Why I Won't be Renewing my FreeBSD Journal Subscription

Are you satisfied with the way the Journal has been distributed?

  • Total voters
    25
Same here. I paid for the first issue, oh, what a crap app, but there was option to export PDF. Fine, I paid annual subscription from the second issue and what? PDF export removed. So I didn't read those excellent articles too carefully because of ***ity distribution and I am not going to renew. Not because of those few bucks, which I would like to send to support my preferred server OS, but as a signal to the Foundation, that something is not working here. I said that several times on Foundation's FB, but never got a reply.

Aside from this, I think there must be someone with little crappy publishing options in the Foundation - publish the Journal website as an image for many month, publish monthly update as a PDF printout of some HTML or whatever with broken pagination... Asked couple of times if any web authoring help is needed informally; see previous paragraph for results.

If this opinion is more common in the FreeBSD public, this thread may be place where to speak up to show the Foundation that something may need little change.
 
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Physical magazines are indeed nice. I love paper and have books that span over 300 years. Despite that love and commitment, my tired old eyes prefer to read off a screen. The cheap modern monitors have gotten so good that I don't even bother to use TTL monitors any more. Green on black, not as good as the old P1 phosphor, but still very relaxing. Anyway, I would have hoped that an electronic BSD (that's for computers - no?) publication would be available in pure text format. It's the only way to go for clear, fashion-free, and accessible, communication.
 
Beastie7 said:
Here's a better idea, publish actual (physical) magazines! I can't stand the idea of ebooks
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Too bad there is not vote down button. You would get one now. I don't like reading ebooks either but I love planet Earth and trees more than little pain I will endure next 2-3 years until electronic reader improve enough not to notice any difference with "real" books.
 
Oko said:
Too bad there is not vote down button. You would get one now. I don't like reading ebooks either but I love planet Earth and trees more than little pain I will endure next 2-3 until electronic reader improve enough not to notice any difference with "real" books.
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Yes, you are right about down button because I will use it on your post. If you like a planet Earth so much do you use a bicycle for going to work or public transportation? Do you have a solar energy at home or you are burning wood or oil or gas? And more and more... I love books and IMO they are not a problem for the planet Earth and IMHO if people start reading paper book more also planet Earth will be better (not just books about computers).
 
Both printed books and computers rely on a polluting and toxic manufacturing process. Which is worse is an interesting question, but a distraction here.

If you don't like the way the Journal is published, let the Foundation know.
 
Oko said:
Too bad there is not vote down button. You would get one now. I don't like reading ebooks either but I love planet Earth and trees more than little pain I will endure next 2-3 until electronic reader improve enough not to notice any difference with "real" books.
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Paper is very recyclable. Also, I believe most tree-loss (eg. Brazilian and Indonesian forests) is simply due to people wanting to farm there (often trees are just burnt, which provides good soil for farming), but I don't have any figures handy to back that up right now (lack of time, sorry :-( )

In other words, the "save the environment, think before you print"-attitude is a good one as such, but I'm not sure it really matters that much on this issue.

There's also the issue that paper books have to be produces just *once*, and then it's done. But for reading an eBook, you need a device *every time*. This costs power, and if you have a 150W desktop, quite a bit of power. If you use a tablet or some such, then that contains toxic materials in for example the batteries. Not to mention that some of the materials are so called "conflict materials", where the profit from them is being used to feul wars and/or terrorism... Unfortunately, all of this is rather complex, and I can't confidently say which option is the better here..

fernandel said:
If you like a planet Earth so much do you use a bicycle for going to work or public transportation? Do you have a solar energy at home or you are burning wood or oil or gas? And more and more
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This is a logical fallacy on several levels. First off, it's an ad hominem attack, and doesn't address the substance. It's also something of a No true Scotsman, since apparently no one is allowed to comment on environmental issues unless they do *every possible* thing they can do for the environment.
 
fernandel said:
If you like a planet Earth so much do you use a bicycle for going to work or public transportation?
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If it is going to make you feel better while I lived in Arizona I used bicycle to go to work and between my wife and I we had only 10 year old Toyota Corolla to be able to bring groceries home. Our house did have solar panels but unfortunately I had no money to invest to get off the grid completely. That would really make me feel good. Unfortunately I am unable to maintain that life style in Pittsburgh due to the lack of public transport and climate differences.
 
I added a poll. Maybe this can be useful for the foundation to gauge if a change is necessary. In my experience they have been receptive to feedback, both positive and constructively negative.
 
Oko said:
It seems very logical to me FreeBSD Journal is only available at App stores. Finally most FreeBSD developers run OS X on their laptops/desktops.

http://people.freebsd.org/~bz/200805DevSummit/
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To enter the nitpicking mode here - they certainly run something on Apple hardware. If it is OS-X can not be deduced from the viewpoint. It may be possible, but then again I know people who buy Apple hardware to run FreeBSD on it. It is some hardware that is not changing at the blink of an eye, maybe it is more expensive but it might be worth it.

But I think this point came up already somewhere.

On the other hand, I would like to add to the poll. But it is only by this thread that I got aware of the existence of that journal, so I can not give an opinion.
 
