Hello readers, and welcome once again to Free Software Magazine’s fortnightly newsletter, keeping you up to date with all things free software! Enjoy!
General announcements
It is one big fortnight, ladies and gentlemen.
We have just released a great selection of extra features for all our users! These are:
- Ads-free web site
- Access to a printer friendly version of each article and blog entry
- Access to an automatic generated PDF version of each article and of each issue.
- Ability to have your own blog in Free Software Magazine.
- And other minor features too like the ability to have clickable links in comments.
How can I get all these amazing things, I hear you ask? Well, thanks to the efforts of our dedicated team, we now have a karma points system! When you post comments on our articles others have the opportunity to rate your comments. Each rating gives or takes away karma from your total. The more karma you accumulate, the more cool features will become available! [Update 2008-03-06: All the extra features are now available to all logged in users]
Latest content
Ballmer’s Gold —Laurie Langham gets tough on Steve Ballmer. Read more...
Desktop diagramming with Dia and Kivio: Move that stencil —Alan Berg examines some free software diagramming tools. Read more...
Pick your own OOo, there must be one for you! —Mitch Meyran introduces OpenOffice.org... it really is for everyone! Read more...
UPnP, Mediatomb, PS3, and me —Anthony Taylor embarks on a media sharing adventure! Read more...
Comparing GNU/Linux and FreeBSD: The real winner is the community —Arturo Fernández Montoro compares and cotrasts GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. Read more...
Latest content continued
Launch your programs faster with Katapult —Andrew Min talks Katapult. Read more...
Desktop search tools for GNU/Linux: the competition hots up (part one)—Gary Richmond introduces Beagle. Read more...
Ideas for patent reform —Steven Goodwin weighs in on the patent debate. Read more...
Free software philosophy in business: Are they compatible?—Mark D. Roe tackles the much maligned issue of free software and business. Read more...
Backup your workstation with Backup Manager: Saving yourself one day at at time—Ken Leyba introduces Backup Manager; making your backups easier. Read more...
Latest book reviews released
Beginning Ubuntu Linux, 2nd Edition by Keir Thomas—Bridget Kulakauskas delves into the new and improved way to delve into Ubuntu. Read more...
AJAX: Creating Web Pages with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML by Edmond Woychowsky—Alan Berg says don’t shudder when you think about AJAX! Read this book! Read more...
Book competition announcement for this fortnight
This week we are giving away a copy of Using Samba, Third Edition by Gerald Carter, Jay Ts and Robert Eckstein and a copy of Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Second Edition by Keir Thomas.
All you need to do to enter is check out the latest book competition announcement on our blogs page.
GOOD LUCK!
Thanks go toApress and O’Reillyfor providing these fantastic prizes.
Winner of the book competition from last fortnight
Thanks to all those who entered, unfortunately there can only be one winner...
Congratulations Eric Drake of the USA!
Eric has won copies of Open Source Security Tools: Practical Guide to Security and Linux Administration Handbook Second Edition.
Thanks to all who entered.
Thanks also go to Prentice Hall for providing these great prizes.
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—Trivia poll: How many Microsoft patents are broken by free programs?
Okay, so the clear winner of our tongue-in-cheek trivia poll was resoundingly “Zero”, with 57% of the votes. This was followed by it’s polar opposite, “All of them!” with 25% of the vote... come on guys, you’re just being silly! This was followed by 13% with a thoughtful “One million, three hundred and thirty six thousand, seven hundred and seven (give or take)”, 4% with the figure of “Two hundred and thirty five”... but for some strange reason, nobody liked the number “Five thousand, three hundred and fifty seven” at all! All these numbers not withstanding, all of those who commented made it clear that they thought Microsoft’s attack on free software is just ridiculous. Read more here and stay tuned for...
This fortnight’s poll
How do you know about Free Software Magazine?
Nothing tricky about this one! Just let us know how you found out about Free Software Magazine. If you answer “Other” please leave a comment too.
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.
Invite a friend
Share Free Software Magazine with your friends! We have a really strong community and we want it to grow and grow, and with your help, it can! When you are logged in to Free Software Magazine, you should have a feature called “Invite Your Friends” showing on the left hand side in your navigation menu. If you click on this feature, you will be taken to a page where you can insert your friends’ email addresses and a personal message, and they will receive an invitation from you! You can also keep track of which of your friends have accepted your invitations. Go on, spread the free software word today!
Subscriptions
Ever wanted to follow that story, or blogger, or be informed when a change appears to some content that you want to keep up with? Now you can. Using our new “Subscribe” feature, you can receive an email update every time a blog or page is updated or when a comment is added, so you can keep up with all the latest changes. You can manage your subscriptions by logging in and going here.
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 read 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!