Linux Format free to download for 24 hours only

LXF

As promised, we hosted a full high-res copy of the latest Linux Format magazine right now. Sadly, it was for 24 hours only, and you were too slow!

Still, we have some other incredible content you might want to read, not least of which are these five:

  1. Linux tips every geek should know
  2. The Linux Starter Pack - 130 pages of PDFs available for free download
  3. The Linux Pub Quiz - we bet you can't get 100% correct...
  4. How to install Linux on a USB flash drive
  5. 10 simple ways to make your Linux box more secure

Note that the Linux Starter Pack is available only as a low-res PDF. If you'd like to see it made available as a high-res torrent, let us know in the comments below.

Answers to predictable questions

Are you going to be putting this issue online again?

No, sorry - you missed your chance.

I downloaded it. Can I give it to my friends?

Sure. There's no DRM, so you can give it to as many friends as you like.

Is it true the issue is now on The Pirate Bay?

We wouldn't know. We wouldn't recommend you go and search there for yourself. And we certainly wouldn't recommend you download it from there to enjoy the issue at your leisure. Come to think of it, we don't even know what The Pirate Bay even is.

I've searched and searched and can't find this anywhere!

Just post on a forum - over 21,000 people downloaded the high-res PDFs (and thousand more snagged the low-res PDFs), so you're bound to find someone who will share them with you.

Can I buy Linux Format in the US/Australia/Canada/Outer Mongolia?

Linux Format is on-sale worldwide every four weeks. Yes that includes the US. Yes that includes Australia and Canada. Yes, that even includes Wales. Not Outer Mongolia though - sorry! You can find find more information on buying LXF, including information on your nearest stockist if you're in the US, by clicking here.

If you can't find an issue, or if you just happen to feel like saving a huge amount of money, take a look at the price of a subscription - we think you'll be pleasantly surprised, particularly if you're in the US.

Note that all our subscriptions come with free access to over 1200 PDFs from our back issue archive.

Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about this offer - keep your eyes peeled, because there's a lot more to come...

You should follow us on Identi.ca or Twitter


Your comments

Is this a sign of things to come?

I know in recent months there has been increasing numbers of people requesting the option to suscribe to a downloadable .PDF of Linux Format at a reduced rate. Is this a testing of the waters?

Re: Is this is a sign?

No. We're doing this as a one-off thank you for everyone's support.

Catch or no catch?

"(legally at least!)"
Are you hinting that it will not be legal for me to share my downloaded copy with other people? How does this reflect the "No DRM. No cost. No catches."-line?

Re: Catch or no catch?

There will be no DRM on it, meaning that you can run it on any device you want and it won't "time out" or something horrible like that. It's yours. We're giving you a personal copy for free. We're not giving away the copyright to the article, if that's what you're asking - that means you can't redistribute the PDFs freely. This isn't a "catch", this is just standard copyright law.

However clearly without any DRM there's nothing stopping you from giving them to everyone, torrenting them, printing them, selling them, whatever. We'd rather everyone obtained the PDFs directly from us, but we can't stop you redistributing them for eternity. If someone does decide to put the whole thing on The Pirate Bay in 48 hours, I doubt we'd be particularly upset! ;)

This is something that Magnatune pioneered and we're happy to follow their lead.

Cool!

Wow, this is so cool! Thanks, guys!

wow +1 very good :)

wow +1
very good
:)

/.

Will the servers cope?

huh...

I must be missing something -- everything on that page is available to subscribers only. Is this a UK-only thing?

Please provide a direct link

Please provide a direct link to the PDF. We're too lazy to navigate your poorly designed web page.

Getting the PDFs

scroobious and ping tojo:

The link to the Linux Format website shows what's in the current issue, and provides access for LXF subscribers (after logging in).

Come 12am GMT, you'll be able to download the complete issue straight from this page.

All this hyper over a stinkin PDF ?

"This page will be updated later tonight, so just point people here."

I find it hilarious that they consider themselves so "kind", and applaud themselves, just because they provide this PDF "DRM FREE!!!11".

I mean, the community, us really, provides KDE to the world for free, drm-free of course, not just once but again and again.

omg, oh holy newspaper. thank you. thank you. drm-free? wow, i'm so impressed.

Linux users

And here again we have typical linux a$$holes looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Re: All this hyper over a stinkin PDF

<< I mean, the community, us really, provides KDE to the world for free, drm-free of course, not just once but again and again. >>

It's so good of you to take credit for producing KDE. Good work - you're clearly an awesome coder!