Crivens said:
To enter the nitpicking mode here - they certainly run something on Apple hardware. If it is OS-X can not be deduced from the viewpoint. It may be possible, but then again I know people who buy Apple hardware to run FreeBSD on it. It is some hardware that is not changing at the blink of an eye, maybe it is more expensive but it might be worth it.

But I think this point came up already somewhere.
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The post was meant to be a joke. I like to pick on your(FreeBSD) guys about that. I have done that in the past and I am sure it will happen again. Yes from the mathematical logic point of view having Apple hardware doesn't imply running OS X so you are 100% right :) and I have to agree with you being trained as a research mathematician.
 
Oko said:
The post was meant to be a joke. I like to pick on your(FreeBSD) guys about that.
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I didn't understand as a joke and your picking on FreeBSD developers is maybe fun for you but maybe not for the others. And what OS have on their computers is their problem not mine. Maybe is yours but I don't know.
 
Agreed with carpetsmoker.

I would gladly pay $5-10~ a month for a physical issue. This would be a part of my means of supporting the FreeBSD project also.
 
The only reason I'm dissatisfied is due to how long it takes the publication to actually be made available. If its bimonthly, that means it should be made available at the top of the first month, not the last week before the second bimonthly publication is should be made available.

I'll renew because I like the articles and because it probably helps the foundation. I don't know if the authors of the articles are paid or if they're donating their time to write the articles.

To the foundation:
What would it take to have a more consistent on time release schedule? You already know what the topics will be about[0]. Either release it the first week of the first month or the first week in the second month.

Of course, if this means FreeBSD OS things not being taken care of because of the magazine, then it's just about managing time.

[0] https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/journal

Thanks!
 
Hi Beastie7,
Beastie7 said:
Agreed with carpetsmoker.

I would gladly pay $5-10~ a month for a physical issue. This would be a part of my means of supporting the FreeBSD project also.
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But wouldn't that mean the foundation has LESS revenue from the magazine? Admittedly, I don't know how publishing periodicals would work but someone has to cover the cost to print it and mail it out. At $60 for 6 issues, that's $10 an issue. For myself, that's much harder to buy into over $20. I think most editions last year were around 48-50 pages so you're willing to pay $0.20/page?


I do think, however, if you subscribe to the mobile app, you get access to the desktop version and vise-avers. Having a subscription for each is silly and something I'd expect my newspaper to do.
 
jungleboogie said:
Hi Beastie7,
But wouldn't that mean the foundation has LESS revenue from the magazine? Admittedly, I don't know how publishing periodicals would work but someone has to cover the cost to print it and mail it out. At $60 for 6 issues, that's $10 an issue. For myself, that's much harder to buy into over $20. I think most editions last year were around 48-50 pages so you're willing to pay $0.20/page?
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Maybe some would. Why not let some people cover the real cost of a printed edition ? For example, if we assume the Foundation earns $18 yearly from one Digital Edition subscription, and it costs $60 a year to ship 6 paper prints, they may propose a $78 plan for plain old paper prints.

If that's not possible, it would be nice to at least allow subscribers to download PDF issues. Then people would of course be able to print them by themselves, but even more important: they would be allowed to zoom in! The DE web reader prevents us to zoom in/out. A colleague of mine is totally unable to read the magazine because of his very low vision. It would make reading far more comfortable even for myself.

I have a final question about the subscription model. What would happen if I chose not to renew my subscription ? Would I still access the old issues of the magazine, or would I completely lose access ? In the latter case, PDF downloads would be the least they can do.
 
m4r1n said:
Maybe some would. Why not let some people cover the real cost of a printed edition ? For example, if we assume the Foundation earns $18 yearly from one Digital Edition subscription, and it costs $60 a year to ship 6 paper prints, they may propose a $78 plan for plain old paper prints.

If that's not possible, it would be nice to at least allow subscribers to download PDF issues. Then people would of course be able to print them by themselves, but even more important: they would be allowed to zoom in! The DE web reader prevents us to zoom in/out. A colleague of mine is totally unable to read the magazine because of his very low vision. It would make reading far more comfortable even for myself.

I have a final question about the subscription model. What would happen if I chose not to renew my subscription ? Would I still access the old issues of the magazine, or would I completely lose access ? In the latter case, PDF downloads would be the least they can do.
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You have valid points about covering printed edition and at least allowing a PDF version. Linux Journal (used lLinux before fFreeBSD) allowed you download ALL magazines from sept 2009 in pdf, epub, mobi even if you signed up today. I don't know what the subscription is for their monthly magazine, probably $20-30.

My subscription to fFreeBSD journal lapsed and I'll likely renew. It looks like I have access to past magazines but that's likely because it's downloaded on my phone.
 
In fact it seems the Digital Edition also gives access to all previous issues. I've been able to read the first two magazines whereas I had no subscription at that time.
 
I'd also throw my hat in here, and say that if I could just download a .pdf of the Journal, I'd consider subscribing. I make a small annual donation to The FreeBSD Foundation already, but I'd still be interested in paying for the content aside from that. I don't even own any devices that I could purchase it with (I still don't have a cell phone or tablet), so it's not even an option for me.
 
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