Linux Format Ceases Publication

New submitter salyavin writes: The final issue of Linux Format has been released. After 25 years the magazine is going out with a bang. Interviewing the old staff members, and looking back at old Linux distros [...] The last 10-15 years have been absolutely brutal to computer hobbyist magazines -- (or magazines and media at large, in general).

Never heard of it

[registrations_suck]

Never heard of it. I guess it's just as well.

Its a UK magazine

[Viol8]

Used to be fantastic but in the last few years it seems (IMO obviously, YMMV) too many niche articles that by their nature would only interest a small number of readers. Also C/C++ development seems to have been forgotten about even though they're the main linux systems dev languages, instead focusing on python and whatever other scripting language the editor liked that month.

/dev/null magazine.tex

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Linux Format shuts down? INODE THAT ALREADY!

Death of optical media also to blame

[xack]

Do you really want to drag out a DVD drive from the shelf just to get an iso when gigabit internet boots Linux in seconds.

Re:

[Viol8]

Right, because everyone has gigabit internet and everyone wants to download the entire friggin OS iso each time they boot up their machine.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth...

Re:

[Zocalo]

It used to be almost every tech magazine had a CD or DVD stuck to the front of it every month, but I don't think I've seen one on the newsagent's shelf doing that for several years now, so that's not likely to be the reason for the magazine's shutdown. Modern cases not actually including a drive bay where you can install the necessary drive might have something to do with that lack of bundled disks of mostly crap software demos though. That said, back in the day when it cover disks were still a thing, Lin

Re:

[AvitarX]

yep, it's a co symptom of the death of the drive bay.

Easy download of data made them a lot less valuable.

Re: Death of optical media also to blame

[drinkypoo]

I bought a case with no external drive bays on purpose, but they still exist. They don't need to, however, because I have an external dvdrw.

Re:

[Pf0tzenpfritz]

You mean "internal drive bay"? Because I have a case old enough to have three of them -why replace a case unless it is broken- but my only DVD drive is external. Internal drives are just no longer available. At least not in retail.

Re: Death of optical media also to blame

[drinkypoo]

No, I mean bays with external access to drives. My case still has a bunch of drive bays, but zero of them are exposed.

Why not go digital-only?

[Tablizer]

PCmag.com and InfoWorld.com are examples of trade magazines that went digital only*. Maybe they are not as good as the original, but at least they still exist.

* I haven't verified if they have a printed option, such as print-and-mail-on-request.

more of a whimper than a bang

[BellyJelly]

Padding out the final issue with lots of old reviews from early issues was a cheap way of getting one last issue out. It used to be very informative and entertaining, but sadly has been going downhill for a while, with increasingly niche content with very narrow appeal.

MacFormat and PCFormat were gone before?

[That's What She Said]

I remember buying some MacFormat, way back when they had 3.5" floppies glued to their covers.

Re: MacFormat and PCFormat were gone before?

[That's What She Said]

Answering my own post, yeah, Mac Format is fine for a while and was âoeabsorbedâ by TechRadar (online only, I guess).

PC Format probably went the same way.

Looks like PC Gamer (from the same publisher) is still going strong.

Re: MacFormat and PCFormat were gone before?

[That's What She Said]

Not âoefineâ, but âoegoneâ!

Magazines

[ledow]

I stopped buying computer magazines a long while ago.

For a time, my brother and I had a dedicated bookshelf to our PC Pro's, PC Magazines and others. I still have entire runs of ZX Spectrum magazines and the like.

But they changed. First, they started getting thicker and thicker with mail order ads. It didn't matter, because the content was much the same as ever. The coverdiscs were invaluable. The reviews were in-depth. The technical articles did not shy from complex topics. There was all kinds of ed

Less paid content is bad

[greytree]

These mags (and other information sources) used to pay clever, knowledgeable guys decent money to share their knowledge.
They funded that with sales and advertising money.
That money diminished.

So there is less good content being produced.
AI slop is filling the gap.

That is bad for the world.