Jason wrote:
There is something which Jason and all his respondents seem to have have neglected.
Mandrake may say, yeah but we need help NOW. Ok, I agree, create the lower tiers to the club today (and tell the Linux press and media outlets ASAP) and I will join today. Me along with several other users I have helped convert to Mandrake here in New Zealand (and hopefully millions of users the world over). Mandrake doesn't need handouts, it needs to refine its business model. The availability of ISO downloads before boxed set arrival not only reduces potential sales (and possibly club membership sales) but it also is a double edged sword that ensures your mirrors get hosed driving up the bandwidth costs for Mandrake and the mirror owners.
Downloading ISOs is NOT cheap, since to download the 9.0 tree is 1,582 MB, 1.58 GB.
In my case, I would have to up to the next higher cable internet plan (3GB to 5 GB/month), which involves:
3GB $AUD79.95/month
5GB $AUD154.95/month
The delta is $AUD75/month.
Which at 0.56 is $US42.00/month, $US504/year extra outgoing.
Note that the 3GB rate in practice only pays for 5 hours of Mandrake download time from Sweden, and so a 5GB cap would only give me 8.3 hours. There are 154 working hours in a month.
Non-cable users where local calls are not free are in a similar boat.
This is an investment we all must make before we can even consider luxuries like joining the Mandrake Club.
It is particularly difficult for those who are on an age pension ($AUD942/month, set at 25% of the average male worker income) or unemployment benefits.
--
Ron. [Melbourne, Australia]
troels... now updated to use ftp.sunet.se server.
See: http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronst/
