, work or simply having no/intermittent internet access.
I suggest:
1) Important kernel changes
2) Newsworthy distro developments
3) News events that (may) have a big impact on GNU/Linux (valve, law, other OS's)
But only the relevant bits, with more in-depth background on the website (if applicable).
I agree with the people saying 'no news section'.
Not so if you don't have access to the net 24/7 and can privilege such information seeking.
Remember that it is a globally distributed magazine. For people without access these news that are not reported in regular media have their place in these magazines.
Congratulations on reaching the target – I can't wait to read my first issue.
What I'd like to see is more in depth articles with more words and less pictures.
I'm in agreement with others about no news section but articles going into detail about stories that had been in the news recently would be welcome.
Also I'd like to see occasional articles about the history of computing, especially free software and the culture that has grown up around it.
And finally I'd echo others requests for more women.
Good luck guys!
Lots of excellent suggestions, many of which would generate articles I'd like to read. I especially like the idea of a "kernel corner". I'd also like to see an (intermittent) column on "how we migrated our magazine production to completely free software"/"how we run our office using completely free software". By the way, I can't think of a better destination for your free software funding than to fund the projects that are developing the tools you'll need to achieve these two goals.
What Neal said, to spearhead the migration of all magazines to free software production tools; and reader's desktop screenshots specifying the tools that build the desktop; and on the news thing, having a unique point of linux news on the web page would be awesome, but a short recap in the magazine of the most important news during the last month may still be handy for people who only relay solely on the magazine for their linux news (for whatever reasons (time, or bandwidth constrains))
As well as catering for those of us who are more familiar with Linux I would like to see a beginner's section so the magazine can help take the reader from new user to someone confident using Linux as their main OS. Also as a Debian based Linux user I would like more tutorials on using RPM based distros and how to do some of the common tasks I take for granted in deb based distros in a terminal. Also it would be good to have a regular page or 2
From a regular user who is not a coder or IT professional and has just decided Windows/Mac no longer meets their needs. It could focus on some of the common pitfalls new users come across and hopefully explain how to deal with them in layman's terms. I know that it was a begginers page in another (non linux) magazine that helped give me the confidence to try Linux in 2006/7 but it is no longer written.
Here's my wish list:
– No news please (for the reasons already mentioned)
– As a sysadmin I always loved Dr. Brown's Administeria. Please bring him in!
– Less newbie stuff
– Native Linux virtualization articles/tutorials: qemu/kvm, virt-manager, working with disk images, snapshots etc. There's plenty of "VMware Workstation" & VirtualBox stuff out there
– technical interviews
Congratulations on hitting your goal!
Jorge
Responding to this for the third time: the news are important for those without ability to read it online, because it may indeed affect their local project but is not reported by regular media (TV/Radio).
It doesn't have to be 2 full pages, but a summary of news are a thankful service for readers who need them (and we are here).
Thank you.
ok finally read all here we go with my suggestions:
1) a magazine only about news.
just kidding.
1) one thing I have not seen or maybe Nick did a small article: how do you sublit a patch? pick one project find a bug (or fearure request) and fix it. The following month find a new project problably in a different programming language, version contril and the same. This would be the best way to do a tutorial and learn how help others colaborate with their favourite project
2) ditto but with documentation
3) ditto with translation or how to submit a bug properly and track how it is fixed.
4) html5 app for firefoxOS for example.
jeeesus, that is poorly written.
*summit a patch
*feature request
*version control
5) Absolutely no propietary software PLEASE! I don't care if it is DRM free or a really 'awesome' steam/valve game that is finally available to linux.
6) how to run a federated server for mediagoblin, gnusocial, pump.io or diaspora* for example.
Hi, just saw Andrew's video update #9 … This is cool! So for suggestions, we can be a little bit more.. "imaginative" right? ok, Here goes..
While it is great that the magazine will be jam packed with all kinds of tutorials for users of all levels,
it will be even greater if there is some sort of a "super index" that facilitates easy and efficient retrieval of the wealth of information that's contained inside.