<< omg, oh holy newspaper. thank you. thank you. drm-free? wow, i'm so impressed. >>

Wait... you cry when people use DRM. You're now crying when people don't use DRM. Would you rather they didn't give stuff away? This is a magazine that's on-sale right now. They lose money by giving it away free. Who loses out from this?

Relax...

Some people actually do Linux related things for a living, so free comes with a price tag for them. Get over yourself.

PDF Downlaod

I use PDFs routinely, but the reason I subscribe with an overseas subscription is because I love taking the magazine with me. I highlight, circle, add post-it flags, have photocopies of important items sent to my employees. Paper is un-PC, but it will only die when I do (very ego-centric observation.) For utility and quick communication in the workplace, PDFs are superb! PLEASE don't let the paper go!

A little more than just DRM free...

I am utterly confused by the 'stinkin pdf' author. If you had included DRM, he would have given you crap. As you haven't he still gives you crap. Amazing really. But at least crap is DRM free. Which I suppose might bring another little mini-rant in my direction this time. As it happens my crap is DRM'd to the hilt. My toilet actually has a license in order that I may send my proprietorial waste product down the pan. How I would have liked to included the above comments to keep my crap company. They would get on really, really well together.

For myself, I have been reading Linux Format for years now, and have found the mag to be an excellent source of all things tux with more than a passing interest for the UK LUG's. I'm right up for a free download, and thank you LF!

People should really relax

I am not affiliated to the publication, and I haven't bought a magazine about Linux for years because everything I want and need is available on the net. But comments like the ones above about the freedom shows only ignorance.

First, it's a gift, take it or go away, but don't complain. They haven't claimed that the publication is GPL'ed or under a creative commons license that allows freely sharing it, so they have absolutely no obligation to make you happy at all. Take it or leave.

Second, the term free in this context has nothing to do with freedom. It's just about money.

I am an open source lover, but I don't try to impose my view of the reality to anyone else in such unkind way.

Q: "I mean, the community, us really, provides KDE to the world for free, drm-free of course, not just once but again and again."

A: That's ok, it's your choice. That doesn't mean anything at all for the rest of the world. YOU acknowledged to put your work under the GPL, a lot of us do. But that doesn't mean that you/we can force anyone else to do the same.

As said, if you want it, take it. If not, just keep moving, politely.

I'm a subscriber...

... and I'm astonished that anyone would knock such a decent offer. I'll expect to see the magazine go on sale in newsagents for nothing the same day that editorial staff discover zero salary is adequate for buying their groceries.

Great idea to do this as a one-off, perhaps as a taster to get some more subscriptions? Hope it works, you deserve success. I've sub'd for more than 5 years, and look forward to its arrival each month. In most respects I'm close to paperless, but a magazine is different. Even if I could get full PDFs for free I'd still pay the subscription to get the paper-based mag. Might do without the DVD if I made a saving.

Please ignore the critics. How they got enough brain cells to even solve the Captcha I can't imagine.

PS: I came here to check the page before posting it to my local LUG.

Cool - does it come with a

Cool - does it come with a free AOL disk? I'm running low on floppies.

PS.
(Excuse my ignorance if they don't still come with the disks - I haven't read any print magazines in a while).

PPS.
OK, I don't actually even have a floppy drive installed, but free is free.

:-)

Well, I want to thank you

Well, I want to thank you for offering the free PDF; it's kind of you. I look forward to browsing through the magazine.

I see nothing wrong with charging for your print magazine; you have a business to run, and paper isn't free.

Again, thanks.

Wow, thanks!

I just wanted to say thanks, especially since not everyone appreciates what huge loss the magazine is taking. I buy your magazine once in a while, but it is refreshing to see it giving back to the community like this. So keep up the good work. :)

Well, thanks!

there *really* is nothing more to say but thank you!

Thank you Linux Format!

As a new Linux user what has astounded me is gestures like this. The sense of community, of shared interests and values and the never ending willingness of ideas and support available for all things TUX!

Well done LFM and thank you!

Yes, agreed, thank you!

Just wanted to add my thanks, guys. This is really nice and appreciated! =:) Also, I'd be very interested in a PDF version that costs less than the standard one!

hello

hello :)
thanks for your effort

Any chance of a direct download link?

I can't download torrents (behind a proxy); any chance of a direct download link, or will I have to miss out?

Thanks!

Simon

Where is the .pdf?

The link is to a torrent. I don't have torrent... Can we have link to the .pdf that will work without jumping through hoops?

please seed

ok in the words of a true one eye man "please seed"

Thank you very much Linux

Thank you very much Linux Format crew for this present :)

P.S. Some people are complaining about a gift, what a bunch of hijosdeputa. Please, mature!

