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Canonical Halts Ubuntu CD Free-for-all
Barence writes to tell us that Canonical plans on limiting the number of "free Ubuntu CDs" that people can mooch from the company. The growing popularity of Ubuntu has seen a dramatic increase in the number of CDs being shipped via the free "ShipIt" scheme. The only people able to take advantage of this program now will be the usual community teams, contributors, and first-time Ubuntu users. "'While these CDs are often referred to as 'free CDs,' they are of course not free of cost to Canonical. We want to continue this programme, but Ubuntu’s growth means that some changes are necessary. Therefore we are adjusting how we handle CD requests to try to find the right balance between availability of CDs and the continued viability of the ShipIt program,' [Canonical's chief operating officer Jane Silber] adds. Extra CD copies of Ubuntu will still be available for purchase through the Canonical store, although they need to be bought in bulk. Five copies of the open-source operating system will cost £5 exc VAT and shipping."
I never got any of the free CDs because I never wanted to wait. I guess it was handy for people that couldn't burn ISOs like most windows users untill they installed an ISO burning program.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I once got flamed on Slick Deals for asking people to show restraint and common sense after someone posted a deal for a free CD from Project Gutenburg. People were ordering tons of disks as if they were getting some special deal. I don't blame Canonical at all for placing limits.
This FA might better have been held onto for a while, then bundled together with a few others in a "Ubuntu is really popular!" story.
People would still bitch about it being a non-story, but at least some work would have gone into it. This, however: "Company X makes minor overhead adjustment." Yawn.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
With available bandwidth, this isnt surprising. At least it is still free to those who havent received a disc in the past.
I've never had much trouble downloading it and burning it for friends.
do you still get it if you ordered it last week?
e.g. no new requests?
the form said it was going to be 1-2 weeks.
Ubuntu seems to have hit the big time, riding off the Win7 release.
There's half-a-dozen mainstream news sources that are mentioning Ubuntu in their coverage of Win7, some are even holding it above MS's OS
Eg.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/26/kellner-linux-hits-user-nerve/
You mean I'm going to have to pay for my beer coasters now?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Before Ubuntu I was a Debian user. I switched to Ubuntu when it was available because I liked the idea of regular stable snapshots from the Unstable Debian branch.
However, lately I have been getting annoyed with some of the stuff they are doing so I'm thinking of switching back to Debian. I'm unsure though. Whatever OS I run, I run to get work done, not to tweak or play around with crap (I got enough of that in the early 90's). With that in mind Ubuntu makes sense because it's quickly becoming the standard Linux distro which makes it first to get support from software vendors. So I'm torn on what to do. What do you think?
They gave a disk for free? Wow, that's really awesome. I've just downloaded it the past. Looks like they will still be giving the 1st disk for free, seems ridiculously reasonable to me.
I think this is totally reasonable - after all, there are costs involved in sending out "free" disks and those costs can add up at a time when companies are feeling the pinch. More importantly, however, I think they should put a smidge of effort into developing a Windows and Mac client to make putting the installer on a CD or USB drive (or SD card) easier to encourage people to download and install with the equipment they already have. Just this weekend, I installed Ubuntu on my hackintosh (shhh, don't tell Apple) and the process was relatively painless because I'm a smart cookie and can figure a lot of things out with some google searching but I can easily see some people having absolutely no clue how to proceed and being turned off because of the difficulty in the process. If they offered a quick "Load Installer on CD/USB" program (would take some programmer, what, ten minutes to write something like that?..), I think they'd get a lot more people giving it a try.
Yes, I know it's easy for people that know computers but if people want casual users to give it a chance, they need to make it dead easy.
I just used the torrents. This way I get a disk in under two hours and shared the bandwidth.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I could have sworn they limited it 2 releases ago.
I have it running on my old D610, it's very nice. They have improved the software center, a lot. Much faster and easier to use. Imported all my settings and desktop from 9.04, no problems. Boot up seems about the same to me, but overall it seems faster. The default theme is very nice and the fonts are clear and legible.
Overall I like it a lot. Good timing for release of 9.10, too. If you're going to change everything, might as well try something else first. What do you have to lose?
It's reasonable for them to limit disk copies. It's not like someone couldn't make as many of their own copies as they wish.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Wasn't there a site that sold cheap CDs with a lot of Linux distros?
I bought a couple of them until I got broadband...
No sig for the moment.