( this is for when the magazine has published many issues like beyond year 3 or so )… a classic Table of Contents is too passive… as geeks, we'd naturally think of electronic/machine search functionality, but I beg to go further than that, if possible…
Nothing beats an "index" that's well put together by real human beings… He can put in some humour for example, or
additional context (historical/predictions/equivalence/compare-and-contrasts, promising-areas, be-carefuls, etc), that a search engine can't churn out.
I don't know how exactly this "super index" is going to look like, maybe in the form of an article published in a special edition every 6 months or a year, containing a very rich table
with a body of write-up, altogether spanning many pages, if not the most of that issue, or… bring it to the web as a web-application, or … I dont know, all I know is I want it 🙂
for example, let's say I read an article on getting started with raspberry pi, but lets just say that I have not gotten hold of a raspberry pi
at the time I was reading it, so it was not so relevant to me. But let's say that I remembered reading that we must use an SD card prepared with
a special dd command and that's all I could remember out of it, the details of the command I no longer remember.
Fast forward many moons later, I finally bought a raspberry pi and want to try it out. I remembered that there's a dd command and turn to this LV issue 64 that has a "super index".
I trace my index finger down a "30,000 ft view" table to search for "dd".
around "dd", there were entries like "Amahi", "BeagleBoneBlack", "cat", "disk recovery", "Dolphin", "echo", "entropy", "Flight Gear", etc.
The "dd" listing gave me a terminal icon and two numbers: p.17, r.32 – consulting the "legends page" at the beginning of the issue, I know that it's telling me that
dd is a terminal command, and I can find it in the "Table of Terminal Commands", more precisely, this is on page 27 of the issue and row 32.
So flipping to p27 and starting from the bottom (coz the row number is pretty large), 2 seconds later, my view landed on more info about "dd"
( "cat" and "cd" was on the same page too, several listings above it and on the next page, "dump", "echo", "ls", "mkdir" etc )
and there, on "dd" I saw "use this command to copy whole partition of a disk instead of just regular files. See [LV Feb-2014], p.20 for how to prepare an SD card for Raspberry Pi using dd command. To copy regular files, use cp – [terminal icon], p17, r4. For an exhaustive discussion on dd, see our Bash article inn [LV December-2015] p.11"
There is also a [Hazardous] icon with the words: "Be careful with dd, improper use of this command could result in you losing an entire disk partition. From the editors: some people like to think that dd stands for DuplicateDisk,
but we think of it as Dont-anyhow-Do-this 🙂 Oh btw, touch wood, but if it DID happen to you and you lost an entire partition, fear not, there is still hope yet – check out our article on data recovery in [LV July-2014] p.53-56, Good luck!"
So not only did I get what I wanted originally ( how to use dd to burn an image for my Raspberry Pi ), I also saw that I should exercise caution when using dd, I also got a reference for how dd works, and, if the unlucky thing happen to me, what I can do to recover a lost partition.
And besides the index of "Terminal Commands", there is also a "people" index – linking a list of names to LV articles on the projects they work on, their quotes, their thoughts, their crowdfunding campaigns etc.
And there's also an index of "Applications" where "Flight Gear", "OwnCloud", "Wireshark" etc are found
And an index of "Embedded Linux" containing listings such as "Olimex", "Olinuxino", "BeagleBoneBlack", "Raspberry Pi" etc ( I could get to that reference on preparing SD card for Raspberry Pi if I come in from here too )
an index of "Programming" containing listings such as "Python", "Scratch", etc
and so on and so on… 🙂
This kind of "index" i think, can separate LV from the rest of the magazines – they have CD archive with machine search functionality, but there's just some gap that machine search can't fill…
Nice one David. Not succinct, but nice. I agree it would be crucial to be able to index and search articles. We often read articles which are not immediately useful, but when we do need them, we are unable to find them again. Cue a system of hashtags or Tag cloud that is searchable either online, or even bettter downloadable. Clever bods would even be able to create a Linux Voice article search app…an idea that has legs.