Thank you for the pdf:-)

Thank you for the pdf:-)

Your magazine is very good imo. Will look for the next number in store to buy.

Thanks For The Gift!!!

I appreciate your generosity!

it's the kde issue. i almost

it's the kde issue. i almost didn't download it because i'm really upset about kde4.
signed
recent kde refugee

Mislead

I'd love to have copy and it's is great that the current issue is available in this way(*). But to provide it only by a torrent locks out any number of people. How many machines come with a torrent client out of the box?

(*) Having wandered off to the Linux Format site and seen the outline of contents I will probably actually go and buy a real copy tommorow.

Re: Mislead

If traffic dies down in about 18 hours, we'll put up direct download links. Right now, we have almost 1000 people trying to download it, which would completely frag our Apache server!

Of course, the flip side of this is that if traffic doesn't die down, we won't put up direct download links - so we would really recommend installing a BitTorrent client!

What about the disc? :P

Any chance of upping a .iso of the cover disc too?

Surely that wouldn't be too bad since it's all free to get stuff anyway? (I just like the collection put together)

The perfect DRM:

Asking nicely. Well done :-)

E.T

Does the magazine has the phone home plugin activated so if i open it with the adobe reader i will collect ¨anonymous¨ data to be use on some kind of users (LF reader behavior)??...anyway thank you i really love the magazine (printed version)........

Torrents and proxies

>Of course, the flip side of this is that if traffic doesn't die down, we won't put up
>direct download links - so we would really recommend installing a BitTorrent
>client!

Tuxradar: many thanks for responding to myself and DaveL. I'm afraid no matter how much you "really recommend installing a BitTorrent client!", it would not really help: I naturally have one installed, but my university, like most UK Universities that are part of the JANET network, allows internet access only through a public proxy that blocks torrenting.

Naturally, if you wish to disallow university students from taking up the offer, that is, of course, entirely your prerogative.

Thanks anyway,

Simon

In response to E.T

E.T: Rest assured, there's nothing like that here. PDFs don't even have the capability to 'phone home', as far as I'm aware! These are just articles from the mag -- we want to give back to the community. So please fret not, and enjoy them!

Here I can't use torrent

Here I can't use torrent either. Could you provide a direct link?

Thank you!

Too cool. Thanks, LinuxFormat and TuxRadar!

Is it so hard to upload it

Is it so hard to upload it to rapidshare or any other file sharing service? If you care about the bandwidth... I know that torrent is one of the best options, but not everyone can use it.

Thank you! Thank you!

Thank you, Linux Format! Living across the "pond" in the States, I cannot afford a subscription to your magazine ... as much as I would like to. The $126 subscription fee is just a bit (ok ... quite a bit) steep. So thank you for giving me this opportunity to peruse your fine publication for free.

HAHAHAHA

FAIL VIRAL MARKETING!

No torrents here... can

No torrents here... can anyone share a .pdf?

@3:04am: Hm, if you're serious that KDE has adopted a sane 6 month release cycle like Gnome and Ubuntu, then it would be great news.

Thank You

I've been purchasing Linux Format and Linux Format Pro for years. They are great mags, and I find them as useful additions to the Linux community. Thank you for the pdf. I've fully downloaded it and am now seeding the torrent.

Thanks again

PDF

I'm currently ftp-ing the .zip you get from the torrents to two locations, so I have at least a half-a-chance at not having the bandwidth eaten inside of two minutes.

And I think they have, yes.

KDE on WIN is looking good too.

Thank you! As parnote said,

Thank you! As parnote said, the price is rather prohibitive for USians...especially us poor college students...so thank you!

i hate kde4. i hate widgets.

i hate kde4. i hate widgets. i hate dolphin. i hate folderview. i hate plasma. i hate plasmoids.

kde4 does absolutely everything wrong. it is amazing that i cannot find 1 thing to like about kde4. i've tried. i cannot use it. i hate absolutely everything about it starting with that ugly, transparent, mouseover popup toolbar, folderview thing on the desktop.

mandriva is trying to make it look and feel like 3.5 but all it amounts to is that they look like they are trying cover up the fact that it is kde4.

why is kde4 being promoted like a microsoft product (improved performance, faster, and faster, the best thing since sliced bread)? what a load of crap.

Obviously someone who hasn't tried it.

>improved performance, faster, and faster, the best thing since sliced bread)? what a load of crap.

How can the best thing since sliced bread be crap?

Seriously, it is faster.

>mandriva is trying to make it look and feel like 3.5 but all it amounts to is that they look like they are trying cover up the fact that it is kde4

Actually, that is KDE4 itself. You can set the KDE 4.2 behave exactly like KDE 3.5 if you want (but of course, sadly, you can't set the KDE 3.5 desktop to be like KDE 4.2, because KDE3 doesn't have that power & flexibility).

