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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!
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.
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.
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....
What's better for you may not be better for me. And since Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian are free software, why not try 'em all? After all, you have enough spare time to be posting on /. ...
Try Gentoo -- if you have the patience for it. Gentoo offers the, by far, best community with detailed HOWTO's on almost anything. It takes a little reading and practice but once you get the hang of it it'll be worth it.
I am the lawn!
Debian, while fun and probably worth the struggle, does need some minor tweaking compared to Ubuntu. I mean, the whole point of Ubuntu is to give the user a desktop-oriented, stabilized Debian Unstable.
I've been using Ubuntu 9.10's prerelease for about a month or so and it's been so stable I have no desire to go distro hunting again.
You should try UnixWare, imo it's a lot better than Fedora. And it's backed by SCO, which is a lot larger and older than Red Hat. :p
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
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
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!
You should try Fedora, imo it's a lot better than Ubuntu/Debian. And it's backed by Red Hat, which is a lot larger and older than Canonical.
Horses for courses. I love Fedora, but you don't get long term support. Don't forget CentOS which is also an RPM based free distro.
Actually, CentOS/Fedora and RHEL together make quite a nice solution since they have many similarities and you can just switch between them according to the particular needs of a particular application.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Keep the free cdrom thing, add some flyers for Open Source companies or others who would pay for the advertising.(Windows emulators?) Then Sell an upgraded USB drive that looks like a Penquin for 5$ 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. . . .
It's also a tax shelter country that the founder was born and raised in.
I've always though the Ubuntu folks were particularly generous giving those CD's away. I mean it's not like they were demos or trialware or something.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Well, they've got "Canon" in their name... (the "boom" kind, not the "say cheese!" kind).
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.
In my experience Fedora is a bit faster and easier to customize but does take some work to get set-up. Ubuntu by contrast is almost guaranteed to work correctly as soon as you install, but expect pain if you stray too far from the beaten path.
I would say that because of this, Ubuntu is a closer match to the GP needs -- "I run to get work done, not to tweak or play around with crap".
Fedora doesn't suck, but last time I tried it, Ubuntu was better. And, I'm not sure being backed by RH is a good thing. ;)
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
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.
The boom kind has two 'n's in the middle. The "say cheese" kind, I assume, is the one that has roots in the same word, as it implies accuracy and permanence.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
>>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!
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!
Erm, would that be a reference to the differently spelled object "cannon"?
Remember kids, sometimes spelling Nazis *do* have a point...
"The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again."
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.
Nah, I would recommend Gentoo to this guy. After all, he did say:
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).
No OS is one size fits all, so a little tweaking is inevitable. Debian is intended for everyone, so it's fairly easy to get set up the way you want it, and then forget about forever. Ubuntu is targeted towards the lowest common denominator, so if your needs are different from most you might have a little more hassle getting it the way you want it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
....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.
what I wonder is how will they enforce this? what if any identifying information will they ask for to ensure two accounts are not the same person?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
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 was a Gentoo user up until yesterday. Used it for six years. Yesterday, I switched to Ubuntu. I just got sick of having to deal with the brokenness of Gentoo. They only reason that there's Gentoo HOWTOs is because even updates often don't work out of the box and require web pages explaining the manual steps that you have to take. The recent upgrade to Xorg comes to mind... I think there were a couple of different pages with instructions that had to be followed if you wanted to upgrade successfully. Even then, something would inevitably fail in the upgrade and require manual investigation. It was honestly fun for a while, and I gained confidence in my understanding of system operation and configuration, but it's not fun any more.
I realized a while ago that for real HOWTOs, I usually used Ubuntu docs. I only used Gentoo docs when things broke. It also didn't help that gentoo-wiki lost it database somewhere along the way.
And then packages.gentoo.org was down for *months* a while back. When it came back up, it had lost some of it functionality (searching).
And the gentoo community is fracturing.
And while portage is fine, emerge sucks the big one. I've been using the unsupported paludis for some time now.
Enough was enough. The xorg update was the tipping point for me to give up gentoo.
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"
Gentoo?
He said we wants to get work done, not tweak or play around with crap. Any major distro would be better suited than Gentoo.
That's only the initial Gentoo installation. Once you have it up and running there's no tweaking or playing around -- unless you want to. He seems disatisfied with some choices of Ubuntu, if he switched from Debian my guess is that there was something he felt was better elsewhere. My point is if you run Gentoo you set up whatever you want, and after that if you want to change it to become something you want it to be -- there's simply no need to change dists. You'll do that with Gentoo. I know, I know, it's possible to do with any dist, but Gentoo is the one dist where it's encouraged -- and even a little bit forced.