Congratulations on making the target.
Maybe what would help you most are a list of articles from that other magazine that stuck with me:
– The article about burnout (as a professional java developer, I made a lot of my colleages read it). I would love to read more articals that are of general interest for ITers and developers (and not specific to linux users).
– The article on making rosegarden work. I'd love to find one on getting MuseScore getting to talk to jack.
– Dr Brown: most recently the -i flag on sed which I use weekly since I read it. More command line tips and tricks would be lovely.
– The Richard Stallman video: on our weekly educational lunch at work (where we usually watch a parleys presentation), I made my colleages watch (part of) it.
– The one comparing gitgub/sourceforge/… At that time I was starting a small java project to improve my music rhythm reading skills and I wanted to place it online… it came exactely at the right time.
That other magazine is my place to go to in case of trouble, when I look for answers, and will be the place where I'll start if I
– Get a raspberry PI
– Start developing on android
– Start developing python
– Ubuntu 14.04 LTS still needs fixubuntu and I need another distro…
– Want to start a new opensource project
– find the time to replace dropbox/gmail/google calendar/… with a self hosted openstack…
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the arrival of that first issue in my mailbox.
Many good suggestions already.
Although the name is '_Linux_ Voice', I would like to see the pub prioritize:
– FOSS solutions beyond just Linux kernel based (e.g. the BSDs, FOSS mobiles, etc.)
– FOSS for personal/home/small-organization applications (as opposed to enterprise), with an emphasis on desktops for power users
– Privacy related issues
I don't know if any one else covers this material or not but here is my input. Articles that ease people into linux. First, in identifying software they need to be productive for both windows users (list of real substitutions) and list for new users. A wiki of some kind so user can contribute content (or suggestions) and maintain update to date lists of software. When 1 package falls behind alternatives should be available. Take this list to the point where people can be fully productive in linux. Where new alternatives are shared and voted upon. Stories/information covering how the software is better than alternatives based on features and useability. Articles covering integrating these packages into there own systems, especially when the package has to be compiled or a complex system of dependencies have to be meet. Dealing with packages that need to have version 1 of software and another package needs version 2. Covering iptables beyond the basic features including QOS and other dozen or modules that iptables has like "set" or "cpu" which is never really demonstrated in a working enviroment. Performance issues like why having 10,000 iptables rules is a horrible idea compared to having 1 rule and using ipset for blocking large groups of ip addresses. Security and virtualizing need to be covered especially how to virtualize web and mail servers to limit damage from hackers. Bare metal backups and restores. For people who virutalize software to manage updates,backups, and monitoring for all their physical and virtual systems.
Would like to see:Article series about how to get people involved in the community and with focus on other things than coding, like design, packaging, translating and so on.
And another on hiding from survelliance using open source.
And another one emulation on linux, from vac to ps2
The 'other' magazine had a good balance of newbie vs pro content although I personally would prefer to err on the pro side. We are all new at something.
I agree with another comment that News will tend to be out of date, but commentary on the News can be interesting.
Suggestions:
– Networking, eg IPv6 at any level: setting it up, using it, coding for it, compatibility with IPv4, etc.
–
Given the kernel is the crucial to all linux keeping it upgraded on a number of different distro would be handy. Also many distro tend to go to far one way or another for compiling for example gentoo is way to much and many of the common distro is way to little. In reality, most people are going to need to compile a small number of packages. However, for those that do have multiply git,cvs, or whatever covering how to automate the git pull or equivalent so a bunch of project can be downloaded and re-compiled automatically.
Articles about writing good code and "make" file templates. For example, some programs you can throw practically any version of a library at and there fine, but others 1 or 2 versions newer or older and they can't be compiled or don't function any more. Obviously, the authors of the good projects know something that many others do not. How to write code that will not break with version changes to dependent libraries would be handy.