Mandriva 2009.1 ships its default KDE 4.2 desktop settings to make it present like KDE 3.5.x. Kubuntu sets the default 9.04 desktop to present like KDE 4.1. If you don't like one way or the other ... then set it to the way that you do like.

As for faster and better ... it is faster and better. What is more, further performance improvements are coming (due to Qt4.5) in the next planned release.

Enjoy.

Nice!!!

Thank you!

Linux wannabe geek

Just thought I'd add a thank you.
I don't buy magazines much anymore, most of the content I look for is on the 'net and seldom can I find a magazine with much I haven't stumbled on myself or had a tech mate send me a link about.

In saying that, I'm downloading this one to have a look through, may even print out a few articles as well to have on hand should I need them.

Thanks are owed to the NZLUG newsgroup for posting the link to here.

Keep up the good work.

i have tried it and i don't

i have tried it and i don't like it and i ain't gonna use it. why are you fanbois trying to push it on me? if i don't like something then it is NOT better. it's different but not better. you fanbois need to stop with microsoft rhetoric.

waste of time

Ok. this' gonna hurt somebody.

I wasted my time downloading the damn torrent just to find a very poor organized electronic magazine. When I opened the pdf files, I got... NOTHING. ALL BLANK.

THANK YOU FOR WASTING MY TIME!

AND NO, I WON'T BUY YOUR MAGAZINE. If you can't make a simple PDF file work, what will you teach me!?

Thanks for free Linux Format and KDE 4

Many thanks to the team at Linux Format for such a generous offer. Most of us appreciate it a lot and I hope you don't get discouraged doing the same some time in the future.

At this point I also have to say thanks to all working hard on KDE 4. I've just recently started to try Linux and KDE 4 is actually the first desktop that actually keeps me in Linux and away from Windows for longer time. It looks absolutely gorgeous and I love how you can construct your own desktop from widgets, something like Lego bricks. Hack it even made my girlfriend interested a bit into this penguin think :)

So again, big thanks to all!

kde4 sux

kde4 sux

Awesome!

I plan to try this issue for free and then consider subscribing, or at least picking up a copy at Barnes & Noble when I can.

Hoax?

I thought this was an elaborate hoax, until I went to the Linux Format site, and found that tuxradar is their own site: and this piece is linked right from the front of tuxradar.

So it must be a very elaborate hoax!

Anyway, it is downloading really fast for me (I am in the UK) about 130 kilobytes per second, which is about the limit of my connection this morning. There are lots of people seeding the torrent, and I will leave it seeding myself as long as possible to keep your download quick (at least if you are in the UK)

Great quality

Re: waste of time

To the user that only got a blank file, check your bittorrent settings (or get a different bittorrent client) and try again.

I downloaded a zipped bundle of 50 PDF files, in beautiful print quality (with an HTML index)

This is very generous of the magazine, who has no doubt paid talented artists and writers a few bob to produce this. Thanks all!

Thanks!

Thanks for the free issue. I saw your magazine once in one of the local news stand. I'll keep an out for future issues now that I got a chance to read some great articles.

Hope they carry it at the news stand. :)
If not I'll make a request.

Thanks again

Thank you very much

Really appreciate the effort, and I congratulate the increase in your sales. Keep up effort, and keep your chins up!

Thanks. Great Mag

I buy these from my newsagent in south Africa. Thank you for this kind offer!

Gonna buy

I downloaded the Hi-version and I must say that I want to get this magazine to my collection. So need to go find place where to buy this!

Why someone might ask? Because KDE 4.2 is historical because even it is KDE4, it ain't same as KDE 4.0.x or 4.1.x series what most users bash all the time because they have not tested current one. (Now I have 4.2.1 installed on my system, the development version)

@Mehall.co.cc Thanks!

@Mehall.co.cc
Thanks!

@Mehall Thanks again

Thanks for the link. Still working at 1000GMT and 400kbps so about 4'29" to download. B-)

Tuxradar I do fully appreciate your problem but it's not beyound the ability of man to limit the number of concurrent connections and/or the bandwidth allocated to each connection to protect your server. The latter being a bit harder than the former. I have the other problem that I will be at work and effectively off line from in an hours time until about 0100 tommorow, but that is my problem. B-) I'll probably still buy the mag mainly for the cover disc.

Thank You! I'm a subscriber

Thank You! I'm a subscriber from Norway.

Thanks

Just got an email from my co-worker asking me to get this for him as he's off site today. Thanks for putting this up! The PDF quality is great and I'll leave this to seed for a few more hours!

