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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.
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/
I just used the torrents. This way I get a disk in under two hours and shared the bandwidth.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
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
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.
Well.. You can come by one of those many Linux Fests, Linux conventions etc. Chances are good that some Ubuntu members will be handing out CDs there, and you will meet a lot of other like minded people and lots of awesome presentations.
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....
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!
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
Nah - it just becomes a hackintosh+.
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!
I'm new to F/OSS. Could someone please distinguish "free as in beer" and "free as in beer coaster" for me?
>>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!
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
"Freedom isn't free"...
(It costs $1.05...)
Bow-ties are cool.
I just got an AOL CD in the mail this past weekend.
First time in ages.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
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;
Wubi? http://wubi-installer.org/
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Just in case my sarcasm detector is malfunctioning, and seeing as its the second comment I've seen along these lines, here you go.
Pretty much every other PC OS uses optical discs for installation by default.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
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?
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