LXF Mandriva special

[AJB2K3]

On page 32 of LXF 70 you advertise a mandriva special available on the 4th Augest
how ever whsmith have no info on this ( not even in area/head offices).
Does anyone know whats its not available?

[Marrea]

Just got mine this lunchtime from WHSmith in Kingsway, central London. Looking forward to trying it out as soon as I can find a spare computer to put it on !

[Marrea]

Well, I've now had a quick thrash through and am very impressed. Back in ?March/April 2003 I bought a previous LXF special "The Complete Guide to Linux" which, like this current mag, also came with a Mandrake distro. That was my first introduction to Linux and I can remember my disappointment at not finding several pages of detailed screenshots showing the various stages of installation (you know, like you often find in "the complete guide to installing Windows" articles). I was also disappointed that so much of the rest of the mag seemed way above my head at that stage.

However, top marks to all concerned for this latest special edition - which has, guess what? Several pages of screenshots showing the various stages of installation. Not of course that I personally really need this now, having installed many other distros over the last two years or so, but I think this is going to be a wonderful introduction to Linux for beginners and surely should satisfy those on the forums who are always asking for something a little more basic in LXF. Not that I have read them yet, but there are lots of what look like really useful articles about all the popular programs, network configuration, etc. Even the infamous Alcatel Speedtouch 330 gets a mention !

Well done, guys!

(My only problem is that I was intending to try it out on my spare seven year old PII desktop, but I see PIII or better is required. Hmmm.)

Oh, and the mag costs £9.99 if anyone wants to know.

[AJB2K3]

It seams that somerset is being missed out !
BRIDGWATER,
TAUNTON,
MINEHEAD.
These 3 stores have not even heard of this special let alone seen the add or notes?

[Marrea]

It seams that somerset is being missed out !
BRIDGWATER,
TAUNTON,
MINEHEAD.
These 3 stores have not even heard of this special let alone seen the add or notes?

Any comments, LXF?
It seems a great shame that you are restricting this Special. I work in central London and have only seen the magazine in two branches of WH Smith so far. It was not available (last week at least) at either Marylebone or Euston Stations.
I have now installed Mandriva and it's looking very good so far. I can well understand AJB2K3's frustration at not being able to get a copy. Can you help him out? If not, AJB2K3 - send me a PM with your address and I'll see if I can get hold of another copy and post to you.

[nelz]

Individual store managers can decide not to stock each title, whatever the general policy.

Minehead's store was quite small the last time I was there, but the Taunton one ought to stock it. Have you considered complaining to the stores themselves? They may be more willing to someone with money to spend than someone with something to sell.

[Gordon]

This could also be a problem with WH Smith's suppliers i.e. Menzies. Menzies happen to pretty crap when it comes to supplying mags to WH Smith, I know from personal experience especially when it comes down to part works. So the same may be true of one off issues such as the LFS Mandriva Special.

Gordon

[Erin]

WHSmiths recently redid their what to stock lists and policy on the cost to the publisher and so forth. Another magazine I subscribe too suffered at the hands of WHS. Backtrack (a historic railway publication from a very small publisher) got clobbered by WHS demanding a higher percentage. Therefore, I try not to use WHS any more.

My point, I do have one, is do as Gordon suggests and ask for them to get a few copies and tell them your cash can't go into their tills until they get it in. Better idea, go to your local independant newsagent and get them to get you a copy or even subscribe or get from Future directly.

Erin

[nelz]

Another magazine I worked on, from an independent publisher, found some branches to be only slightly less corrupt than your average African dictator. Some managers blatantly refused to stock the magazine, unless they were bribed, some even had price lists! This was despite the publisher having already paid thousands to W H Smiths to have the magazine stocked.

And people wonder why magazines are so expensive, the publishers bear all the costs yet only receive a fraction of the cover price.

[linuxgirlie]

WHSimith in Ashford Kent, stock the Mandriva Special, will be getting it for my dad

[Marrea]

Hi Nelz

Yes, but what I still don't understand is why a decision was taken to make this a WHSmith exclusive, particularly in view of the comments here about their managers. You've produced this excellent mag which must have taken quite a bit of time and effort but then made it difficult for people to get hold of.

There are two independent newsagents in London's Tottenham Court Road and one at the eastern end of Oxford Street (the areas I tend to frequent at lunchtimes), and all three stock all the various Linux magazines so I'm sure they would have the special on their shelves if it wasn't a WHS exclusive. I notice that the mag has Issue 1 on it so I imagine it is going to be followed by further specials featuring other distros - also WHSmith exclusives, I wonder?

There is nothing more exasperating than seeing a full-page advert for something which looks really interesting and then not being able to buy it!

Anyway, when I wrote my previous post yesterday I still had Mandriva running from initial installation. In the evening I went to shut down the computer and guess what? It wouldn't power off. So that's something I shall need to investigate. I now have Ubuntu dual-booting with WinXP on a laptop, and Mandriva dual-booting with WinXP on a desktop. Ubuntu will shutdown but not restart, and Mandriva will restart but not shutdown. There are no problems with either shutting down or restarting on the Windows side of both machines. Perhaps we could have an article in a future LXF about shutdown/restart issues in Linux. I'm baffled by the whole subject of power management (for I assume this is what lies behind the problems I am experiencing) and why on the same computer Linux appears to be adversely affected but not Windows.

Thanks
Marrea

[nelz]

I expect their managers have to behave a little more professionally when dealing with the likes of Future... or maybe not. Either way, I'm so happy that is something I will never have to get involved in.

[Nigel]

Went into WH Smith in Stroud this lunchtime, and the Mandriva special wasn't on the shelf. The supervisor said I wasn't the first person to ask about it, but she'd had no paperwork or anything and had no idea if they were getting any or not. She said to keep checking, and if they haven't had it in by the end of the week to ask again and she'll do some chasing.

The Stroud branch do stock LXF (but have sold out of LXF70) and usually stock the special editions as well.

So this may be a communication cock-up within WHS...

[evilnick]

Just to let everyone know that we have alerted our circulation team to the fact that many stores do not seem to have it. I'm not entirely sure what the stocking policy was - I imagine not *every* WHS is going to stock it.

You have probably noticed that in spite of the rise of the internet apparently killing off magazine publishing, there are more magazines than ever available in the UK. This makes getting some of our titles stocked rather difficult and I imagine is the incentive around the WHS exclusive deal (I imagine that the arrangement was made to get better stocking)

[Nigel]

Can we order the Mandriva Special from the back-orders dept if our local WHS doesn't get any ?