I am the lawn!
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!
Try Gentoo -- if you have the patience for it. Gentoo offers the, by far, best community with detailed HOWTO's on almost anything. It takes a little reading and practice but once you get the hang of it it'll be worth it.
I used to be a Gentoo user. The HOWTOs are overblown - in a proper distro you shouldn't need them in the first place, and even when you do, nothing stops you from using a Gentoo HOWTO on, say, Debian (at the point when you need one, handling minor differences between distros will be the least of your troubles).
The big problem with Gentoo in practice is the permanently semi-broken Portage. I've got sick of having a daily update run end up with a compile failure every second day. Don't even get me started on what happens when they decide to push a new major package version for something that's used by many packages out there.
I ran Gentoo for about 2 years before switching to Debian. The latter is really it for a geek who doesn't mind messing with config files - you get all the controls at your hands, and also the convenience of binary packages which install quickly. I've never got my system broken by updates either (even though I used "unstable") - in part because apt is quite a bit smarter about dependency breakages than Portage ever was, and I haven't ever seen any other kind of break in Debian repositories.
I moved to Ubuntu after another year, mostly because I figured I have better things to do with my time than edit config files - and it still leaves me with the ability to do so, so not like I lose much. About the only thing annoying about Ubuntu was the fact that it was stuck at Eclipse 3.2 in repositories for a long time (with upstream 3 major releases ahead... that's not even funny). But 3.5 is finally in Karmic now.
As a side note, it's kinda sad that you still need to manually edit ~/.fonts.conf on Karmic to get Firefox to anti-alias text the way you want (since it doesn't pick hinting settings from Gnome, like every other Gtk app does).
It also didn't help that gentoo-wiki lost it database somewhere along the way.
And then packages.gentoo.org was down for *months* a while back. When it came back up, it had lost some of it functionality (searching).
I agree, this caused a lot of trouble for the community. I identify with a lot of your problems, but I guess I'm one of those who really believe in the Gentoo way. If only so many resourceful users weren't lost along the road, Gentoo would play a different tune. With the comeback and quick departure of Robbins there was a lot of value lost in the community and all because of politics. However there are still many devs in the community who keep the dist alive. I think Gentoo is just too clever to die, it might shrink for a while but as Linux grows larger, more people will try it out. After all it is a fun challenge for anyone, and in a weird way I kind of hope it stays that way.
I am the lawn!
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 ----
Once you have it up and running there's no tweaking or playing around
That simply isn't accurate. I've had many package updates require manual intervention to build successfully.
I'd be amazed if a typical gentoo user could run
# paludis -i1 --dl-reinstall always world
and have it run to completion without something failing during the complete system rebuild. (Sorry, I've been a paludis user for long enough that I've forgotten the emerge command-line syntax for the same thing). Gentoo systems decay over time, and software that once installed and is currently running may not install again.
To the OP: Were you able to upgrade xorg in the past few weeks without needing to read web pages and take manual steps? Have you had to change any use flags in the past 3 months because packages that once built now refused to build without changes to USE? I've had these problems, and I consider these "playing around with crap" well after an initial system installation.
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?
To the OP: Were you able to upgrade xorg in the past few weeks without needing to read web pages and take manual steps? Have you had to change any use flags in the past 3 months because packages that once built now refused to build without changes to USE? I've had these problems, and I consider these "playing around with crap" well after an initial system installation.
If you're referring to 7.4 I'm still on 7.2. Since the community has shrunk vastly I accept that new packages take longer than usual to stabilize. I'm in no hurry to update my software, but I understand those who are. If the GP truly only wants to "do some work", I hardly see the need to upgrade to the latest packages continuously -- unless for security reasons.
I am the lawn!
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.
Pretty much every other PC OS uses optical discs for installation by default.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
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!
The even have a new Small Business Edition with support for up to "1 USERS" and "1 GB" of RAM. Imagine, a billion bytes of memory, all in a single PC!
It should be quite hard to confuse Isle of Man and South Africa, so maybe I'm missing something...
Could someone explain how this is informative?
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!
Most OS installs probably happen from a rescue partition in the HDD...
Netbooks and smaller laptops no longer have optical drives (even my thinkpad doesn't have one by default). More machines can probably boot from USB today than from CD.
After all it is a fun challenge for anyone, and in a weird way I kind of hope it stays that way.
