A note on subscription prices from LWN
97 points by zg
97 points by zg
This reminded me to re-up my subscription to LWN! Now that I'm out of grad school, I can finally bump up to the "professional hacker" tier, and ooh, ePub editions are an awesome new feature.
It makes me happy to see that sharing this - with the intention of bringing more awareness to the cause - led to this outcome. Thank you!
I was surprised to see this on lobsters and not their feed, but I looked again and see they posted it as "A note on LWN" which didn't pass my mental boringness filters as I scrolled. :)
Either way, I support them here. This site has excellent work and I wish more news sites would copy their share link system, which tries to win more subscribers with honey instead of pop-ups and demands.
I had the opposite experience: I saw the headline in their daily digest and my stomach immediately sank. For 1.5 terrible seconds until the screen loaded I was sure LWN was shutting down. It was very relieving to read prices were going up, instead.
In India, i was on starving hacker plan when it used to cost 3.50 per month. Since then rupee has declined by 30% and starving hacker has increased by almost double.
LWN is still worth every penny. I just wait for a month for articles to become open.
I’ve been subscribed for awhile and it’s definitely worth the price. Honestly most jobs will cover it for you as a “trade publication” if that’s an option at work.
Counterpoint: In 25 years I've never had an employer that advertised that you could get any magazine subscription, especially not personal and digital (exception: access to O'Reilly). Granted, I never asked specifically, but we usually had 1-3 paper magazine subscriptions that were in the office for general consumption. Books never were a problem, but "most jobs" is stretching it. Or maybe Germans are weird (and stingy).
Oh I'm actually quite surprised. I live in Denmark and nobody here has ever cared. Most jobs lump it under the required "job training" element that the unions negotiate. I've heard the same in Sweden and Norway from folks, but it might be a nordic thing? I know Germany can be particular with employee benefits.
I've heard the same in Sweden and Norway from folks
As a swede I've never heard of having magazine subscriptions covered by an employer. Unless it could count under the annual budget for "personal skills development".
With all the money in the Linux Foundation, I hope they are paying for a big ass corporate subscription (Maybe they are. I don't know.)
That approximately cancels out how much the dollar lost to my local currency over the last 4 years, so -- works for me. ;)