Hi Jonathan,
See Jenkins: http://jenkins-ci.org/
Congrats, exciting times!
I agree with most things already said, but to be specific, I would like:
– for you to remember that we're not all Linux Sys Admins, some of us are simple users who don't want to use M$/iO$ anymore, so don't forget us completely.
– to see lots and lots and lots of tutorials, they are why I subscribed to LF, keep them coming. On anything, its all good (but personally I like the ones about Python and Django, but its not all about me!)
– to read Interviews with interesting people
– 'The Kernel Explained'
– 'BASH Tips'
– Dr Brown (or white, or pink)'s super-nerd section would be great.
– Letters / Q&A
What I care less about:
– specific software how-tos and comparisons
– How to install Linux on a windows box
– Gaming
– Gadgets
– News
– Anything else that you can already find on the web easily
And, in Columbo style, one more thing. If you do produce a cover-DVD, could you please make it optional? I have to send all mine to recycling (we must reduce waste people) and its a PITA!
Cheers and good luck!
Just a few thoughts.
Focus – Linux on the desktop/FLOSS.
Interviews.
News/articles – in-depth background stories – Technical/Philosophical/Political/Business/Cultural views.
Free software reviews – any software, low and high – like perhaps VoIP applications.
Monthly distribution – Who/How/Why/What.
In-depth tutorials.
I won't mind if you skip all AAA games, in fact, you could skip DRM games altogether and I still wouldn't mind.
Challenges/contests.
Brilliant, brilliant work on reaching the funding total. And even more kudos for having the idea and the guts to step up and see if it would work out.
Echoing some of the previous thoughts, it would be great to see more on the role of women in the Linux community and specifically to get a Susan Linton column up and running.
Sectioning off the content into something such as Starter, Intermediate, Pro as you move through the magazine with an overall theme each issue might give everyone something of what they want – those new to linux will see what they'll eventually be able to do, whilst those hacking the kernel will be satiated by some of the tutorials.
Dr Brown is excellent but I accept it might not be possible to move his content wholesale into Linux Voice. But if you can then please do.
I think that if the writing style and tone of the magazine stays as we've come to know it from you guys then 99% of people will love Linux Voice, whatever content mix it has.
One thing that I think would be interesting would be interviews or features on how Linux and FOSS get used in commercial settings. Many of this will be sys admin type stuff, but if you steer away from that there are so many drop in software replacements that small businesses can now get themselves up and running very quickly.
Now that you have a vibrant and vocal community of funders and supporters, I'm sure that the content and ideas found in Linux Voice will change over time, often rapidly. Allowing this interactivity is superb, and although it could be a challenging balancing job at times, if you can react to the community then that group will only grow and support you more.
I'd like to see you expand your games section by getting some of the
much-missed giants of British games writing – Mr. J Nash and/or Mil Millington
and/or Stu Campbell etc – to write reviews of (preferably Free) linux games.
This project – a computer magazine unshackled from the constraints of Future – sounds like the kind of thing they might well go for.
Congratulations on reaching the funding amount. I look forward to receiving the first edition of LinuxVoice:
1) Articles written by me! 😉 (I am open to discuss ideas).
Frequent articles of the following types:
2) Similar to Dr Brown's Administeria
3) Practical tutorials on migrating to FOSS s/w alternatives, doing it yourself and workarounds for issues which stop people migrating to Linux e.g. office apps, setting up a website, backup etc.
4) Hobby type practicals e.g. using the Pi
5) Roundups of the recent s/w releases
6) I think a News section is useful but focus on longer term and/or fundamental stories rather than time sensitive news stories (e.g. Apple vs Samsung). Examples are: Upstart vs SystemD, Wayland Vs Mir, stories about the kernel etc.
but mainly it's called 'LinuxVoice' so it should be a mouthpiece for the Linux and FOSS community and bang the drum for the philosophy of open source s/w: e.g. examples of FOSS s/w replacing closed systems (Munich, French Gendarme etc.) and interviews with the people who drive these changes, the behind the scenes stories of people who use FOSS and/or Linux in education, voluntary organisations etc., s/w development processes which work hand-in-hand with FOSS e.g. agile, continuous integration, lean development, TDD etc. and most of all bring stories and examples which inspire people to get involved with FOSS and the community.