The guys must get tons of orders each day and even hoax orders grow exponentially with increased popularity. I still have the old 5.10 discs around that introduced me and my friend to Ubuntu. But now with the increased internet connections and quick downloads speeds you can get it very fast and even use 'in-windows' installers in case you do not have a cd/usb stick to put the installer in.
running a company by giving everything away free is a bad business model.
To anyone who has been paying attention to the increased commercial activity from Canonical and commercial bundling (first Landscape, which advertises itself via your shell logins...now all the "cloud" BS in the current beta, like the storage plan), this shouldn't be a surprise.
Please help metamoderate.
I would think they'd have some success starting a fund people can optionally donate a few bucks to, to help offset shipping and production costs on the free CDs they send out. Then simply tell people that if the fund runs dry, shipping of CDs gets halted until more donations are made.
I suspect the majority of people requesting the free CD are doing so because they're in a situation where downloading and burning the ISO image is too troublesome (limited bandwidth like some corporations have, or someone using satellite broadband where they have a transfer cap before getting charged per K downloaded, etc.). Asking them to kick a few dollars back into the fund after they install and start using the product doesn't seem like a big deal.
Obviously, it'd still be a good idea to track addresses and enforce a "one copy per mailing address, per release" rule....
I may still end up ordering a set of them...although it'd be easier to justify if it was $5, instead of E.5
I've recently been experimenting with managing Ubuntu configurations on the systems at work (so much cheaper than RHEL or SLES) for "low importance" servers running IM clients, wikis, or even apache installs that are rarely touched. Their headless install is a bit...well...hideous and inefficient, but still manageable. Unlike the Redhat based O/S, I've actually got current enough libraries to be able to compile and run some of the newer applications out there.
When I first did it, I burned an ISO, and requested a CD set--pressed images are just better. For $5, I'd rather have high quality media that will still be working in 10 years if one of those servers ever *does* become critical. Let's face it--even though it's open and free, it's no guarantee the old ISOs will be published or easy to download forever.
Anybody know what animal they're going to name the Q release after?
I would happily buy them from Amazon, if Amazon had up to date Ubuntu CD's. Its especially useful when you need a DVD and don't want to wait
But then... where will we get our stickers?!
Yes, yes. I know panderers of proprietary media such as Hulu are not to be compared to the wholly benevolent producers of FLOSS. But since I'm here, I'll try anyway for some quick modpoints.
Fixed that for you.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Keep the free cdrom thing, add some flyers for Open Source companies or others who would pay for the advertising.(Windows emulators?) Then Sell an upgraded USB drive that looks like a Penquin for 5$ plus 10 dollars shipping and handling. Offer a support contract accessible from a shortcut on the desktop, and Bing! you have a profit from the loss! No one will want the free cdrom if they could have a penquin USB drive! Bait and Switch!
I sent a suggestion that Canonical make their CDs/DVDs available through outlets like Netflicks for people that want physical media to install, but don't need it to keep (or to burn their own copy). Let those for-pay outlets take care of media distribution and return via their established infrastructures.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Yup, there were a bunch a long time ago, I used to order from them as well. The one I used the most was cheapbytes, http://www.cheapbytes.com/ , however there were a few other good ones too.
Um, well, they still provide the data for free, just they aren't giving away the media anymore. Considering that the media cost about $0.10 plus shipping, I can't say I blame them.
If it'd be possible to keep evil-doers from replacing the disks, Linux distros should work with Netflix to distribute ('rent') their install DVDs.
>>a tax shelter country
Yeah, man. Parents these days!! I mean, they had to go and give birth to a child in that country just so that when he grows up and creates a company, he will get tax benefits!
It's like their brains snap and they take stuff that they didn't want or need until it became free. If Canonical charged 10 cents per cd the problem would be solved.
One of ubuntu's (and Linux in general) main obstacles is the lack of public awareness. You go to a computer store and everything on offer is pre-loaded with windoze...it's as if no other O/S exists. What Canonical really need to try to do (and I appreciate that this would not be without cost) is get the CD's in the stores so that punters buying a new computer will see it as a viable alternative to M$ products. Ideally, of course it would be nice if manufacturers could offer it pre-installed across their ranges as well. Also, as many people are hugely suspicious of anything 'free' and anything 'new', packaging it with a (sensibly priced) support service might be another way of 'selling' Linux to the masses.
Smivs on the intertubes!
