Welcome to Free Software Magazine’s fortnightly newsletter—bringing you news from the free software world. Happy reading!
General announcements
So here we are at the beginning of a new year, and here at Free Software Magazine we certainly aren’t slacking off! Because we believe we can continually improve the site for you, we are currently working on the new version of the web site that should be finished shortly. Of course, because we are Free Software Magazine, we are proud to contribute to free software and will release the CMS code under the GPL. So keep your eyes out for our flashy new site soon!
Latest content
Hibernate feature in Linux: Reduce TUX’s metabolic activity!—Bandan Das talks about hibernation techniques available in Linux. Read more...
Finding GNU/Linux replacements for Windows software—Jon Peck critiques the Linux Equivalent Project. Read more...
Ten ways to take over the world—Ken Leyba gives us ten ways to promote GNU/Linux this year. Read more...
The OpenOEM (free as in freedom)— Forget free software! That’s only half the battle. Dale O’Gorman talks free hardware. Read more...
Can FOSS save your privacy?—Jabari Zakiya talks about protecting your privacy... FOSS style! Read more...
Stitching seamless panoramas with Hugin—Nathan Sanders talks about adding new tools to your free software graphics toolkit. Read more...
Not everyone is a geek. So why do we act like they are?—Chris Mostek gives some advice to people in forums: be nice! Read more...
Free software may kill some software firms. So what?—Wouter Verhelst talks about free software advocacy—and combats claims that free software is bad for our economy. Read more...
Digital archaeology of the microcomputer, 1974-1994—Steve Goodwin talks about preserving the history of computers—and how the fact that it was all proprietary makes that difficult. Read more...
Software ain’t patentable, damn it!—Jabari Zakiya talks about why the patenting of software is fundamentally wrong. Read more...
Bzflags: Kill or be killed—Alan and Nelson Berg help us get into Bzflags: a free software multiplayer 3D tank game. Read more...
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink—Chris Mostek talks about the difficulties of converting small business to free software. Read more...
Latest book reviews released
Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two by Bill von Hagen, Brian K Jones Need to know about Linux servers? Brian Turner investigates this book. Read more...
Ubuntu Hacks by Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin and Bill Childers Brian Turner reviews the book that covers everything you ever wanted Ubuntu to do for you! Read more...
Book competition announcement for this fortnight
This week we are giving away a copy ofWicked Cool Shell Scripts by Dave Taylor and a copy of How Linux Works by Brian Ward.
All you need to do to enter is check out the latest book competition announcement on our blogs page.
GOOD LUCK!
Thanks go to No Starch Press for providing these fantastic prizes.
Winner of the book competition from last fortnight
To be announced.
Please comment wherever possible and don’t forget to log in so that you’ll be in the running to win the latest book competition
Poll results for last fortnight—What’s the main reason why you use free/open source software?
Why use free software? The winner of this fortnight’s poll was “To be part of and support the free software movement” scraped in with 39% of the vote, closely followed by “It’s free as in freedom” with 36% of the vote. These two were followed by “It’s free as in cost” and “Other reason” both on 9%, and lastly, 6% of you said “It has a great support community”. Most of the comments stated that the “Other reasons” included security and stability—and the ability to be creative with your computer use! Read more here and stay tuned for...
This fortnight’s poll
What kind of articles would you prefer to see in Free Software Magazine?
It would help us in deciding what articles to assign if you can let us know what you want to read. Pick your most preferred article type and, if you’re finding it really hard to decide, write a comment listing your preferences in order.
Reminders
Comments
Your comments on articles, issues, and blog entries are very welcome. They provide other readers with insightful suggestions, further information, and the feeling that they are not alone. They also provide our authors with the feeling that they are being heard. Please comment wherever possible and don’t forget to log in so that you’ll be in the running to win the latest book competition.
Avatars
Avatars are a great way of expressing your personal identity, whether it be a photo or an image that you feel represents the you you want to be. Read more about avatars here. To add an avatar: log in, go to “my account” in the menu on the left, go to the “edit” tab and scroll down to where it says “Upload picture”. Now, hit the browse button, find the image on your computer that you want to upload and go to the bottom of the page and hit the submit button. That’s it; you now have an avatar image.
Donate
As you might know already FSM is a low profit project with all funds raised going back into producing the fine magazine you can download for free.
Think about how much you would normally have to spend buying a magazine of this quality. We provide it for free!
Your donations will help us to continue spreading the word about free software and producing more fantastic issues.
Contacting us
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Thanks
Thank you for subscribing to Free Software Magazine. You are a part of a growing community who help to raise the awareness of, and educate new users in, the joys of free software. Without you we would not have this community and without you we would not have a magazine. Happy reading!