Lack of FreeBSD coverage in the UK media

[Paul Waring]

I've noticed over the past few years that there has been a growing 
number of Linux magazines available in the UK (Linux Format, Linux 
Magazine and Linux User/Developer are the ones that immediately spring 
to mind), but there is still no widely available printed magazine aimed 
at users of FreeBSD (or any other BSD for that matter). I've been 
wondering why this is the case for a while, and was reminded of the 
issue during a discussion after a talk given by Robert Watson at this 
week's UKUUG conference. There doesn't seem to be a lack of 
people/organisations using FreeBSD in the UK, there are a number of BSD 
user groups and I'm sure plenty of people attend their local LUG as well.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why FreeBSD doesn't get better media 
coverage than it currently does in the UK, but I did think of a few 
ideas that might help improve matters:

1. Try and get a list of BSD user groups printed in the major Linux 
magazines - Linux Format does this for LUGs so perhaps they'd be open to 
including UUGs as well.

2. Get mini BSD stories into the existing Linux magazines - most of them 
have a small bar at the bottom of the main news pages with short 
summaries of stories and it would be great some BSD-related items there.

3. Have people send in various items which someone edits into a one or 
two page 'This month in FreeBSD' article (or rather 'three months ago in 
  FreeBSD', given the lead times for articles).

The other advantage, apart from extra coverage of FreeBSD, is that 
magazines will often pay fees for articles, so if an tutorial was put 
together by several people then that fee could be donated to the FreeBSD 
Foundation (assuming everyone was happy with that) and everyone wins.

What do other people think? Is this lack of coverage a problem which 
should be addressed, or is FreeBSD doing well enough in the UK as it is?

Paul