Why Linux Magazines aren't so unbearable to read

Usually with a magazine, I feel a little sad reading it. In middle and high school I was subscribed to Electronic Gaming Monthly. Each month they would detail all of the new games coming out; their features and how to do certain tricks here and there. Since I was too young to purchase them and my parents believed in being frugal when it came to video games, all the magazine could do was make me lust over games I could never have. The same goes with most PC magazines. They talk about this or that software for Windows and it is often too expensive to get it.

With Linux, however, 98% of the time all of the software they describe is available for free! So if they talk about this great new music program, I can download it and check it out for myself. If they talk about the latest updates to GIMP (Linux’s answer to Photoshop) I can update for free. It makes for a much happier experience for me because I can experience what they are talking about instead of just passively reading about it.