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

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

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

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

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

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The magazine focused specifically on

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, 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 and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

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 billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...

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 software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

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 co-founded

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

, 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 lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git. He was honored, along with Shinya Yam ...

. 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 intelligen ...

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, despite his crim ...

London Trust Media 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, despite his cr ...

—which shares similar values—and that the magazine plans to grow: According to editor-in-chief Doc Searls: "''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 Media.

References

External links

*
Linux Journal issues
on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{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

See also

References

External links