I've been thinking on ShipIt CDs and the problems with getting them out
taking so long. I could give a long-winded essay; but I'm dealing with
people here, so I'll give brief points and you can comment.
Summary of the problem:
o ShipIt CDs take too long to get out to users, often times weeks or
months.
o Ubuntu release cycle spans 6 months; ShipIt CDs become a waste of
material after this point for many users.
Solutions that fail:
o ShipIt ships faster: More resources, more expense, more stress on
Canonical.
o ShipIt preorders: We still have to wait until release before we can
expect anyone to start pressing anything. The same back-ups arise.
o Longer release cycles: Too drastic, and marketing fluff.
The proposed solution:
I propose we ship Ubuntu ShipIt CDs on CD-RWs. This would allow users
to order ShipIt CDs during the Alpha/Beta cycles and up-burn as
necessary. Further, ShipIt CDs could be dual-branded for reuse in the
next release cycle.
o ShipIt can ship CD-RWs during the development cycle. These CD-RWs
would use special ShipIt-RW art, indicating the disc utilizes CD-RW
storage to house the Ubuntu Operating System.
o ShipIt-RW artwork would contain multiple brands, each with a check
box by it. The next three releases would appear; so during the
Feisty development cycle, brands for 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04 would
appear. Alternately, in case of flexible releases (as with Dapper),
the branding "Yv1" and "Yv2" (Y for Year) could replace exact
version numbers; so Feisty would be 7v1 and Feisty+1 would be 7v2.
o ShipIt-RW artwork would display multiple release levels, including
"Alpha" and "Beta" paired with 1-5. Again, these sit next to check
boxes.
o A write-in box would allow for ShipIt-RW labeling as "Slipstreamed"
(rebuilt with all patches) or a future version.
o ShipIt-RW packs could ship with an erasable marker; eraser fluid
(sponge-bottle of water); and eraser (cloth). This would facilitate
rebranding by reburning a different release.
o Canonical could ship ShipIt-RW CDs blank, unlabeled, allowing
recipients to burn as needed.
I believe the above proposals leave enough room for discussion to come
to a useful and unique solution. I will leave this open for discussion,
as I am curious to see if anyone else would enjoy dev-cycle rewritable
CDs from ShipIt, and if anyone has a nice solution on how to do this right.
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