[ubuntu-uk] stickers free with Linux Format Magazine this

[Adrian]

Hi All,

12 months ago I started to buy LXF mag off the shelf, and have done
ever since, changing from PCW that I had read most months for the past
20 years. I found the content much more readable than the much more
technical Linux Magazine.

I do wish there was wider content and greater publicity though. I
emailed the editor and later his brother offering content on a subject
I felt confident to write about but got no reply from either. I also
find the magazine has numerous spelling gaffes and often repeats pretty
much the same content within an issue. There is much that could be done
(in my eyes) to improve the mag.

As a British magazine it has a great potential to be a promotional
power for all things Linux. In the UK we have a slightly opportune
position that publicity can generally reach everyone within the
country. Take the Sunday papers; The Sunday Times reaches the 4
corners, and will dish out CD or DVD almost every week. If LXF put a
DVD of a couple of distros including the nation's favourite an a minute
one like DSL they could market it as an ultimate PC saviour disk. Able
to help recover files on unbootable Windows machine and a safe, free
and with the longest term of support in the light of the regular loss
of support for past Windows OSes. I would rather not have a DVD for 10
out of 12 months if they put it into a Sunday paper once. I have
mentioned this in the past for Canonical to consider but LXF would be a
better promoter, able then to offer a paper based support that could
see their sales rocket.

One problem is that LXF sees itself less of a newbie helper and more
for seasoned users. Credit due, they do repeatedly put in beginners
guides that are better than most, however they need to develop content
that will appeal to people that need a reason to change OS. I am not so
worried about the price tag, but more content and varied content would
encourage greater readership.

I do not wish to seem despondent, I will continue to buy LXF in
preference to any other mag and I think much of the comments here
should be echoed in the LXF forums. I hope someone at LXF Towers will
open an ear!

Adria
------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:19:40 +0100
From: Andrew Oakley <andrew at aoakley.com>
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] stickers free with Linux Format Magazine this
	month
To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
Message-ID: <48A7365C.6000704 at aoakley.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed


As a subscriber I also received the stickers, and was very impressed and 
very, very happy.

Sean Miller wrote:
> two back the man said "blimey! ?5.95? that's expensive" -- and it is,
...
> I don't actually NEED any of the stuff on the DVD most months - it'd
> be nice to have the option to not receive it.

Yes, yes, yes.

> Why do I want a copy of Mandriva 2000 if I'm happily running Ubuntu,
> or OpenSUSE or whatever else (which I could download anyway)....

Well, I can kind of see the point in encouraging people to try other 
distros, especially the special-purpose ones such as Damn Small Linux. 
But it's a British magazine. We've all got broadband. I live in an 
extremely rural area, and even I can get 2Mbit/sec.

They should replace the DVD with their own in-house TinyURL and just let 
people download what they need.

The DVD goes in the bin same-day every issue, the only exception being 
Ubuntu 8.04 and even that went in the bin once 8.04.1 came out.

If they offered me a sheet of stickers every issue, instead of the DVD, 
I'd still be happy to continue paying subscription price. How people 
justify paying 6 quid for the mag off the shelf in Whsmiths (whom I note 
have stopped placing the punctuation in their shop signs, which since 
they are a bookseller can only be deliberate, so presumably are now 
pronounced "wuhh-smiths" rather than "W. H. Smiths") I can't fathom.

I want to encourage everyone, of any technical aptitude, to try Linux, 
and I hate people who are condescending to the technically 
inexperienced, but the sensible attitude is, if the reader is such a 
newbie that they can't figure out how to download and burn an ISO, they 
really, really shouldn't be upgrading or replacing their operating 
system, they should get someone else to do it for them before they brick 
their PC. Frankly I'm amazed that the DVD doesn't garner a billion "Your 
DVD hosed my PC" letters each month (although perhaps it does, and they 
censor them). Therefore shipping a DVD is at best superfluous for 
experts and at worst highly damaging for newcomers. Using such a DVD to 
justify a 6-quid pricetag on what should be a 4-quid mag is ridiculous.

Thankfully the subscription discount is significantly large enough for 
me to ignore this.

-- 
Andrew Oakley