1998 called, they want their software distribution method back.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Actually no. Not hunting for mod points. When I first came across the ShipIt program, I honestly wondered how long they would be able to keep it up. It's a wonderful promotional tool, but it's just that, nothing more. On the related note with respect to Hulu and such, I often see posts (on the web at large, not just on /.) crowing about how someone "ditched my cable because I watch it all for free on Hulu" and chiding all the poor fools for continuing to pay for content when they can have it for free. It baffles me that they cannot see that it will only be free until they have helped destroy the competition, or until enough people switch to sustain a paywall. The chickens haven't come home to roost on that one yet, but they will. The lesson, from those of who have learned to those who haven't, is: Be suspicious of free (of charge) - there are strings attached, or will be. TANSTAAFL.
With respect to ShipIt - it's a nice idea and a great way to promote free software, but it's not a sustainable model. Better to promote the ability to download the ISOs freely and burn them for friends, family and anyone else interested. I'd rather see FLOSS get nice writeups in the local paper so that people understand what it is really all about. They can then go to their local technophile to get a free ISO or "I'll install it for dinner or a beer". Spending the marketing budget on free CD's is an ineffective waste of money, IMHO.
If they offered a quick "Load Installer on CD/USB" program (would take some programmer, what, ten minutes to write something like that?..), I think they'd get a lot more people giving it a try.
Does UNetbootin count?
I have 9.10 running off a flash card and everything is working properly - with no email setup, encrypted home, and browser history deleted on exit it's now my internet banking appliance, but I'm getting close to putting it on the HDD too.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
"Freedom isn't free"...
(It costs $1.05...)
Bow-ties are cool.
If you install Ubuntu on a hackintosh, doesn't it stop being a hackintosh?
No, it becomes a Hackintosh with Boot Ckahp.
....What a wonderful problem to have.
Regards;
There has got to be some way to install Ubuntu without having to boot from a CD (regardless of whether said CD is obtained by mail or by burning an ISO).
Why can't there be a software program that is run in Windows, and it creates a partition and a installs a boot loader, so that you can install ubuntu in windows, restart and boot in ubuntu? I know there are already partition makers that run in windows, how hard would it be to put an ubuntu image in a newly made partition.
Found something useful on the web? Received something valuable? Contribute something in return. Paypal is just one of the available services.
15TW = 15,000 Nuclear Reactors. (Approx. one accident a month.)
I ordered a few Ubuntu CDs some time ago. They came in cardboard sleeves with flaps, and the edge of the flap was tucked in and touching the surface. Arrived with half the CDs unreadable thanks to the thick secant line of scratches from being shipped like that.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
When I was in high school, several hundred AOL floppy disks were shipped to the school unsolicited. No more trips to Office Depot to buy boxes of floppy disks. To this day, nobody knows why they were shipped, although I suspect that some moron teacher signed up for it.
Fast forward, and I did a 3-year stint as the sysadmin for my old high school. In a cruel twist of fate, I wound up with several hundred Ubuntu CDs of all flavors [32-bit, 64-bit, PowerPC...] shipped to the school unsolicited. No clue who requested them; once again, I suspect some moron teacher.
Most of them wound up deep in a cabinet. I tried giving them away, but there was little interest--unlike the AOL floppy disks of old, they're not free portable storage media. For a very reason, I'm probably glad students didn't start swiping them like hotcakes:
My principal was a moron, and he thought his goal was to make everyone "happy", no matter what the cost. He once promised a parent a free home computer, and sent me on a county-wide wild goose chase for a donated/unwanted computer with no asset tag--just so I could install Windows 2000 on it and give said parent a "free" computer that probably cost the school district close to $100 in the time I spent on the damn thing. Not to mention said parent calling me trying to squeeze tech support out of me--I'm surprised the damn principal didn't try to make me go to their home.
That being said, can you imagine the backlash if a student wiped their family computer's hard drive, installed Ubuntu, and it was found out the CD came from a box I had set out for the taking? They would have had my head.
As a college student, I'm fairly active in promoting Ubuntu in the dorms
But what I'd like to see is cheap, Ubuntu branded USB sticks - Who even uses CDs to install anymore... ?
You have something reusable, and you can reload the stick with a new version if needed.
No no, I see your point, as I did before. It's just that I find, in this post-internet age, the strings, such as they are, have historically failed to manifest themselves. When free becomes nonfree these days, some other version of free always pops up to take its place.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
It's much easier to just download the ISO and burn it, or make a live USB stick out of it. Going through the hassle of actually requesting it and waiting for shipping seems to be very awkward, and obviously costly for Canonical.
