''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

originally published by

Specialized System Consultants, Inc. Specialized System Consultants (SSC), is a private media company that publishes magazines and reference manuals. SSC properties include LinuxGazette.com, ITgarage.com, the monthly international print magazine ''Linux Journal'', and the webzine ...

(SSC) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Since 2017, the publisher was Linux Journal, LLC. located in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. The magazine focused specifically on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

, allowing the content to be a highly specialized source of information for

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

enthusiasts. The magazine was published from March 1994 to August 2019, over 25 years, before being bought by

Slashdot Media ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...

in 2020.

History

''Linux Journal'' was the first magazine to be published about the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

and operating systems based on it. It was established in 1994. The first issue was published in March 1994 by Phil Hughes and Bob Young, who later co-founded

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide. Red Hat has become a ...

, and it featured an interview with Linux creator

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also ...

. The publication's last print edition was August 2011, issue 208. Beginning with the September 2011 issue, issue 209, the magazine transitioned to publishing monthly in digital-only formats including various desktop, mobile, and e-pub platforms. In early July 2014 it was revealed that the NSA's

XKeyscore XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intellige ...

program targeted readers of ''Linux Journal'' as part of targeting people interested in the Linux distribution Tails. On December 1, 2017 ''Linux Journal'' announced that it would cease publication due to running out of funds, having fallen into debt and being unable to pay employees for months. However, on January 1, 2018, it announced that it was rescued by

Private Internet Access Private Internet Access (PIA) is a personal VPN service that allows users to connect to multiple locations. In 2018, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès was named chief technology officer of PIA's parent company, London Trust Media. In November 20 ...

/ London Trust Media—which shares similar values—and that the magazine plans to grow: According to editor-in-chief

Doc Searls David "Doc" Searls (born July 29, 1947), is an American journalist, columnist, and a widely read blogger. He is the host of FLOSS Weekly, a free and open-source software ( FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network, a co-author of '' The Clu ...

: "''Linux Journal'' should be to Linux what ''National Geographic'' is to geography and ''The New Yorker'' is to New York—meaning about much more than the title alone suggests." On August 7, 2019, the ''Journal'' announced that it would be shutting down and letting all staff go. On September 22, 2020, ''Linux Journal'' resumed activity under the new management of Slashdot Group

Content

''Linux Journal'' published articles on all levels of developing and using Linux and the software that runs on it, including everything from how to write

device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...

s to how to edit photos with

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized ...

. In addition to how-tos and tutorials, each issue featured reviews of Linux products, tips, and market analysis. Most notable editors have included: Bob Young, Phil Hughes,

Shawn Powers Shawn Powers (born 19 July 1975) is a journalist, Open Source evangelist, cartoonist, and online personality. He is currently a co-host at FLOSS Weekly.. on the TWiT.tv network, a frequent guest host on the Reality 2.0 podcast, and an active b ...

, Don Marti, Kyle Rankin, Michael K. Johnson, and Jill Franklin.

References

External links

*
Linux Journal issues
- archive.org {{Authority control Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Linux magazines Linux websites Magazines established in 1994 Magazines disestablished in 2019 Magazines published in Colorado Magazines published in Texas Mass media in Houston Monthly magazines published in the United States

History

Content

See also

References

External links