Help me make a free 'buntu emag...

[ronniet]

ok, since the post here seems to be dying a death, I thought i'd pick up the gauntlet and offer to do a free emag...

I was thinking about starting up a free emag on the 'buntu family of distro's a while back. I have some spare server space and don't mind spending some pennies on a .org name.

Are there enough people willing to write though?
How about a show of hands?

I've done magazine/brochure stuff in the past using Windows and Adobe InDesign but since i'm now Windows free it'd probably be done in OpenOffice and exported as a PDF (don't really have the time to learn Scribe, and last time i used it it was really buggy). I'd be more than willing to do the web site and the layout of the mag, and help write stuff... lyceum has volunteered so far for Gimp/Blender articles.

I was thinking (like someone suggested in another art related thread) that it'd be mostly comprised of How-To's, with plenty of screenshots, it'd have some news but most people read the forums for news and by the time the mag came out the news would be old. Take info from some of the mailing list stuff and put that in there too (since most people probably don't subscribe to the mailing lists) which would almost serve as a Q&A section. Try and get interviews with people in the 'buntu scene; programmers, artists and so on...

I'm quite sure if we bashed heads we could get a nice list of contents to fill each month...

First thing i'd say is a name, with that I could get a quick website up, and most ideas/discussions for it could move to its custom site, save clogging this place up with magazine stuff... hm?

Waddya say people?... you up for it?

If you want to help with the emag, please see the website for details

[linuxgeekery]

I'm definitely in. I *really* suck at writing , but I'll try to contribute something. I might be able to help with the technical side - distribution, website, hosting, etc.

[jenhsun]

Originally Posted by ronniet ok, since the post here seems to be dying a death, I thought i'd pick up the gauntlet and offer to do a free emag... I was thinking about starting up a free emag on the 'buntu family of distro's a while back. I have some spare server space and don't mind spending some pennies on a .org name. Are there enough people willing to write though? How about a show of hands? I've done magazine/brochure stuff in the past using Windows and Adobe InDesign but since i'm now Windows free it'd probably be done in OpenOffice and exported as a PDF (don't really have the time to learn Scribe, and last time i used it it was really buggy). I'd be more than willing to do the web site and the layout of the mag, and help write stuff... lyceum has volunteered so far for Gimp/Blender articles. I was thinking (like someone suggested in another art related thread) that it'd be mostly comprised of How-To's, with plenty of screenshots, it'd have some news but most people read the forums for news and by the time the mag came out the news would be old. Take info from some of the mailing list stuff and put that in there too (since most people probably don't subscribe to the mailing lists) which would almost serve as a Q&A section. Try and get interviews with people in the 'buntu scene; programmers, artists and so on... I'm quite sure if we bashed heads we could get a nice list of contents to fill each month... First thing i'd say is a name, with that I could get a quick website up, and most ideas/discussions for it could move to its custom site, save clogging this place up with magazine stuff... hm? Waddya say people?... you up for it?

Great, ronniet. A new thread for a cool idea.
Keep going....

[linuxgeekery]

On the subject of names:

ubuntu magazine (obviously)
cup of ubuntu
everything brown ( just kidding)

sorry, not in much of a creative mindset tonight

EDIT: as for things in the magazine, what about a "round-up" of good, useful, and informative posts/threads from the forums?

[Adamant1988]

You may wish to consider talking to the marketing team (of which I am a member) about this, as they do something a little similar in the form of the Ubuntu Weekly News. I'm sure if some extra effort were applied that could be altered to do both (or at least allow for both).

Ubuntu-Marketing mailing list
Ubuntu Marketing Launchpad

[deepwave]

Originally Posted by ronniet ok, since the post here seems to be dying a death, I thought i'd pick up the gauntlet and offer to do a free emag... I was thinking about starting up a free emag on the 'buntu family of distro's a while back. I have some spare server space and don't mind spending some pennies on a .org name. Are there enough people willing to write though? How about a show of hands? I've done magazine/brochure stuff in the past using Windows and Adobe InDesign but since i'm now Windows free it'd probably be done in OpenOffice and exported as a PDF (don't really have the time to learn Scribe, and last time i used it it was really buggy). I'd be more than willing to do the web site and the layout of the mag, and help write stuff... lyceum has volunteered so far for Gimp/Blender articles. I was thinking (like someone suggested in another art related thread) that it'd be mostly comprised of How-To's, with plenty of screenshots, it'd have some news but most people read the forums for news and by the time the mag came out the news would be old. Take info from some of the mailing list stuff and put that in there too (since most people probably don't subscribe to the mailing lists) which would almost serve as a Q&A section. Try and get interviews with people in the 'buntu scene; programmers, artists and so on... I'm quite sure if we bashed heads we could get a nice list of contents to fill each month... First thing i'd say is a name, with that I could get a quick website up, and most ideas/discussions for it could move to its custom site, save clogging this place up with magazine stuff... hm? Waddya say people?... you up for it?

