Bonum Certa Men Certa

We Need to Prevent Linux Journal From Going Dark (Offline) or Encourage Archiving It as a Contingency

Linux Journal CoverSummary: There is a real (and ever-growing) danger that a massive trove of GNU/Linux and Free software history will vanish unless urgent action is taken right now

AS we noted yesterday, Linux Journal won't be publishing anymore. But that's perhaps not the worst part. It cannot be stressed strongly enough just how important Linux Journal archives are. Linux Journal is not only about Linux but the Web and lots more. It's composed mostly by geeks who believe in Software Freedom. It was, for two and a half decades, their platform, either as writers or readers (whether subscribers or not).



We encourage the site's authors to reach out; please get in touch with us. We can work together to ensure that the site doesn't go offline and, if it does, we'll have a mirror elsewhere. It's a copyright assignment issue, probably to be arranged with PIA. We've done that before (successfully). We're still archiving Patent Troll Tracker's blog posts (the blog was taken down after the father of patent trolling had filed SLAPPy lawsuits) and we worked hard -- behind the scenes at times -- to ensure other Linux sites don't end up dead/offline.

We've already seen anything from eulogies to trolling from Fagioli (we don't want to feed his latest trolling; as we noted a short while ago, the media crisis is not limited to GNU/Linux and GNU/Linux users generally earn and spend more money, contradicting his insulting clickbait).

"We encourage the site's authors to reach out; please get in touch with us."We're not being alarmist about this; the "devil is in the details" and the announcement of end of publication was accompanied with subtle allusion to total shutdown (of the site). We saw this before. Lack of commitment (verbal or written) to keeping the site online often leads to shutdown, inevitably. It's a matter of time.

Linux Journal is invaluable, it's irreplaceable. We've cited it thousands of times over the years, so it provides evidentiary basis for some of our posts. That site is very important. Important enough that even the NSA took special note of it (and its readers). It might not be so-called 'mainstream media', but the scale of the site is astounding. Linux Journal is huge. At the moment I have a list of 12,500 URLs (Linux Journal articles) on a file. Back in the days we managed to save Linux Devices (after the new owner decided to take the site offline, shortly after it had bought it). We didn't think Linux Journal would approach a similar fate. Should PIA take it offline, we may find a way to archive the whole of the site, but copyright is the barrier. Surely, as one can imagine, all Linux Journal writers (past and present) dread the idea of all articles they ever published there vanishing overnight. We need to fight to prevent this. This can only work if original authors help and insist on copyright reassignment (or change of clauses). In the sick world of greed and "everything is a business" the concepts of curation, preservation, history etc. are worthless. If there's no profit in it, let it rot... (that's why many libraries are shut down and books are pulped).

"Linux Journal is dead, but we need to pressure PIA to keep the Web site that it bought accessible indefinitely (online and in the hands of dedicated people, maybe the authors; hand it over to someone who can host it)."Remember that Linux Journal goes a long, loooong way back... almost the dawn of "Linux" itself (not GNU). It would be a total and absolute travesty if Linux Journal went offline; history would be deleted and then the thugs from Microsoft can rewrite it their own way... as Microsoft did to Netscape and many other victims of its abuses, crimes, corruption, and infiltration.

Linux Journal is dead, but we need to pressure PIA to keep the Web site that it bought accessible indefinitely (online and in the hands of dedicated people, maybe the authors; hand it over to someone who can host it). Microsoft would love for Linux Journal to just go away and offline, preferably for good. It can then monopolise the narratives, with lies...

People may struggle to find articles about what Microsoft did to Linux, instead stumbling upon nonsense like Jim Zemlin's "Open Source loves Microsoft."

Maybe the Linux Foundation (revenue of about $100,000,000 a year) can offer some funds to salvage Linux Journal? Don't bet on it. They already killed their own site, Linux.com. Yes, Mr. Zemlin gives himself almost a million bucks a year (in salary that's likely tax-exempt), but he won't give a dime to writers and editors at Linux.com, so he certainly won't help Linux Journal. He will, however, help Microsoft instead; because "Open Source loves Microsoft"...

"People may struggle to find articles about what Microsoft did to Linux, instead stumbling upon nonsense like Jim Zemlin's "Open Source loves Microsoft.""We've been discussing this over in our IRC channels. In the past 24 hours we tried to figure out what to do next because we need to pressure PIA to keep the site online, albeit it needs to be done politely and diplomatically. If they hand it over to someone who can host it reliably, who would that be? We need to campaign for this. A new owner that is not benevolent can exploit copyrights to forcibly keep the site offline for good. Takedown notices can be issued against copies and mirrors.

One Techrights reader already wrote a script to download the whole site, complete with all the URLs. But he has not run the script. It's just a 'doomsday' contingency. "I hope it can be done before the site goes offline forever," one person wrote in IRC, but it hasn't been done. Time is limited, hence the urgency. "I can imagine their writers already scrape their older articles there, for personal copies," I said, and "there may not be much time left [as] it's incurring extra bandwidth cost [at] host level so they might pull the plug..."

"One Techrights reader already wrote a script to download the whole site, complete with all the URLs."In other words, "getting many people to download would accelerate the demise," I said, "as it would be bots/scripts staging a DDOS and they'd want nothing to do with such a nuisance..."

I want to stress that we didn't run any spiders or bots. We just prepared the process, shall it become necessary (e.g. if PIA authorises this). It's crystal clear that for copyright reasons we cannot put it online anyway; what we did 6 years ago with QuinStreet was, we encouraged it to allow authors to make copies; they signed a sort waiver later on, whereupon the founder of Linux Devices (now in http://linuxdevices.org/, adjunct to LinuxGizmos) was able to mirror all the articles from the old site (weeks after it had been shut down by QuinStreet).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
 
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead