Lack of FreeBSD coverage in the UK media

[Daniel Seuffert]

Paul Waring wrote:
> I've noticed over the past few years that there has been a growing
> number of Linux magazines available in the UK (Linux Format, Linux
> Magazine and Linux User/Developer are the ones that immediately spring
> to mind), but there is still no widely available printed magazine aimed
> at users of FreeBSD (or any other BSD for that matter). I've been
> wondering why this is the case for a while, and was reminded of the
> issue during a discussion after a talk given by Robert Watson at this
> week's UKUUG conference. There doesn't seem to be a lack of
> people/organisations using FreeBSD in the UK, there are a number of BSD
> user groups and I'm sure plenty of people attend their local LUG as well.
> 
> To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why FreeBSD doesn't get better media
> coverage than it currently does in the UK, but I did think of a few
> ideas that might help improve matters:
> 
> 1. Try and get a list of BSD user groups printed in the major Linux
> magazines - Linux Format does this for LUGs so perhaps they'd be open to
> including UUGs as well.
> 
> 2. Get mini BSD stories into the existing Linux magazines - most of them
> have a small bar at the bottom of the main news pages with short
> summaries of stories and it would be great some BSD-related items there.
> 
> 3. Have people send in various items which someone edits into a one or
> two page 'This month in FreeBSD' article (or rather 'three months ago in
>  FreeBSD', given the lead times for articles).
> 
> The other advantage, apart from extra coverage of FreeBSD, is that
> magazines will often pay fees for articles, so if an tutorial was put
> together by several people then that fee could be donated to the FreeBSD
> Foundation (assuming everyone was happy with that) and everyone wins.
> 
> What do other people think? Is this lack of coverage a problem which
> should be addressed, or is FreeBSD doing well enough in the UK as it is?


I don't know much about the specific situation in the UK, but I can
confirm BSD is not well represented in the media.

I really like to see more media attention worldwide and your ideas
are reasonable imho.

But don't forget: It's hard work and you need people doing this work.
That's the problematic part and that's the main reason imho why we
don't have more media attention...

- Daniel