Thank you!

This “thank you” is dedicated to all of the subscribers who are now reading issue 3 of Free Software Magazine. You have decided that it was worthwhile paying money for Free Software Magazine and have placed your trust in our project.

I appreciate your help, and I promise that we will do our very best to not disappoint.

As you probably already know, each month FSM will cover a specific subject with 2 or 3 “focus” articles. This month’s focus is on mixing free software and proprietary systems. I think that Chris, Eddy and Daniel have done a terrific job dealing with this sometimes, controversial topic. I hope that their articles will help to clarify the issues surrounding this topic and help you to understand your choices. I’m sure that you’ll enjoy reading their articles as much as I did.

At the beginning of this project, more than four months ago, I was told by several people (some of them “experts”) that it would be very hard to create a “proper magazine”, rather than a rough collection of (hopefully well written) blogs. Some of these responses could have been classified as constructive criticism, while others didn’t leave much space to hope. Well, I must say, they were right: creating a magazine is indeed a very hard task. Content is only one small part of the task. There’s administration, subscriptions, composition, graphic design, and printing to name a few; I confess that when an issue is posted to the subscribers, it feels like a bit we’ve performed a miracle.

However, reading the articles published here in issue 3, and seeing the quality produced by our first-class authors, I can proudly say that, while it was hard, we have done it! Free Software Magazine is a collection of valuable articles, our publishing company is very well organised—even though it’s spread across the globe—and things are happening; the miracle is occurring every month, thanks to your help and your trust.

If you have any ideas, comments or complaints about this magazine, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Free Software Magazine is your magazine, and I will answer your email as soon as I receive it.

Again, thank you for making this project possible.