Why I Won't be Renewing my FreeBSD Journal Subscription
2016-03-31 Update: From the FreeBSD Foundation March 2016 Update email, "Browser-Based subscribers now have the ability to download and share PDFs of the articles!" This is fantastic news!
2015-04-24 Update: I exchanged a few emails with Walter from the Publishing company and I'm now able to read the journal.
tl;dr The FreeBSD Journal has awesome content, but the distribution is not so great, so I won't be renewing my annual subscription.
I love FreeBSD, so when I heard the foundation was starting a journal completely dedicated to my favourite operating system, I was pretty excited. I was more than happy to pay US$20 for an annual subscription, especially since the funds go back to the foundation. The content, so far, has lived up to the hype. Kudos to the editorial board and the authors. Unfortunately, imho, the distribution has been less than ideal. Before I rant a little, let me just repeat how enthralled I am with FreeBSD and the community. I discovered FreeBSD in the late nineties and I've used it as my sole desktop OS since around 2003. I donate to the foundation every year, one of the highlights of my week is when a new BSDNow comes out, I've attended BSDCan, I maintain a few ports and I submit code and bug reports when ability and time make it possible. When other people complained and joked on IRC that the journal was only available in app stores, i.e. a journal about FreeBSD wasn't available to read on FreeBSD, I tried to defend the decision. I supposed it was to maximize the return for the foundation, which in the end helps the community build a better OS. I have an old Kindle, so based on the information on the journal web page at the time, I order from the Amazon store. Unfortunately that didn't work out well. After exchanging a few emails with the support contact, I was told "The Kindle Apps" ... "are built for the Kindle Fire versions therefore unfortunately the App isn't supported on your version 4 Kindle". I eventually figured out that I could install the "Amazon Appstore App" on my Android phone, and from there install the FreeBSD Journal Android app. Reading text on a 13.7x6.9 cm² screen isn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, the app crashed about a third of the time I opened it and regularly when I was reading (mostly when flipping pages). After a few months I heard a browser-based edition was available. It took a few emails, but I was eventually given access. It was nice to read it from a browser running FreeBSD. Unfortunately my access didn't last long and when I opened the app the other day, the last issue of 2014 wasn't included. I emailed again and was told that there were occasional problems with the app and I should reinstall it. I was also told if I wanted access to the "desktop editions", "access to them requires a separate subscription purchase". Really? I have to pay twice for the same content? That was the final straw for me. I'll continue to support the foundation, but for my FreeBSD fix, I'll continue to buy from Michael W. Lucas. He'll get my money and I'll decide how I want to read the content I buy from him.