Cheers! Celebrating 20 years of Linux Magazine

I roll out of bed and start the coffee. The dog follows me around, expecting breakfast. I feed him; take a shower. It is still early and the first rays of sunlight are tangled in the trees over my neighbor's house. I pour a cup of coffee and sit at the desk in the small bedroom I use as my office…start my Linux system, call up Slack, check my notes: 9 o'clock Zoom call?

Like many companies around the world, our office has gone all-virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We meet together online once per week for a roundup of company news, but information passes between us all the time, all day, in email, texts, Zoom calls, and posts to workgroups. A publishing office is a frenetic place even on the slow days, and when it gets busy, it is impossible to imagine how it all can stay floating – text files, layout files, emails, author queries, and social media posts fly in every direction, and all the threads converge magically at a sacred moment when we upload the issue to the printer. I'm always amazed when nothing breaks, and the fact that we have smoothly navigated to a remote workday is a testament to our experience, versatility, and espirit de corps. But you see, it hasn't always been so virtual. Most of our years we have worked together face-to-face, and our vibrant office culture has always been a source of pride.

Linux Magazine launched way back in 2000. Our parent company at the time, Linux New Media AG, had been publishing a high-quality Linux magazine in Germany since the very early days of Linux. The founders had a vision for a network of magazines in different languages around the world – an international community like Linux itself – sharing information, expertise, and resources. At one point we had Linux Magazines in German, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and English – all published in tiny offices like ours with small budgets, but all cooperating and making the most of shared resources.

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