I probably won't need it much anyway, as my system will just show me a prompt: you want to upgrade to 9.10 now?
It was also good for those that wanted an actual pressed copy for archival reasons. And when they offered more then one, it was great to give out to libraries and such. Even if you want to foot the bill, just try dropping off a pack of CDr's with 'kubuntu' written in a sharpie and see how well that works out for you.
Marketing shouldn't be discounted so lightly.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Because then you all share in the costs. Don't tell anyone, but it's all legal. I try to torrent distros I download just to keep the owners b/w cost down.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Why not start a donation fund for these?
Because Canonical is not a charity, non-profit, etc? It's a for-profit company, making money. This was a profit move.
Please help metamoderate.
Our local Linux gang has been a good advocate for Ubuntu Linux by ordering these free silkscreened CDs. Placed next to burned CDs of Fedora, Slack, Gentoo, et al, the Ubuntu CDs always flew off the show-tables at our tech shows (not always purely Linux shows). And no, we're not a LUG, and Canonical probably won't send us any more CDs, but we would order 100's, and only handed them out if people were really interested in trying Linux. We would only end up with a handful afterward. I'm not going to pay to do their marketing. I may not even burn their CDs to place on the table.
I didn't even know they had a store until I saw this article.
It looks pretty good. There's a bunch of stuff, including a nice polo, a Karmic Koala t-shirt, as well as CDs, stickers, etc, etc.
The CDs are only $1.50 each, so I won't mind buying them if I have to.
Wow really, giving away things that cost money isn't a sensible business model? I kid!
My point is that "free" (as in beer) won't last, so people should look forward far enough to come up with a long term sustainable plan that takes this into account. What would the FLOSS community do, for example, if Linux had the market share that Windows currently has? Instead of a fraction of a percantage point of the total userbase, what if everyone jumped on the Linux bandwagon? Where would "free" be then? This "give away stuff for nothing" nonsense is only viable if the majority doesn't care. It doesn't scale. So be aware of this and plan for a strategy that does scale.
So you're advocating a system where whatever you buy, it has to have the same item at it's heart. You want a new car, go round the showrooms and find whether you order a Ford, a Ferrari or a Dodge, it has to come with a 2 liter Toyota Deisel engine?
Smivs on the intertubes!
Why don't they just charge a small shipping fee? I think most people would find that reasonable even for something that is "free".
I am convinced S/H is how those late night infomercial makes $ anyway. "Order now, and we'll send you a second unit absolutely free! Only pay extra shipping and handling".
Judging by the crap people are willing to buy---and Ubuntu is pretty the opposite of crap---just because of psychology of cheap, but not free, I am surprised people haven't been marketed to this way by Desktop Linux vendor (if there is such thing). Especially with wubi installer you can now try Ubuntu rick free (punt intended).
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
These posts are nauseating.
If there ever was a reality distortion field, it is right here...
"Ubuntu seems to have hit the big time, riding off the Win7 release." +5 Insightful
- WOW
ShipIt was great. It's not that I ever used the CDs myself, but they were great to give away at LUG meetings, installfests, and other events. There's something to be said for a pressed CD in nice packaging (compared with a burned CD).
That said, when you've got 30Mbps at home, CDs in the mail seem a bit silly.
It's not due to "growing popularity". Ubuntu has been losing mindshare for about a year now to other distros (mostly Debian, Fedora, Arch). The real reason is that there have been organized efforts to have Canonical send massive numbers of free CDs to phony addresses or to people who don't want them. This has been going on for years, and it looks like Canonical finally realized how much money it was costing them. They are a privately-held company which still has never turned a profit, so I don't blame them.
It seems Ubuntu considers giving their customers what they want, which is CDs, is too much trouble. Fine, let someone else do it.
There are lots of other companies who are more than willing to sell Ubuntu CDs for two or three dollars. Ubuntu should provide the CD artwork to other companies for free, get out of the business of distributing CDs completely (so that other companies do not have unfair competition), and let these other companies provide Ubuntu customers what they want, CDs at a very low price.
..is if Ubuntu had a version just for starting out that was small enough to download reasonably over dialup. Damn Small Linux and so on various "minis" put out a functional 50 meg distro, so why can't ubuntu put out an "ubuntu ultralite" ISO download version of similar size (code named "shriveled shrew" or "horny hamster"), then people could add to what apps they want on their own time when it is handy for them.
