LWN: The end of the road
So the time has come to face the reality of the situation: what LWN is offering is not what the market is willing to pay for at this time. It's time to find something else to do.
The end result is that next week's LWN Weekly Edition (August 1) will be the last. This has not been an easy decision to make, to say the least. But, barring some sort of last minute miracle (do contact us if you have one, please!), we do not see any alternative.
This is a sad development.
I'm personally willing to pay for high quality information if it stays accessible to everybody. LWN offered just this. Only in the recent months they've set up an improving system to pay them. Because of the apparent urgeny of the matter I've personally payed them today to help to make the mircale happen.
Bernhard
Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de wrote:
I'm personally willing to pay for high quality information if it stays accessible to everybody. LWN offered just this. Only in the recent months they've set up an improving system to pay them. Because of the apparent urgeny of the matter I've personally payed them today to help to make the mircale happen.
Oh well, what a shame, never mind. Does it really matter that much to us? It's not like it's a GNU publication that's folding, is it? Indeed, they've been increasing their proprietary software coverage while axing sections like the mostly-free-software desktop one. Also, they announced after they left tucows that life wasn't easy, but they didn't seem to take up any of the suggestions that I saw (from some quite savvy people, too) about how they could try to make money.
I've read LWN for some time and I almost posted an item about this too. Why didn't I? Well, I think they've lost sight recently of why people read LWN. I read it for an interesting pro-free-software and anti-software-patent analysis of current major IT stories. I read it for a more selective review of Linux kernel development than KT. I read it for more interesting and diverse desktop use articles than DesktopLinux. I read it for a round-up of development news that I'm not sure even has anything similar out there. The sections that they seem to have been focusing on recently (security databases, press releases, user comments) are all things that are done better elsewhere. There's no unique selling point for LWN there. The "must-read" has become "just another news site" recently.
Anyway, I feel like the bagpiper at a funeral now. It's not dead yet and if it shows signs of springing back to healthy life, I'll probably help it get up on its feet rather than playing the lament. I'm reluctant to throw money away on something with a closure date set, though.
MJR
On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 10:27:44PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de wrote:
I'm personally willing to pay for high quality information if it stays accessible to everybody. LWN offered just this. Only in the recent months they've set up an improving system to pay them. Because of the apparent urgeny of the matter I've personally payed them today to help to make the mircale happen.
Does it really matter that much to us? It's not like it's a GNU publication that's folding, is it?
It is among the best publications out there, we do not have a comparing GNU publication. Most of them are more specialisted or less frequently published and cannot be compared to LWN easily.
The LWN crew certainly is Free Software friendly and they understand a lot of the values. Okay there is room for improvement, too. Still I've haven't found a better publication so far.
It's not dead yet and if it shows signs of springing back to healthy life, I'll probably help it get up on its feet rather than playing the lament.
That is what I try to do.
I'm reluctant to throw money away on something with a closure date set, though.
I'm paying them (volenteeringly) for service that I've already received. We need more people who think about this method of rewarding projects that are useful for them, even when the result is useful for everybody.