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Networking IT

New Free Open Source Enterprise Magazine 86

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the the-price-is-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new free Open Source Enterprise magazine was launched today. The publication was built entirely with Open Source tools, including the GIMP, Scribus and Open Office. It is distributed in PDF format, and focuses on Open Source Solutions related to Enterprise Data Networking. The first issue looks at some interesting stuff include MultiLayer Switching in Linux. A torrent is also available."
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New Free Open Source Enterprise Magazine More

New Free Open Source Enterprise Magazine

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  • PDF the format for magazines now? (Score:3, Informative)

    by ylikone ( 589264 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @07:33PM (#14104445) Homepage
    tuxmagazine.com also provides free magazines in PDF format. I've read through all of them and must say they are very good. But I do miss being able to hold something in my hands while I lie back in bed. A laptop is too awkward for casual reading of PDFs.

  • So say (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cyberbob2010 ( 312049 ) <cyberbob2010@techie.com> on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @07:36PM (#14104477) Homepage Journal
    someone was willing to take it upon themselves to work their asses off in their free time and get the best content from developers, users, etc... and were to try and create a physical add supported magazine would you subscribe?
    • Ad-supported magazines can put you in a very uncomfortable spot.

      I used to read a free, ad-supported magazine for a techie operating system back in the day (OS/2 Professional). They eventually went to a subscriber-paid model. The reason for this was that they published a negative review of a piece of software, one that was advertised in their magazine. They were significantly pressured by the advertiser to not publish the review, or to change their conclusions.

      How often do you see eWeek totally trash

  • define "Enterprise" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @07:39PM (#14104499)
    This could be a cool magazine, although if their definition of "Enterprise" differs from reality, it will backfire. I hope that they don't write up a bunch of articles on how to scan logs with Perl, or install RedHat's commercial Linux on a Dell server. Please, no "IPTables is just as good as a Checkpoint" or "Squid is better than MS-ISA" kinds of articles. Those decisions are already made, settled, done, bought, and paid for.
    Lets see articles on how to integrate disparate systems, how the Linux version of Oracle runs better per dollar, etc.

  • Oh man... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Cytlid ( 95255 ) *
    ...I just realized how much of a nerd I really am, by getting excited about this. Time to convert it to reflow format for the pda...

  • textcast (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It would be need if they could made a podcast stype of distribution for this - or maybe an rss e-book?

    • Re:textcast (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Killall -9 Bash ( 622952 )
      now there's a good idea. why advertize the software of the future using yesterday's technology?

    • Re:textcast (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JazzCrazed ( 862074 )
      I don't think Scribus supports that kind of output (certainly not the podcast, for sure). Its main output is PDF/X-3, which is appropriate since layouts in Scribus, similar to Adobe Indesign, are capable of containing vector images (as well as raster images), and PDF can contain either. The magazine surely could be formatted as RSS or some other XML, but then you'd be downloading the XML and the images separately.
      • I'm not sure the point of the GP's post was that the magazine should be made using XML, but that it should be distributed in the same manner as a podcast. This makes perfect sense because, in a podcast, the music isn't distributed as XML. It's an interesting idea, certainly. Perhaps there would be some kind of a market for a "syndicated torrent" type thing...
  • did anyone make a coral cache of the pdf? i can't connect to their ftp site.

  • Target audience? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kebes ( 861706 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:09PM (#14104704) Journal
    I've looking over issue #1 and am wondering who exactly the target audience is. At first, I would have assumed it was for hard-core FOSS-lovers who want to know how they can convince their boss to use the latest OSS application (or who want to know about "the next big enterprise OSS" thing that they should give a try). However, consider some of these quotes:

    An article on page 15 ("Opening the Jar on Google Honeypots") explains: "With this growth in the Internet, a problem arose: finding the page with the information you are actually looking for. This is where search engines come into play, allowing Internet users to find the page that they want."

    On page 23, they have an article "An Introduction to Linux and Open Source for Business" written in a Q&A style. The first question is "What is this 'Open Source' thing I keep hearing about?"

    You get the idea. These articles are clearly targetted at people who have no experience with OSS, but are curious. They even seem to be targetted at management-types who may be interested in learning about new trends in technology. There are other articles that are clearly aimed at a more experience and techno-saavy crowd. So I guess they are really trying to cover the board, and get a wide variety of people reading their magazine.

    I guess I'm wondering if that's the best strategy. For a printed magazine, I can understand trying to appeal to newbies and zealots alike, since they both have good reasons for buying the magazine. For a web-only magazine, however, I strongly suspect that the only people who will ever read it will be the geek crowd anyways, in which case it seems like a bit of a waste to have so many introductory articles.
    • "it seems like a bit of a waste to have so many introductory articles"

      I see your point, however; there is some real value to this model as I see it... The folks charged with making the final decisions about wether or not to deploy an OSS technology, are more often than not, afraid of non-COTS apps. I happen to be lucky enough to work in a development house that largly utilizes OSS. And even then, while the development staff, engineers, etc... all get the picture and are ready to dive in head first, this

  • some problems. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    if it is for who i think it is for then they really need to work on parts of their delivery, the content seems good.

    for example:
    In the "buisness" section that explains opensource and the OS licenses and such, there is a panel on the last page where some guy is quoted and he uses "FUD". There is no explination of the term. Did i miss the memo that went out to everyone's bosses explaining these sorts of terms?
    • Most people, even non-techies know what FUD is. Especially if they buy technology for Fortune 500 companies. But all in all, I see this thing folding up in 5... 4... 3... 2... Now.

