A Note from LWN

169•rwky•1h ago

Comments

AlexB138•50m ago

LWN is one of the, if not the single, highest signal tech publications around. I hope they're able to maintain a stable subscription service. Being user funded, and avoiding having to maintain allegiance to advertisers, is likely part of why their quality is so high.

giancarlostoro•40m ago

Not only that but lwn is one of the main sites that gets submitted to HN all year round (not daily, but maybe nearish to daily). So the audience here on HN has been exposed to it over the years. I'm not sure what more they could do to get new subscribers, I certainly hope they figure that out or how to get new ways to earn revenue without having to go the ad route.

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=lwn.net

rdpintqogeogsaa•38m ago

That's the thing though. You can get all the value from LWN through here. Even if it wasn't for them tolerating subscriber links being posted on HN, the week-long delay isn't nearly enough an incentive to actually subscribe, rationally speaking.

roryirvine•34m ago

I think the generosity and straightforwardness are a big part of the attraction for many subscribers.

They've always respected their readers and I hope that continues to pay off.

giancarlostoro•32m ago

Easy to say until they have to eventually make the hard decision to shut down.

tonyarkles•25m ago

Rationally-speaking, maybe not. I’ve been a long-time subscriber. When I first subscribed, my day-to-day involved embedded Linux and getting the “breaking news” was pretty valuable. These days I still do that somewhat but I’m stuck on a crusty vendor kernel and anything I read about a kernel newer than 5.15 is going to land on my desk in approximately 2028… but I still subscribe, mostly with a patronage mindset: I don’t acutely get value from the subscription every week, but I think it’s a community service and I’m happy to pitch in a few bucks to keep it alive.

birdieop•21m ago

They could also consider paying their employees less.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38106227

bayindirh•8m ago

I'd argue otherwise.

Crab-bucket mentality aside, what they do is extremely important and hard to do. They do something very important.

OTOH, thanks for nudging me towards subscribing to LWN a bit more.

Edit: Just subscribed. Thank you.

k12sosse•7m ago

If I can't have something, you shouldn't either, why didn't I think of that! Chud

microtonal•49m ago

Thanks LWN team for the honest and straightforward post! The prices you ask are well worth it for the incredible value that LWN provides.

I forgot to renew my subscription a while back and it has been a bit busy, will renew now.

roryirvine•45m ago

Seems like only yesterday when they last increased their prices but it was, in fact, back in January 2022 - time flies!

I'll have been an LWN subscriber for 22 years as of next week, and am very happy to continue to be one. It's easily the most worthwhile subscription I currently have.

thataccount•44m ago

LWN, probably about to discover people are paying high prices for all manner of things and will find that LWN is, sadly, a disposable entity to pay for.

dcow•43m ago

Based on the initial response, it does not, in fact, seem like this is the conclusion.

giancarlostoro•39m ago

They could always bump down a tier if needed, they have 6 months to decide anyway.

mrweasel•36m ago

You could also see if it's something your employer allows to to expense. It's still cheap enough that it's something most managers can just approve directly, depending on organizational structures.

bryanlarsen•34m ago

I suspect everybody likely to do so has already done so. Anybody who thinks $6 a month is a lot of money will also think $5 a month is a lot of money for something that they can get for free by waiting a week.

thataccount•26m ago

5 to 6 dollars is not much in terms of a donation. In terms of a subscription, though...One thing is voluntary if you find value, the other is mandatory to get to the value unless you are willing to wait.

Diederich•36m ago

LWN is one of the cornerstones of my very successful career.

Starting from the beginning, I have (at least) read through every story and every article, every week, since 1998. Especially in the beginning, there was a lot in each article I didn't understand. I would try to do some digging into those topics.

One way or another, just the weekly exposure to absolutely top notch technical writing was foundational to me.

When newer folk would ask me how to really get good with Linux, I would always point them to LWN.net.

I've been a subscriber since the beginning. That small investment is the least I can do given the incalculable value LWN has brought to me.

simonebrunozzi•20m ago

Sorry to be that guy, but... Please consider donating a significant amount to them, given that they have been a cornerstone of your very successful career.

I did something similar in the past, in relation to Ubuntu, and I never regretted it, even if that money would have been very useful if spent in other ways.

Diederich•12m ago

I will be doing just that today.

farlight•31m ago

I know the editors visit these discussions: please, next time use a more descriptive title! I nearly had a fit when I saw that, really thought LWN is going down like it almost did 20 years ago.

Happy to pay the new price, even though I can only afford the cheapest tier.

0xbadc0de5•22m ago

tl;dr - LWN is raising their prices 20%.

I have no opinion since I'm not a subscriber, just adding for clarity since the title is ambiguous.

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Six curl CVEs after OpenAI and Anthropic came back with zero

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Ending my elixir exploratory writing

Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London

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Biggest dark matter detector spots a single weird particle

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