50 megs or so on dialup is tolerable, set it going when you go to bed, get up, probably done or close to it. Of course they would need to be smart enough to include dialup internet connection software, the wvdial with the gui front end, and not just the ethernet.....
I know up until this year I was on dialup, I never even THOUGHT about downloading a full CD or even worse, a full DVD ISO like Fedora or anything, that's just too nuts. When you are downloading on dialup that about sucks up your bandwith and you can't do much at all while it is progressing (rural dialup is NOT 56k, it is more like 28.8 on a good day, complete with interruptions), so a full week or more to download a full Cd worth? No way. I always ordered linux ISOs except for the minis from a linux ISO reburner service or I got a copy from canonical free.
I'd pay two-three bucks for ONE copy of the full sized version mailed in a plain sleeve to save them cash just like the reburner services offer (it might make them a dollar then as well, fair enough, if it was shipped from inside the US), but have no need for five at a minimum (according to the article their option from downloading) for 20 bucks plus shipping from way overseas someplace or whatever the currency conversion rate is today.
If they ran a quick speed test before sending you the CD, to see if you were on dial up, then sent you a free CD if you're using a dial up internet connection, but not if you have high speed internet. Assuming your IP is somewhere around where you're asking them to send the CD, if you're on dial up, they'll send you a free CD. If you're not on dial up, you pay for the shipping and the media. Hell, maybe they could even use a map of what kind of internet is available where, and if you're address is somewhere high speed internet isn't available, they'll still send you a free CD. They have your address, so you can only fake so much.
I think Canonical should decentralize Ubuntu CDs distribution. They are number of volunteers in every nation to help them out.
Slashdot = Sarcasm
I can't believe that the average Linux Youth isn't given enough pocket money to be able to pick up a big spindle of blank CDs every now and then. They're not that expensive, and since the introduction of DVDs, 700 mb CDs have become even less so, because they're now not the most popular format.
You guys should definitely be taking advantage of every free bit torrent tracking site on the planet, if you're not already, as well. If you're worried about the isos of public torrents being hacked, host the appropriate md5/sha256 sums on Ubuntu's site, and tell people to check that, once they've downloaded the file from isohunt.
Of all the problems I could see Ubuntu potentially having, distribution logistics should *not* be one of them, with the Internet.
Hell, tell me who to write to about the issue, and I'll help. I think Ubuntu sucks more than the average black hole, personally; but the reason why I'd be willing to help is because where it does tend to work very well, is as a gateway drug. After a person has used Ubuntu for a bit, and begins to understand how awesome UNIX can potentially be without all of Debian's crap, they can then dump Ubuntu and get a better distro; but for FOSS evangelism, Ubuntu is great as an initial foot in the door.
I'm not interested in making the world safe for Stallman's cult, either; I'm something much more scary (and rare); a BSD zealot. ;)
You can still get Ad Frank's latest album on CD for free. How come a guy with a box of CDs in his basement can do this, but Ubuntu can't?
Quick Ship already ships Xubuntu, opesSUSE, Fedora, and Debian. We pay the shipping on the free discs but thats cheaper than buying one from Canonical. http://on-disk.com/cms/index.php?wiki=Quick_Ship_Free_Disc_Service
The page says "We are expecting this minimal cost of acquisition to help prevent wasted discs that often occur in other free disc services"
I have asked if they will start shipping free Ubuntu cds. Anyone else want to ask? maybe we can convince them if enough people ask? https://on-disk.com/contact_us.php
I forgot to mention why /. should care about this CD. The full name of the band is Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women .
Makes sense now, right?
call the person that applied for the cd a "customer", have terms and conditions, keep their name and address in a CRM system, include stickers with the cd, it will directly add to business "value".
PS shipping ain't that much if you can wait and do it in bulk, hell outsource it if you must. cds shouldn't cost much more to distribute than a flyer.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
http://releases.ubuntu.com/
My only question is, who's out of a job where because Canonical has decided to pinch off a few budding livelihoods? You could ship the whole operation to Nauru and give 15,000 dead broke former potash farmers something to live for.
Canonical had lots of competition, including Red Hat and Slackware, that I've used and enjoyed. I went with Canonical's Ubuntu because of the mystical, up-with-people vibe. Disappointing news.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
Where I live (England) there are at least two Monthly Linux mags that include new versions of many distros on their cover disks. So although not free (£5.99) for one magazine, there is a way to get a properly burned, labelled disk, usually with lots of extras too...
... we can have Mr Myung as well....
Darn ...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.