FSM newsletter - 18th of September 2006

Greetings, readers and subscribers, and welcome to Free Software Magazine’s new and improved fortnightly newsletter.

In the past, our newsletters have consisted of article-style content that we here at FSM thought would be of interest to you. Don’t worry, these articles haven’t disappeared - they will appear as online articles on our site. Our new newsletters are designed to keep you up-to-date about recent articles, competitions and issues, new site features, and keeps you informed about what’s going on at FSM.

General announcements

And what an exciting general announcement it is - Issue 14 is now available on paper! As those of you who have been with us for the long haul may remember, we started out with the goal of being a print magazine. We were always going to release on the website, but the focus was goign to be on paper magazines. Anyway, that became unsustainable and we took a step back and contented ourselves with keeping the online versions coming. Thanks to all of you out there, we now have a very wide reader base and we know that many of you are still interested in the idea of receiving a paper mag. Well, we have decided to have the best of both worlds - a print mag AND an online mag! That’s right, using the services of lulu.com, we are now officially in print. Issue 14 is available at this very moment for purchase on Lulu, so for those of you who are interested in receiving your very own paper copy in the mail, with its attractive colour cover and b/w stock, head to our our Lulu storefront! Back issues are also available. Issue 14 will be available for download in 30 days, so if you order the paper Issue 14 it should arrive just before the downloadable one. And, all the articles in the paper mag are still released under a free license. Happy reading!

New features

FSM banners available

We've had quite a few emails from readers asking for us to provide FSM banners so they can put them on their websites. Well, our graphic designer Alan of Qreate has come up with a few banners for you to choose from. There are banners to suit all tastes, from the more subdued and serious to the diehard FSM loons.

If you have your own website and you would like to support FSM, then please post a banner on your site and help us out. Remember people you send our way will be in good hands - the hands of the free software community.

Recent content

Didn’t God say “...and the geeks will inherit the earth”? - Bridget Kulakauskas delves into why GNU/Linux isn’t just for geeks and the technical knowledge of kids is one reason why. read more...

A “what is” guide to 3D desktops: put in a bowl, mix, add chips for topping - Mitch Meyran decides to take the 3D card bull by the proverbial horns and give us a guide to 3D desktops. read more...

Becoming a free software developer, part III: Programming for the impatient - Rosalyn Hunter continues on her quest to be a free software developer and takes us with her on a journey into programming in Python - and reading the manual. read more...

Moving to freedom, one step at a time - Scott Carpenter, our latest acquisition, is starting a journey - he’s migrating! And he’s taking us with him. Go Scott! read more...

What’s wrong with free beer? - Bridget Kulakauskas asks the important questions - Free Software Beer? Or Open Source Beer? What’s the difference anyway? read more...

Recent content continued...

Extending documentation formats and facilities using the Docbook base - Thanks Martin Brown! He just wants to make our lives easier by letting us know about the functionality of his Eclipse documentation plug-in for the MySQL manuals that are available for download. read more...

Two Surprises during my break out east - Eddie Macnaghten has some pleasant encounters with GNU/Linux during his trip to Malaysia. read more...

Internet communities strike back - Tony Mobily explores the last ten years - internet communities are making a comeback! Virtual shopping is good, but virtual hanging out is better... read more...

Security Bulletins, computers, and cars: Changing the oil in your computer - John Locke talks basic “computer driving” skills - it’s just as important as regularly servicing your car! read more...

A bit about BitTorrent - Terry Hancock explores the nitty-gritties of bitTorrent - we know it’s cool, but Terry tells us how it works. read more...

Recent book reviews

Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks by Rickford Grant - Even though Brian Turner is a geek, he still gets a lot out of Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks. read more...

Pro MySQL by Michael Kruckenberg and Jay Pipes - Alan Berg discovers the advanced features of MySQL 5.0. read more...

Book competitions

This fortnight

This week we are giving away a copy ofBuilding Online Communities with phpBB2 by Stoyan Stefanov, Jeremy Rogers and Mike Lothar, and a copy of Linux Annoyances for Geeks by Michael Jang.

All you need to do to enter is check out the latest book competition announcement on our blogs page.

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks go to Packt and O’Reilly for providing these fantastic prizes.

Last fortnight's winner

To be announced.

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.

Donations

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. Our staff and authors sadly still receive little to no monetary reward for their good service.

Think about how much you would normally have to spend buying a magazine of this quality. Now, perhaps, consider donating part of that amount for each issue you've read. We would appreciate it.

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!

License

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.