I entirely agree with this. As I said, I really enjoyed it for a lot of years. I really believe that Gentoo is what made me a Linux user. Before that, I'd been using Windows. Sure, I tried out a few distributions, but I'd install them, and 30 minutes later sit there wondering what next? The fact that Gentoo took some work (stage 1 install) and had more things to learn and understand even after a successful install is what captured my attention and kept me there. That's part of Gentoo's identity [to me], and I agree that it should retain its identity.
My needs and interests have changed, and as a result, I finally gave Gentoo the heave-to. That doesn't mean that Gentoo isn't a good distribution, but rather that it no longer matched my changing interests.
I also think that it's disingenuous to tell users that it's *not* a distro that requires some care and attention. To attract suitable users, they need to know what it is to run Gentoo. For the right set of people, those who like to fiddle, or like chasing down the reason that an emerge failed, it's a great fit. That was me for a while. For a different set, including what I would consider a typical Ubuntu user, or those who can't understand an etc-update diff, it's probably not the right distro.
In other news, I know the guy who runs funroll-loops.info. He's a Debian evangelist.
You just suggested the opposite of what he wanted... Gentoo is great if you want to learn a whole lot about Linux fast, because you're going to have to know to get it working.
Yes, the community is great. I'm very happy with the time I spent on Gentoo but I wouldn't recommend it except for two cases - support of hardware from the bleeding edge kernel branches (the original reason I used it was for TV tuners), and learning a lot about the innards of Linux.
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
Gentoo is great if you want to learn a whole lot about Linux fast, because you're going to have to know to get it working.
Inside I see that Bill is a mechanic of the "photographic mind" school. Everything lying around everywhere. Wrenches, screwdrivers, old parts, old motorcycles, new parts, new motorcycles, sales literature, inner tubes, all scattered so thickly and clutteredly you can't even see the workbenches under them. I couldn't work in conditions like this but that's just because I'm not a photographic-mind mechanic. Bill can probably turn around and put his hand on any tool in this mess without having to think about where it is. I've seen mechanics like that. Drive you crazy to watch them, but they get the job done just as well and sometimes faster. Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he'll have to spend days looking for it.
Bill arrives with a grin about something. Sure, he's got some jets for my machine and knows right where they are. I'll have to wait a second though. He's got to close a deal out in back on some Harley parts. I go with him out in a shed in back and see he is selling a whole Harley machine in used parts, except for the frame, which the customer already has. He is selling them all for $125. Not a bad price at all.
Coming back I comment, "He'll know something about motorcycles before he gets those together."
Bill laughs. "And that's the best way to learn, too."
from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.
Author's Note
What follows is based on actual occurrences. Although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, it must be regarded in its essence as fact. However, it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either.
Squirrel!
Mark Shuttleworth really isn't worried about it. He can lose money at this rate for twenty years and still not feel it. Somehow I don't think that's how it's going to work out.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
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.
Can On iCal? My god! They're a front for Apple!
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.
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
probably won't mail to the same place twice...
I'm fairly sure you'll get your discs :)
Though when I ordered mine, it took about 3 and a half weeks...
"Ubuntu seems to have hit the big time, riding off the Win7 release." +5 Insightful
- WOW
If I had mod points, you'd get one. The groupthink surrounding Ubuntu on Slashdot has become insane, lately.
To quote Richard Prior, none of the above. ;)
Here's my own choice.
There's practicing African hospitality, and then there's becoming a daemoniac. ;)
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?
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?
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_
The HOWTOs are overblown - in a proper distro you shouldn't need them in the first place
Gentoo isn't a 'proper distro' in the sense that its a source-based distro, completely unlike a binary-based one thats meant for the masses.
(I also disagree with the GP as you do - Gentoo is not meant for Linux newbies)
and even when you do, nothing stops you from using a Gentoo HOWTO on, say, Debian
Wait, now you're saying Debian isn't a 'proper distro' either? Careful... :)
I've never got my system broken by updates either (even though I used "unstable") - in part because apt is quite a bit smarter about dependency breakages than Portage ever was, and I haven't ever seen any other kind of break in Debian repositories.
Ironically, its was breakages in Debian that caused me to try Gentoo, but that was a long time ago.
Crucial difference between a source-based distro and a binary one: on a source-based distro if a compile breaks, it doesn't break your system, because nothing on your system has changed. And the corollary: if the compile succeeds then you are *guaranteed* that that package has all its crucial dependencies met.
Hint: neither are in the US.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
... we can have Mr Myung as well....
Darn ...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.