Linux Format forums

same story

beerstein — Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:27 pm

Author: beerstein

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:27 pm

I bought a digital subscription from ZINIO. I expected that I could read a Linux Magazine in Linux. NO WAY. Thanks I had a 7" tablet with Android 4.01 Here I can read the content and the content is downloaded during the first view. So far so good.
But You can only read the pages using the ZINIO App on the tablet. I can even read offline using the ZINIO app.
I can transfer the files to my desktop but can not print beacuse I can not open the PDFs on my desktop. Adobe reader asks for a password. I have no idea where I can get or even buy a password. I have spent GBP 50.- plus 30.00 for some back issues so far now I need to buy the printed 99,00 package too.
Wow that adds up.

Re: Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:53 pm

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:53 pm

drpetebaker wrote:

nelz wrote:

You could install one of the older distros in a virtual machine. It's hardly elegant, but better than trying to read on a phone screen.

Hi Nelz

Any updates on this?

All attempts on linux mint 14 fail miserably so far despite being simple install on older fedora or mint distros

At present, I don't plan to renew digital subscription when it comes up for renewal early next year. This is still a deal breaker for me and I can't seem to find a decent forum to make my voice heard

Cheers
Peter

Well my subscription is up and now I need to make a decision.

Update: Adobe Air seems to work fine on linux mint 14/cinnamon (but I don't use old laptop that much). However, the zinio reader itself is pretty kludgey and barely a patch on reading a pdf or book on kindle. Still impossible to install under Gnome 3/Fedora 16/17/18

So now to Q: after all these months have you guys at Linux Format Mag given up on getting some sort of "native" digital subscription for linux users without resorting to second rate solutions like installing an old distro in a VM or using a phone just to read the mag?

I'm not being rude here. It would be nice to get some feedback from the oracles at LinuxFormat

Comments welcome!

Cheers
Peter

Re: Digital offerings

denham2010 — Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:43 pm

Author: denham2010

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:43 pm

Well, for me, for now, it's goodbye Linux Format.

I have been buying digitally on my iPhone (through newsstand) since there is no other way for me to get the magazine digitally.

Now, while i have been charged for the Jan 13 issue, it just refuses to download. No errors or anything, I click OK to download and the spinner just sits there (hours until i just give up and close the app).

Now I have followed the help faq, deleted all items, cleared the cache, deleted the magazine, stopped all running processes, turned the iPhone off and on again.......

Now when I re-install the LFX magazine, it will download all my previous purchases without a problem, but the Jan 13 issue just still will not download.

After submitting a help request, All I got in response was to try everything listed in the faq (hmmmm I thought the idea was to follow everything in the faq and if that didn't help to then contact support), which I have already done. The only additional suggestions I got was to delete the Newsstand app and re-install that, well, you CAN'T delete that app as it's built in to iOs. The other was to contact Apple for a refund.

So seeing as it would seem I am unable to download any new purchases, and support appears to do nothing other than regurgitate what is already on the faq, I see no point in giving my money to LXF.

Cheers.

Re: Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:17 am

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:17 am

nelz wrote:

You could install one of the older distros in a virtual machine. It's hardly elegant, but better than trying to read on a phone screen.

Hi Nelz

Any updates on this?

I want to read linux format on non virtual machine (old lightweight but limited laptop that I need to run recent distro for work). All attempts on linux mint 14 fail miserably so far despite being simple install on older fedora or mint distros

At present, I don't plan to renew digital subscription when it comes up for renewal early next year. This is still a deal breaker for me and I can't seem to find a decent forum to make my voice heard

Cheers
Peter

Digital Linux Format

Cozzie — Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:13 am

Author: Cozzie

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:13 am

Hi, I've just joined and hope to learn a little from discussions here.

I have downloaded issue 164 from the mags website as a pdf file. I have no problems reading this on my Linux box, Android tablet and Android phone. The cover discs are also available as torrent downloads.