  • The making of O3 in a special O3 issue? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gummyb34r ( 899393 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:33PM (#14104857)
    It would be very interesting (at least for me) to read about the making of O3. The open source DTP solution is somewhat disputed these days.
    • I think I probably speak for John and the others at O3 when I say thank all of you for the encouragement. It's been a learning experience getting the first issue out the door and we hope to have many successful issues in the future. (hopefully without John getting food poisoning again =] )

      As it is, he's trying to talk me into doing interviews about the magazine and how we went about making it (I'm the exec editor). Personally, I think I'll sleep for a while first since I really haven't for a few days, bu
      • You magazine looks interesting, and I would potentially be interested in writing for it. Your next issue is focusing on RAD tools, and I would be interested in covering the GNUstep tools (NeXT, after all, invented RAD, and some of the recent stuff coming out of the GNUstep project has enormous potential).

        Your offer of a t-shirt for contributors, however, is not competitive. I mainly write for two online publications at the moment. One is an established organization and pays in real money (well, US dol

  • Hello,

    I am in touch with John Buswell: he is really dedicated, and I am sure the magazine will go far.
    What I don't understand, though, is why O3 made it on Slashdot the minute it came out, while Free Software Magazine [freesoftwaremagazine.com] didn't - never.

    No wonder Digg is going strong the way it is. Moody moderator to pick stories make moody decisions.

    Merc.

    • Re:Free Software Magazine? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by BiggerIsBetter ( 682164 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:36PM (#14105199)
      Somebody call the Whaaambulance!

      This magazine is far more usable than the FSM one - I didn't have to click past the blog front page, ignore the bazillion ads flashing at me, pick an issue, then scroll down 6 screens to see if I want to read anything.

      O3 has a concise current issue content list on the website's home page. The static ads are IN the magazine, not flashing and surrounding it. It took me 3 looks to even see there was a (lime green?!) link to the current issue of FSM on that website, then I had to read a paragraph to get an idea of what's in it. There's just no contest as far as presentation goes.
      • FSM is a geek magazine (think Mondo2000 and Wired) and O3 is a IT management magazine (think Information Week or CIO Magazine).

        Geeks are not taking over the world, even if our software is. If you want to sell ideas, you sell it to people in formats and terms they understand. This is doing that, for the IT managers...
        • Yes, but there's no reason that a Geek magazine can't present technical information in a similarly effective manner. Conciseness and clean formats aren't just about selling stuff to management, they're about getting information across quickly. I'm a developer (mostly) and I just don't have time to sift through sites like FSM. I shouldn't need to use Adblock just to find an article.

          The O3 mag had a short content list on the main page, which directed me to a good and informative write up on Lighttpd. I found
      • ---------
        Somebody call the Whaaambulance!

        This magazine is far more usable than the FSM one - I didn't have to click past the blog front page, ignore the bazillion ads flashing at me, pick an issue, then scroll down 6 screens to see if I want to read anything.
        ---------

        I like O3, so I am not going to comment on the contents.
        It does surprise me, however, that:

        * You based your judgement solely on the *presentation* (a lot of people wouldn't agree woth you anyway)
        * You didn't make any effort to actually improve
          • You based your judgement solely on the *presentation* (a lot of people wouldn't agree woth you anyway)
          • You didn't make any effort to actually improve Free Software Magazine

          See my post above for reasons why I'm judging it on presentation. I'm sure that both have good information in them, I just don't have time to sift through the cruft to find it.

          Someone has obviously put a lot of effort into FSM, and good on them for doing it, but people get a bit pissy when a random person starts undermining their g

          • ------
            See my post above for reasons why I'm judging it on presentation. I'm sure that both have good information in them, I just don't have time to sift through the cruft to find it.
            ------

            OK, point taken.

            ------
            Someone has obviously put a lot of effort into FSM, and good on them for doing it, but people get a bit pissy when a random person starts undermining their good efforts. Also, what's in it for me if I do try to improve it?
            -------

            Well, I happen to be FSM's editor in chief. I guess I am "them"!
            What's in
  • The publication was built entirely with Open Source tools, including the GIMP, Scribus and Open Office.

    Is this really something to be bragged about? It just seems like it should go without saying that a publication about open source would be written with OSS. I mean, if M$ created a publication with OSS, the laughter would probably inspire it's own news stories at many websites.

    Just kinda shows how OSS isn't quite mainstream yet.

    [ducking]I love linux! I love linux![/ducking]

  • Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by OneIsNotPrime ( 609963 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:50PM (#14104970)
    "The publication was built entirely with Open Source tools, including the GIMP, Scribus and Open Office. It is distributed in PDF format..."

    One of these things is not like the others,
    One of these things just doesn't belong,
    Can you tell which thing is not like the others
    By the time I finish my song?
  • Man, that's not only cool, it's OSEM.
  • Am I the only one who read the headline and thought "What kind of magazine could they make out of a cancelled show? Get over it!"

    Even on Slashdot, too much slashdot can mess up your interpretive skills
  • Your magazine sounds interesting and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. ..oh, uh, never mind.

  • Open source (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by yourlink ( 727316 )
    Do you care what kind of tools you car was built with?

    • Re:Open source (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Tuross ( 18533 )
      Well, yes, I do in fact care what tools my car was built with. And I also like the fact when I take it to the mechanic for a service I can talk with him, go into his workshop and inspect his tools, and I get the choice of what parts go into my car.

    • Well, *I* don't care, but I'll bet a mechanic or anyone that would read these [google.com] would.

      Make the leap.

  • From a quick look the graphic design of the layout frankly is disappointing: overly simplistic and lacking any design value it all looks like it was executed by an amateur without a proper DTP tool (say, a word processor).

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