Linux Magazines

For the longest time I had preferred Linux Format. But the latest issue of Linux Magazine was really useful. At least for this month's edition I prefer it!

The Linux Magazine introduced me to new software that I had previously not heard of. Also, it seems to have caught up with the latest distributions. Previously it always seemed to be two or three months behind the times. But this month it has Ubuntu 8.10 at the same time as Linux Format!

The review of Virtual Machine management software was timely. I'm heavily involved in virtualization of Linux, Windows and Solaris (both x86 & Sparc) systems. I had been unaware of the software reviewed. As I've used UNIX for approx 25 years, the command line nature of the most interesting tool, MLN, won't worry me, but for SysAdmins who have only ever used the Windows interface of VMware Virtual Center server or the Virtual Infrastructure client (the "Click Next to continue" generation - or to be ruder lets call them SysAdmin Lites!) it will probably seem quite daunting.

The review of the O'Reilley book "Python for Unix and Linux System Administrators" was interesting. Although why anyone would want to use Python, when Perl is not only available but frequently seems designed for the job, is a mystery to me. Thats probably 13-ish years of prejudice coming to the fore!

The regular SysAdmin section is also usually very useful. This month's feature on Siege was particular interesting. I'll be looking into seeing if I can use that.

The websites for both magazines closely reflect the characters of the magazines themselves. The site of Linux Format is flashier, but the content of Linux Magazine is more detailed. Which sort of reminds me of a report I heard about about 15 or so years ago. The professors at an University examined the quality of thesis produced by their students. The best work from an academic point of view was produced by PC users. Mac users spent too much time chosing the just the right font or font size or slightly tweaking the layout and so didn't have enough time for "thinking".