With this facility already available, it pains me that the 'opposition' can produce a digital version of Linux Format when the mag itself does not! An incredible oversight and failure!!

I have ended my subscription to Linux Format with immediate affect until such times as they choose to remedy this ill. As with most enterprises, money talks, and if you seriously want this change, then do likewise.

digital edition and magazine disks

cinnamongirl — Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:06 pm

Author: cinnamongirl

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:06 pm

Hello everybody,
I am interested in purchasing subscription to linux format, but I am unsure where would the programs normally distributed on the disk would be found? Would there just be some kind of cooki-ed link for these? This is because i want to read it on my tablet pc, but play with the software on my play-toy machine..
As you can guess i am very much a newbie, so any advice or comments welcome (please be gentle) thank you.

Re: Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:21 pm

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:21 pm

denham2010 wrote:

Thanks Graham,

Appreciate the hard work you guys are putting into this.

Me too!

I'm sure you'll get there eventually

Cheers
Peter

Re: Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:20 pm

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:20 pm

Ram wrote:

Have you seen this blog

Yes. Thanks. I already used this

It worked fine on Fedora 16 updated from Fedora 14 as some old prerequisite libraries seemed to be floating around. However, on a fresh Fedora 17 install I've had no luck despite copying what I thought were the necessary files etc from older distro.

Cheers
Peter

Re: Digital offerings

denham2010 — Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:59 am

Author: denham2010

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:59 am

Thanks Graham,

Appreciate the hard work you guys are putting into this.

Re: Digital offerings

graham — Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:52 am

Author: graham

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:52 am

It should be a simple job. And we are very close to making the digital-only subscription live.

We're also frustrated that it's taken so long; from a technical point of view, this is something the team manages and could have done ages ago.

But the delay has been caused by due processes out of our control - modifications needed to be made to the company that hosts the customer database (this took months) as well as understanding the financial/tax implications for the magazine and company (in the UK, digital copies need to include VAT, for example, while print copies don't).

Something that seemed such a simple idea to us has taken a long longer than estimated, but I'm assured we're very close.

Graham

Update?

denham2010 — Thu Sep 13, 2012 11:46 pm

Author: denham2010

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 11:46 pm

Hi LXF team,

Do you have any update at all on a distro agnostic digital version of the mag?

Surely it would just be a matter of a new distribution channel of the version in the Ubuntu Software Centre? The format is there, just need the ability to buy it on distros besides Ubuntu.

Cheers.

Re: Digital offerings

Ram — Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:01 pm

Author: Ram

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:01 pm

Have you seen this blog

Re: Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:31 pm

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:31 pm

nelz wrote:

You could install one of the older distros in a virtual machine. It's hardly elegant, but better than trying to read on a phone screen.

Thanks. I have thought about that but being lazy and optimistic I was hoping some else may have solved it

A good reason to check out the latest virt-manager I guess

Cheers
Peter

Re: Digital offerings

nelz — Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:18 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:18 pm

You could install one of the older distros in a virtual machine. It's hardly elegant, but better than trying to read on a phone screen.

Digital offerings

drpetebaker — Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:15 pm

Author: drpetebaker

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:15 pm

Hi Lachlan and others

Being from Oz, for similar reasons, I decided to get the digital only subscription. My 1st surprise was that on my laptop I can read zinio mags only on Windows or old linux distros like mint 11 or fedora 15. Despite my best efforts, no go on a fresh Fedora 17 install because of missing dependencies for Adobe Air which is pretty disappointing. The alternative of reading on my 2 yo android phone while possible is quite a chore.

Zinio.com help have been very responsive but of no use at all

Has anyone had any luck installing zinio reader on 64 bit Fedora 17 or Mint 13?

While I'm sure there are sound commercial reasons, I do find this lack of linux support for the digital version of linuxformat mag totally incomprehensible.

Cheers
Peter
Brisbane, Australia