I'd do it... except I would do it for pay. Which kinda goes against the freeness of the emag. Beside isn't the Fridge doing a good job of being the Ubuntu emagazine?

[Mateo]

I would do it in latex instead of in open office, since it looks more professional.

[ronniet]

If Latex is quite similar to InDesign then I could use that, yeah.

I quite like the name 'Full Circle' since it kinda describes the Ubuntu logo too. What do you folks think?... since i'm sure we won't really be allowed to plaster the 'buntu logos everywhere (logo is TM'd) Any other name ideas??...

Ok, so the name idea is on the go...

Next idea to start up; contents. What would you folks like to read in a 'buntu mag?
So far;
How-to's (lots of )
Letters/eMails
Q&A (incl. mailing list & readers questions)

feel free to add your ideas...

[linuxgeekery]

Yeah... I kind of like the "full circle" idea

Anyways, LaTeX is sort of like InDesign for academia, rather than marketing From what I know, it doesn't do as much of the fancy graphics, it focuses on content.

From Wikipedia:

LaTeX is based on the idea that authors should be able to focus on the meaning of what they are writing, without being distracted by the visual presentation of the information. In preparing a LaTeX document, the author specifies the logical structure using familiar concepts such as chapter, section, table, figure, etc., and lets the LaTeX system worry about the presentation of these structures. It therefore encourages the separation of layout from content, while still allowing manual typesetting adjustments where needed. This is similar to the mechanism by which many word processors allow styles to be defined globally for an entire document, or the CSS mechanism used by HTML.

LaTeX can be arbitrarily extended by using the underlying macro language to develop custom formats. Such macros are often collected into packages which are available to address special formatting issues such as complicated mathematical content or graphics. In addition, there are numerous commercial implementations of the entire TeX system, including LaTeX, to which vendors may add extra features like additional typefaces and telephone support. LyX is a free visual document processor that uses LaTeX for a back-end. TeXmacs is a free, WYSIWYG editor with similar functionalities as LaTeX, but a different typesetting engine.

A number of popular commercial desktop publishing systems use modified versions of the original TeX typesetting engine. The recent rise in popularity of XML systems and the demand for large-scale batch production of publication-quality typesetting from these systems and other sources has seen a steady increase in the use of LaTeX.

The example below shows the LaTeX input:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\title{\LaTeX}
\date{}
\begin{document}
  \maketitle \LaTeX{} is a document preparation system for the \TeX{} 
  typesetting program. It offers programmable desktop publishing 
  features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of 
  typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and 
  cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies, 
  and much more. \LaTeX{} was originally written in 1984 by Leslie 
  Lamport and has become the dominant method for using \TeX; few 
  people write in plain \TeX{} anymore. The current version is 
  \LaTeXe.
  \newline
  % This is a comment, it is not shown in the final output.
  % The following shows a little of the typesetting power of LaTeX
  \begin{eqnarray}
    E &=& mc^2                              \\
    m &=& \frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}
  \end{eqnarray}
\end{document}

That would come out as this:

P.S. - Will this only be distributed by website, or will it be emailed out weekly/monthly/quarterly, etc. ?

[ronniet]

Originally Posted by linuxgeekery Yeah... I kind of like the "full circle" idea Anyways, LaTeX is sort of like InDesign for academia, rather than marketing From what I know, it doesn't do as much of the fancy graphics, it focuses on content. ... P.S. - Will this only be distributed by website, or will it be emailed out weekly/monthly/quarterly, etc. ?

Yeah I looked up Latex... in a few words ; screw that.

I managed to print out some documentation on Scribus so i'll give that a read over and hopefully I can pick that up. I wasn't a total whizz with InDesign but know enough to produce good layouts.

I'd like it to be monthly and be available as a download from a website. Maybe some sort of mailing/subscribers list to let people know an issue is out?

I'm liking 'FullCircle'... the orange and blue suggesting the colours used in the 'buntu flavours. Any other name suggestions ?

I'll try and knock up a prototype logo/cover over the weekend for people to see and talk about... i want the communities input on it...