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On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:03:12 +0200 Jono Bacon <j...@ubuntu.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > One of the ways in which many people have been able to experience Ubuntu > is via Canonical's ShipIt (http://shipit.ubuntu.com/) program, which has > shipped millions of CDs to new users. This has provided a valuable > opportunity for new users to try Ubuntu and for our community teams to > obtain CDs as part of their advocacy efforts. > > Due to the sheer growth of Ubuntu, we are making a few changes to ShipIt > which I wanted to ensure I share with you. For the details, I am going > to turn the mic over to everyone's favorite Canonical COO, Jane Silber > who updated us on the Canonical blog (http://blog.canonical.com/?p=264): - --snip-- I remember way back when.. All the way back when I could order a box of pressed CD's to hand out. I converted a whopping <20 users. I would get both KDE and Gnome for every release. The problem was that I had was I never got rid of them all. I never really had any issues until the shipments were pretty much cut to a single cd/user. After that I got used to the idea of burning a cd and handing it out. Now this comes along and when I first read the message I thought to myself; this isn't really a change. After I read the details further I started thinking that this sounds like a good idea. Ubuntu is already the most giving distribution. You don't even have to have a significant online presence to gain membership. We're given a lot. What other distribution can you use to get a membership to LWN? We get more than just that. We also promote an extremely diverse range of users with our LoCo's. We have boys/girls that haven't reached teens all the way to men/women in their 80's. Perhaps beyond. What does this mean? It means that Ubuntu is reaching a very very large market. Canonical is the company that owns Ubuntu and funds all Ubuntu operations (we all know this). Think about it this way; if you were single handedly responsible for buying CD's, labeling them, packaging them, then shipping them to every person in your country.. could you afford it? Canonical isn't shipping them to just your country, they're shipping them to every country on every continent. The idea of getting one cd for every release, I like that idea. I was doing it but I lost a lot of CD's and I don't have them. To be perfectly honest, I don't see any reason not to purchase these from the shop. I know I've had issues in the Ubuntu community. I've reduced where I offer support due to these issues. I've seen it impact other areas as well, not just for me. Regardless of this, I've never seen Shuttleworth just take a decision like this lightly. Even the desktop background we all experience isn't a decision he'd take without careful consideration. Personally, I'd like to see financial records to see just how much money does go to these "little" extras they provide. On a side note; is it possible for me to buy a nice pressed CD for each release since 5.04? To be perfectly honest, I'm wondering if it would be possible to just get the CD sleeves and press the CD's myself. I think many users are surprised ShipIt has survived for so long. Taking steps to prevent it's exhaustion is probably a very good idea. Perhaps the have's should help out the have-not's a little more. :) - -- Michael Lustfield Kalliki Software Network and Systems Administrator -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkrfdgUACgkQ3y7Nst6YLGW96QCfdHV7Rs7cUN9pYYCI1786CUad u18AnjRNBSQF/1YzfVWYpjLlzGpauH6M =hwJk -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- loco-contacts mailing list loco-contacts@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
