Why I Won't be Renewing my FreeBSD Journal Subscription

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

  • Total voters
    25
jrm said:
There is a desktop edition. Other have commented on it above.
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I should have clarified what I meant by that. From what I understand, I can't actually download a .pdf from the browser version (the website isn't very clear, If I misunderstood, I apologize). To me, "purchasing" entails that I get a non-DRM'ed, offline copy in some standard format. Is the desktop version separate from the browser-based version, or is that the same thing?

EDIT: Let me say, I'm not trying to force my views on anyone, I just have no interest in web based subscriptions. That's the same reason I'm content with FreeBSD for gaming, I can run my GOG games just as well with WINE on any *nix OS that it's available for, while not being interested in Steam.
 
retrogamer said:
I should have clarified what I meant by that. From what I understand, I can't actually download a .pdf from the browser version (the website isn't very clear, If I misunderstood, I apologize). To me, "purchasing" entails that I get a non-DRM'ed, offline copy in some standard format. Is the desktop version separate from the browser-based version, or is that the same thing?
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I relate. Desktop version == Browser-based version.
 
I think the people behind the mag did some research and solicited some numbers on the potential customer base before they decided to make the magazine eformat only. They had considered paper, as I recall, but there wasn't quite enough interest. Paper is very expensive. It's cost is not just a matter of the physical printing process, but also of the layout requirements, etc.

In one of my lives I'm a self described novelist. I've run the numbers on these things myself. The problem with certain eformats is piracy, of course. Personally, I distributed one particular novelette in a non-DRM format, and in no time at all there were dozens of illegitimate copies on Amazon. There were so many that my own stuff was completely drowned out. Stephen King has (last I read about it) sworn off ebook distro completely. So - if they're actually going to get paid enough to (break even) - they have to consider all the ramifications - even though some of those go against the grain of open source and the "everything should be free" philosophy.
 
To be clear, my beef wasn't completely due to the journal being locked down. The short version was that it was locked down and distributed poorly. I'm not qualified to say much about publishing books, but I will say that Michael W. Lucas and Peter N. M. Hansteen seem to be successful publishing DRM-free and they have a personal stake in the financial success of the books. Maybe I'm naive enough to hope that enough people in the community understand that if we want high quality books we have to pay the authors.
 
For what it's worth, I can access March/April edition online and through the mobile app.

Hopefully this occurs for you two and it doesn't mean I inadvertently purchased two subscriptions.
 
ronaldlees said:
I think the people behind the mag did some research and solicited some numbers on the potential customer base before they decided to make the magazine eformat only. They had considered paper, as I recall, but there wasn't quite enough interest. Paper is very expensive. It's cost is not just a matter of the physical printing process, but also of the layout requirements, etc.

In one of my lives I'm a self described novelist. I've run the numbers on these things myself. The problem with certain eformats is piracy, of course. Personally, I distributed one particular novelette in a non-DRM format, and in no time at all there were dozens of illegitimate copies on Amazon. There were so many that my own stuff was completely drowned out. Stephen King has (last I read about it) sworn off ebook distro completely. So - if they're actually going to get paid enough to (break even) - they have to consider all the ramifications - even though some of those go against the grain of open source and the "everything should be free" philosophy.
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I get that reasoning, it's just too bad. Here's a thought: Maybe it would be worth considering a Kickstarter (or some other funding platform) to fund one year of the magazine, that would be released DRM free in an open format. The condition being that if the funding failed, the status quo would continue. I still don't know if it would work, Krita barely met its goal (which I contributed to) and that is an increasingly popular and important tool among artists. It might be worth a shot, though.

EDIT: Here is a link to the Krita Kickstater if anyone is interested - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/krita/krita-open-source-digital-painting-accelerate-deve
 
I can't help but feel that the Foundation isn't doing enough marketing communication to elicit more potential users. I know it isn't as important, but adding a little more "flashiness" or modernization to the website could aid in invoking more users. It doesn't really look welcoming, imo. Highlighting products and services that are built on FreeBSD with cute pictures, slogans, and whatnot could help raise "attractiveness" so to speak. Mozilla is a perfect example. The same thing goes for the FreeBSD wiki.

Simply raising awareness through better marketing, I believe, would really solve a lot of these monetary/man power issues. It's cheaper too.

This is a bit of a tangent here, but it sort of relates to the issue discussed.
 
Beastie7 said:
I can't help but feel that the Foundation isn't doing enough marketing communication to elicit more potential users. I know it isn't as important, but adding a little more "flashiness" or modernization to the website could aid in invoking more users. It doesn't really look welcoming, imo. Highlighting products and services that are built on FreeBSD with cute pictures, slogans, and whatnot could help raise "attractiveness" so to speak. Mozilla is a perfect example. The same thing goes for the FreeBSD wiki.

Simply raising awareness through better marketing, I believe, would really solve a lot of these monetary/man power issues. It's cheaper too.

This is a bit of a tangent here, but it sort of relates to the issue discussed.
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I think that's putting the cart before the horse, a bit. How many of these potential users, who valuable time and resources would be wasted on, would actually contribute back (financially or in terms of code) to the project? Probably few, if any (if you look at the OpenBSD website, you'll see they appear to be actively pushing away those types of users; I'm a web designer and they make it blatantly clear they have no use for our ilk). Marketing an open source project to people who will not do anything to support your open source project is just a bad idea from a business standpoint. Now, if you're talking PC-BSD, I think it might be a different story.
 
Well it's worth a try at least, who knows. I agree desired results aren't guaranteed, but it isn't really that expensive to improve how we reach out to the wider audience. The point is just to raise awareness. Linux wasn't really popular until Stallman went his GPL chest beating rampage. Not saying we should do it that way, but yeah. haha
 
From the FreeBSD Foundation March 2016 Update email,
Browser-Based subscribers now have the ability to download and share PDFs of the articles!
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This is fantastic news. Have any browser-based subscribers been able to download PDFs of recent editions? I have not.

Update: While the January/February 2016 edition doesn't have a PDF download link, older editions do.
 
No. I downloaded PDFs of all editions (not just individual articles) except the one for January/February 2016.
 
The Journal website isn't working properly. Whenever I choose any single issue, after clicking the button, it goes to choosing the "September/October 2015" issue for payment.

On another subject...
From the discussions, it doesn't make sense for FreeBSD to have a drm subscription unless, FreeBSD has a port to it or it can be viewed only from the browser. In other words, if FreeBSD is going to make it drm, it needs to be accessible from FreeBSD. If it can't be easily accessed from FreeBSD, there's no sense in doing that. The last time I ordered, it was in PDF, otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered buying that issue. According to the earlier comments on this thread, If they are worried, maybe they should at least make buying older issues available in PDF.
 
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