Editing Free Software Magazine (section)

==History==
FSM was originally conceived by its creator as a magazine to be sold in both print and electronic formats, with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than mass-produced print Linux magazines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.linux.com/feature/42113 |title=Interview: Tony Mobily, ''Free Software Magazine'' |work=NewsForge |date=2005-02-15 |first=Aaron |last=Klemm |access-date=2008-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417085155/http://www.linux.com/feature/42113 |archive-date=2008-04-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under this model, the articles were freely licensed six weeks after the print edition's publication.  As O'Reilly Media's onLAMP.com noted, "several excellent magazines cover Linux, but they’re directed at particular subsets of Linux users and don’t have the broad mandate of Free Software Magazine."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/01/free_software_magazine.html |title=Free Software Magazine |author=Andy Oram |date=2005-08-20 |work=[[O'Reilly Media]] OnLAMP.com}}</ref>

However, the high costs of printing and postage resulted in the magazine moving to exclusively electronic publication via [[Portable Document Format|PDF]].

===PDF version history===
Initially a print-ready, hand-crafted  PDF version was available for download. With Issue 16 (February 2007), this was withdrawn, with the publishers citing time and money constraints. As a result, the magazine is no longer available in print copy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/so_why_has_the_pdf_gone |title=So, why has the PDF gone? |date=2007-02-06 |first=Tony |last=Mobily |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210054321/http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/so_why_has_the_pdf_gone |archive-date=2007-02-10 }}</ref> This move sparked a harsh response from some members of the community. As a result, from March 2008, PDF and printer friendly version of articles and PDF versions of entire issues were made available to all logged-in users. These PDF files are created automatically using TOXIC{{angle bracket|}} and omit the styling and presentation of the print-ready ones.