I'm a stranger here!so,

I'm a stranger here!so, what' this?

sweet

I've started seeding both the PDFs and ISOs from a dedicated server ... it's quite scary to see the ISO being uploaded to others at a total of 80Mbps! Thanks, LXF guys, for doing this; supremely charitable and much appreciated. To echo the first poster's sentiments, I'd love to see a PDF+ISO subscription version :)

browsable pdf?

An all-in-one-pdf with hyperlinks within would resemble a real magazine much better. How does one page through 50+ PDFs?

Thank You!

Thank you Linux Format for taking initiative to free the content. This is big step for publishing industry towards freedom.

Keep it up!

LXF roolz lol

LXF roolz lol

You're more than welcome.

I guess I either underestimated demand, or have more bandwidth than I thought :P

I hope everyone gets the .zip, and the other (more limited I'm sure) mirror is about to go up now too.

Thank you

I'm a regular Linux Format reader and would like to say thanks for this great gift.
To everybody moaning about it being a torrent, quit it.
You can't d/l torrents, poor you, if you've got a hosting service and a shedload of bandwidth going spare let me know and I'll happily upload the PDF for you.
And why on earth would anybody want to use RapidShare?

Swweeeeeet!

Nice one.
Keep up the good work guys + gals!

DIRECT LINK

Sorry for anyone who missed me saying it:

visit mehall.co.cc (feel free to have a look while you're there) and you can find a direct link to the .zip

Also: since it's linux Format... couldn't you have tarball'd it? =[

Thanks!

A little "puppy dog" salesmanship as we like to call it here across the pond.

The Tramp

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

A torrent means people who download it are redistributing (parts of) it to others. You seem to not want us to redistribute it so why the torrent? Are you gonna sue us?!?? Seems a bit strange to me.

@"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

I shall quote what one of the comments, from TuxRadar, says:

"clearly without any DRM there's nothing stopping you from giving them to everyone, torrenting them, printing them, selling them, whatever. We'd rather everyone obtained the PDFs directly from us, but we can't stop you redistributing them for eternity. If someone does decide to put the whole thing on The Pirate Bay in 48 hours, I doubt we'd be particularly upset! ;)"

So it is on TPB, and it is on my site.

I have recieved no emails from them asking ti to be removed, and they haven't bothered contacting TPB either.

Thanks to LXF and mehall.co.cc :-)

Just been to mehall as I can't get to a torrent behind this firewall. Might I just suggest that if you do get your file from that fine site, you take the time to clickity on one of the google ads on the side of his front page? Hope I can say this as he's not asked anyone to, and I have no idea even who s/he is!
Love, Light and Peace, Crispibits

Crispibits

Haha, I was being very careful not to voilate my agreement with Google, lol.

You're more than welcome, I was just doing it for all those LXF fans who couldn't get the file.

Also: how was your DL speed?

Capped at all? I'm not too sure about where I'm hosting the file itself. (Off from my main hosting, so I still have my site up even if my b/w maxxes out)

Great and generous - thanks

I would appreciate if you can provide LF 2008 issues in high res format. Of course, I will gladly pay. Not $14 per paper issue -but $2 or around that. How about entire 2009 issues for $25 downloadable !
You will find at least 10000 subscribers - that is $250K in your pocket - either downloadable or DVD - pick ur choice.

thanks

thanks

mehall - D/L speed good enough

It was about 300kB/s, so not bad at all really - I've seen a lot worse - especially through our crappy network!

Love, Light and Peace, Crispibits

24hr limit

i hope the cover disc torrent stays for longer than 24 hours - aint no way i can complete 4g in a day !

Thanks to mehall.co.cc

Many thanks, mehall (and LXF, of course)!

Simon

crappy torrent speeds

I don't know why, but even with 1300 seeders, I have to wait almost 24 hours to download the issue. Using ktorrent on KDE4.2 on Mandriva. :-)

The direct d/l from mehall.co.cc is due to be done in about 30 minutes.

speeds are fine for me,

speeds are fine for me, torrent finished in 3 mins flat... seeding now for those not as blessed as me

Suggestion - Diskless Subscription

I like your magazine, but I don't use the disks.

The newsstand price, $17 in the U.S., is awfully high for someone who just wants the magazine (not the disk). The subscription price is better, but still multiple times the price of a typical magazine subscription.

If you offered a diskless subscription at a lower price, I'd be a subscriber.

You mentioned doing that for overseas subscribers in the past but never followed through with it.

Re: DVD torrent

Yep, we appreciate that the DVD ISO could take a while to download, so we'll leave it seeding for a bit longer!

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