Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:45:35 +0000 From: Paul Waring <paul@xk7.net> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Lack of FreeBSD coverage in the UK media Message-ID: <4603D9FF.4070100@xk7.net>
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I've noticed over the past few years that there has been a growing number of Linux magazines available in the UK (Linux Format, Linux Magazine and Linux User/Developer are the ones that immediately spring to mind), but there is still no widely available printed magazine aimed at users of FreeBSD (or any other BSD for that matter). I've been wondering why this is the case for a while, and was reminded of the issue during a discussion after a talk given by Robert Watson at this week's UKUUG conference. There doesn't seem to be a lack of people/organisations using FreeBSD in the UK, there are a number of BSD user groups and I'm sure plenty of people attend their local LUG as well. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why FreeBSD doesn't get better media coverage than it currently does in the UK, but I did think of a few ideas that might help improve matters: 1. Try and get a list of BSD user groups printed in the major Linux magazines - Linux Format does this for LUGs so perhaps they'd be open to including UUGs as well. 2. Get mini BSD stories into the existing Linux magazines - most of them have a small bar at the bottom of the main news pages with short summaries of stories and it would be great some BSD-related items there. 3. Have people send in various items which someone edits into a one or two page 'This month in FreeBSD' article (or rather 'three months ago in FreeBSD', given the lead times for articles). The other advantage, apart from extra coverage of FreeBSD, is that magazines will often pay fees for articles, so if an tutorial was put together by several people then that fee could be donated to the FreeBSD Foundation (assuming everyone was happy with that) and everyone wins. What do other people think? Is this lack of coverage a problem which should be addressed, or is FreeBSD doing well enough in the UK as it is? Paul
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