PieFedI [they] bought a Linux Magazine from 2000!
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![I [they] bought a Linux Magazine from 2000!](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/0080484b-d02d-4bc6-874b-c13b93064169.png)
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21842806
Recently came across this magazine from the Linux Format on a second hand vintage shop and obviously had to go for it! These magazines are still produced these to this day btw. However, when I went to linuxformat.com after receiving my magazine to check out some of their other ones, I saw that they were in fact just celebrating their 25-year anniversary and have put out a digital version of the very magazine I bought - for everyone to view digitally!
Their announcement:
25-years ago in this month of May, back in 2000 (just after the giant Y2K meltdown that flipped every plane upsidedown) Linux Format was first published. To help celebrate and remember this momentous pinnacle of publishing prowess (and while we still have server access) we'll be popping out a few classic issues of Linux Format in PDF format. As we already have it to hand here's issue LXF001 with a very young looking Nick Veitch.
The magazine can be found digitally at: https://linuxformat.com/files/pdfs/LXF001.pdf
Either way, I had no idea of the timing but thought it was a fun experience and worthy to share here. Enjoy a step back into memory-lane!
Have a great rest of your day!
12 Comments
Comments from other communities
American_Jesus
Sips'Open Source? What does it all mean and is it a Good Thing? I am so confused about all of this :(
What are yiu confused about? Its just an article discussing what it is what it means.
Red Hat 8/10
Debian 9/10
Mandrake 10/10
Caldera 8/10
SuSe 8/10
Well, that's settled then!
tarknassusCaldera Linux, now there's a name I've not heard in a long time... My version came from the Linux Complete Reference, 4th Ed.
Avid Amoebahttps://www.theregister.com/2000/07/31/ms_ballmer_linux_is_communism/
MS' Ballmer: Linux is communism
Steve Ballmer was the only person to raise the issue of Linux when he wrapped up Microsoft's annual financial analysts meeting in Seattle, although he put Sun and Oracle ahead in terms of being stronger competitors. They of course are 'civilised' competitors - but the Linux crowd, in the world of Prez Steve, are communists.
All the comrades we made along the way.
cygnus5 pounds for a magazine in 2000 seems incredibly expensive!
Now it's £8
Damn, it must include a lot of CDs
Midnight WolfSomeone needs to return grandpa to the nursing home, he's off his meds again and blabbering nonsense...
Nothing like cracking open a fresh magazine after leaving empty milk bottles at the door for pickup!
It was pretty niche, most magazine racks in a corner shop would only carry a few of them.
There was a sort of rule at the time, for people with cd burners in their PCs. You would charge people for the 3-4 CDs which e.g. mandrake came on, but wouldn't charge them for the time or software itself. So you'd "buy Linux" from your friends friend for a few quid.
It was pretty niche
That's odd to read; during the very early years of my exposure to Linux, a lot of what I learned was learned by going to my local Barnes & Noble and browsing the 2-3 Linux magazines, primarily this one, they had prominently displayed in the periodicals section.
I mean Linux magazines in general were pretty niche, not all corner shops had them. I had to go to larger newsagents and decide which one had the most tempting cd on the cover that month.
Was that in 2000? My own vague memory was that Linux started picking up some steam in the early 2000's and then branched out to a new audience shortly after Firefox and Ubuntu hit the scene around 2004, and actually saw some adoption when Windows XP's poor security and Windows Vista's poor hardware support started breaking things.
So depending on the year, you could both be right.
Awwww, it doesn't even say "This is the year of the Linux desktop!"
PetteriPanoAhh. 2000.
When Alpha and Transmeta was the future. No more of this Intel and AMD crap.
DiplomjodlerBack in 2000, we had RedHat at school. I bought a boxed copy of Mandrake Linux from a software store back then and installed it on my home PC back then because I didn't know how to get it otherwise.
It was a great distro with tons of great applications and graphical tools. Then eventually moved to Ubuntu in 2004 and I've been with them ever since.
The magazine coming with a free operating system is something that will probably never happen again. Wild to think about.
AnUnusualRelicOp: I run Definite Linux btw!
Well, it probably still runs, although some recent hardware will be unsupported.
£5 in 2000.. What kind of stuff is in this? Saw it in a shop before and it looked pretty expensive to me. Never really bought magazines.
katy ✨Memory unlocked! Those blue zip drives were awesome! So much free space to put your rubbish on to. And the 'disks' had those funky grey hexagon pellets inside which mesmerised me!
German Linux Magazin from 2005.
I have this one from Mexico and Argentina, from 2006.
Gosh I had a few of these around that time. I wish I kept them...
Remember that "NSA's XKeyscore program targeted readers of Linux Journal as part of targeting people interested in the Linux distribution Tails" as revealed in July 2014. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Journal
Strong nostalgia.
I used to subscribe to Linux format! I got the back issues on exactly/Exact Editions too, so for a while I could also view every issue on my android tablet. Those were the days.
I don't even know if Exactly is still around anymore.
Edit - nope, I was thinking of New Humanist magazine, oops. But I did used to get Linux Format through the door. I remember they used to have rackspace ads on the plastic weather cover
Interesting read. I guess I started my subscription in about June/July of 2000 soon after being given a Mandrake disk.
I see a review of Linux, Complete Reference Ver 3, which I still have on my bookshelf:
I remember buying once since it came with a mandrake linux cd. Did buy a few more too, was a good read.
💖
Great magazine, thanks for posting!