On Monday 25 February 2008, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > On 2/25/08, Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Mon, February 25, 2008 2:47 pm, Raffael wrote: > > > Andrew Errington wrote: > > >> Why not have the box boot up with a randomly-chosen distro from > > >> the archive it is holding? > > >> > > >> :) > > >> > > >> Andrew > > >> (No, really, I'm just kidding. It's not a challenge.) > > > > > > I like that idea! Really :D > > Whilst I'm sure setting up such a system would doubtless be a superb > way of exercising young brains, if we were to implement such a scheme, > mine would very rapidly lose its grip on reality. I'm so relieved to > see the jest indicators. > > > > By the way, today I was more successful in downloading some distros > > > to my usb HD. I get up to 4.5 MB/s. > > Good! > > > > Here some comments: > > > - first of all: thank you for running the Linux archive and the > > > usb2card > > Thanks. We would be grateful if you could mention that we are active > in the distro. reproduction business. > > > Chris S is largely to blame^h^h^h^h^h thank. Good on you Chris. > > Well it seemed a good idea once that it was pointed out that there was > no canonical source of Linux in Christchurch. Please note that Wesley > is an active co-conspirator. > He should be blamed^h^h^h^h^h^h thanked too. > > [ ... wiki matters ... ] > > > > - In these instructions it says that you charge $5 for a CD and > > > $7.50 for a dvd. I recommend to change that to a donation + costs > > > price for a medium, in case they don't bring their own. > > > > I believe its a charge by St Albans Community Centre, not by CLUG. It > > is outside our control. > > Not entirely. We can probably rejig the charge somewhat. > > > It does seem a little steep, but I have no problem > > with them selling blank media to prop up their undoubtedly tight > > finances.. The solution is to buy your own. > > I believe that both St Albans Community Centre, and CLUG have a moral > right to make a small charge to run a Linux distribution reproduction > service. There are a number of overheads which have to be covered the > obvious one being the electricity needed to run the server. > > The St Albans Community Centre charges the general public a base rate > of $2 per hour for access to a machine, and $1 for a CD. That means > that there is a base charge of $3 for a Linux Distro. on CD. This is > only very slightly more expensive than getting the data via http or > ftp using a retail broadband provider, and it's very approximately > half the cost of a bitttorrent download. For DVD volumes it's > considerably cheaper than using your ISP. I thought that it would be > fair to have a $2 component for CLUG which results in the $5 charge. > > If the membership really thinks there is an error in my rough and > ready reasoning to come to a price please let me know.
I would consider $5.00 per CD rock bottom and $7.50 for a DVD too low. You were lucky with the USB card, but what happens when the PSU looses its magic smoke or the HDD goes into reverse? In my experience your pricing is dependent on a continuing input of time and equipment from your members. If this input can be maintained, great. The more people can access and install Linux at minimal cost and risk the better. Phil. -- Philip Charles; 39a Paterson Street, Abbotsford, Dunedin, New Zealand +64 3 488 2818 Fax +64 3 488 2875 Mobile 027 663 4453 [EMAIL PROTECTED] - personal. [EMAIL PROTECTED] - business
