I gave up on the Linux Journal some time ago. Technical content was low, ads were overshadowing the content, and I just didn’t see it as being worth the $5. Instead I prefered Linux Magazine which had better technical content, was more well rounded, and provided a lot more value per mag. But LJ has worked hard to claw back it seems, by doing a better job of centering the content (creating a subject flow throughout each issue) and even changing the physical dimentions of the magazine from the typical magazine page size to a more square “journal” page size, similar to Wired, which I really prefer.

This month the subject is Ruby. And the magazine really did a wonderful job of covering Ruby. There are articles to give you a quick tour of the language and get your writting quick, both introductory and advanced articles about Ruby on Rails, coverage of ActiveRecord, an interview with David Heinemeier Hansson, and even a good article on RubyGems. To boot, the photography is excellent. There was even an article about Linux games that feature Ruby’s and Gem’s (not neccisarily written in Ruby) which I thought was a nice touch.

I’m really happy to see this turn around for LJ and hope it continues. If your interested in Ruby at all, make sure you pick up this months issue.