Hey. I was hoping that there would be more graphics related articles, like news and features. Maybe not so many tutorials as a news and feature segment or interviews with developers (as they aren't often hired from).
there are some great sites for ideas
http://www.blendernation.com/
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog
I would love to see how much graphics work can be done on linux
Good evening Linux Voice team. My suggestion is the following:
Linux Voice should include a level-based section or should present its contents in this way , being this subdivided in three levels: beginner, intermediate and expert, so a broader crowd could be attracted to the magazine, as you can see, not all the linux user are hardcore experts, nor all of them are novices to the kernel, you should find a mid point between beginners and experts, or treat your public in three levels of expertise , so everyone could be interested in Linux Voice, and if you would include a dvd, this should be approached to all your audience, to the newbies and the skilled ones. People that have not installed any linux-based OS could be interested to do it, people that already has installed a linux-based OS could be interested to make the most of the kernel or could be encouraged to learn to install difficult OSes like Arch Linux or Gentoo, and the die-hard fans of Linux could even go far beyond of what they actually know.
This is my humble suggestion to you, I hope you make a great and the greatest of all the Linux magazines and make that this project surpass the ones that are already available.
I wish you success.
How about a Discoveries section in the magazine where tips, discoveries, micro-tutorials, suggestions, cool software, projects and so on could be put? Maybe some contributed by readers as well as the Linux Voice team and perhaps contributions from people being interviewed for the magazine or who's projects are being featured or reviewed. It could be relaxed and brief (similar to Hotpicks), a bit random, inspiration more than instruction, and there could be links to further resources to follow up for those interested. Congratulations so far and best of luck with it all.
An article or two on setting up a low power home server for backups/ owncloud/ media streaming would be nice. My QNAP TS-119 is hitting its limits and if I'm already going to upgrade the hardware (likely to some small fanless NUC box), I might as well put a proper distro on it, rather than some vendor's "linux in a straitjacket"-firmware. Also, an exploration of current virtualization technologies (kvm, xen, …), their management options (libvirt/ovirt, …) and how they could be put to good use in a home environment (other than just testing new distributions) might be interesting. Though it may sound crazy and over the top, I think it would be exciting if some of the cool features in commercial applications such as vdi-in-a-box could be reimplemented using FLOSS technology only. Finally one of the LXF writers I'll miss is Chris Brown. Hope you'll get him to write a few of his administeria bits every now and then.
Hi! Here's my wishlist 🙂
– More in-depth articles
– Security & privacy related tutorials. Like setting up your own email server.
– No DVD for me please
– But good book reviews are always nice..
– I also like Kyle Rankin (hacks/server stuff) and and Dave Taylor (bash stuff) from Linux Journal fame. They write columns, but they're longer and more like articles/tutorials. Reminds me of the Doc Brown's section in LXF.
– Besides the PDFs, I would also like to see a computer/mobile app where you could write comments about an article (or part of an article) and discuss it. Like "what does s/he mean with this.." or "wouldn't it be better to do this instead of that..". You get the point 🙂
– I like the news section. Always found some interesting news I missed.
– I believe trying to get more women into foss, as other people pointed out, is really important. One regular woman contributor to the magazine is really a bare minimum.
– On a non linuxy note, I would really like to see some computer/hacker history stuff. Thinking in the lines of the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Maybe interviews with people from back in the day.
Looking forward to the first issue! Great work so far!
How about a good series of tutorials on Modern Perl. Use strict; use warnings;
How you can print a line with say and avoid the \n on the end. <cough>written by Dave Cross</cough>
I'm just getting into perl and reallly enjoy coding in it.