There are some different aspects of OpenBSD distribution, how to achieve
more popularity etc.
1. OpenBSD distribution
- continous availability of CD-sets in all european countries
It is currently not as good as it should/could be to achieve more
success of OpenBSD
- iso images of the CD-set (or comparable ones) are not available for
downloads.
For this reaons a lot of people use debian, ubuntu etc linuxes and other
*BSD OSes
2. Prices for the CD-sets
- prices for the CD-set (some more detailed view)
The average monthly salaries in Europe differ a lot:
Lowest one for Moldava - $263
Middle one for old East Europe countries - $432 (Ukraine) - $ 1'048
(Slovakia)
Middle one for old West Europe countries - $1'090 (Portugal) - $4'230
(Luxembourg)
Highest one for Switzerland - $5'600,-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by_monthly_average_wage
The VAT varies from 8% in Switzerland to 27% in Hungary.
It is not a big deal for most of old West Europe working OpenBSD users
to pay $50 for CD-set.
Students will not pay more then $30.
$50 or even $30 are definitively too much for most potential OpenBSD
users from old East Europe countries.
Precondition: CD-sets are easy to buy locally and quickly available.
3. New strategies
Myself I would rather tend to offer:
- a more simple media kit for new release of OpenBSD for let say $10 or $20
(with the possibility to pay more for it like $50 or $30)
People are less interested in the Art and CDs for all
CPU-architectures as they run not all of them
so there is a possibility to cut production costs.
As IT users in Europe worry a lot about the security they will prefer
to buy original CD-sets locally.
- download of original iso images (or at least comparable ones as in the
distribution CD-set)
The current download possibilities are not enough
(in particular when you want to install offline within secure
environment without internet connectivity)
- ask users to donate instead.
It is obvoious for every serious OpenBSD user, that it is necessary
to support the development.
More active users means additional gain for development and testing of
OpenBSD.
4. New requirements for USB install images
- as some new notebook or server hardware even doesn't have anymore a
CD/DVD drive
it is crucial to support installation from USB sticks (like amount
others debian or ubuntu 12.04 LTS)
5. OpenBSD live images
- the idea is to boot from an iso (or hybrid-iso) live image (CD/DVD
media or USB stick)
and run OpenBSD in so called live mode using RAM for updating
packages and temporary saving data,
the local (encrypted) mass storage device can be used for permanent
saving of data.
- example of live images I have created for debian (to give you more
ideas what I speak about)
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/developer-live/README.txt
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/developer-live/server-live-developer-openJDK7.iso
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/banque-live/README.txt
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/banque-live/banque-live-lxde.iso
- example of profiles for live images
http://git.it-infrastrukturen.org/
- some demonstration
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/ofbiz-live/OFBiz_debian_live_BigFish_boot_1280x1024.mp4
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org/ofbiz-live/OFBiz_debian_live_BigFish_demo_1280x1024.mp4
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
Kind regards, Mark
--
[email protected]
http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org
