Hi Ian, Terse reply, I am on 9600 baud on holiday - ssh, don't tell the wife!
On Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 10:35:07PM +0100, Ian Pascoe wrote: > Next, why would anyone want it? I think the main areas would be: > > * Unable to get access regularly to a high speed Internet connection > * unable to get access outside of an Intranet > * no Internet connection at all > Agreed. > Additionally, there is also the small business, or school, that don't want > their bandwidth gobbled up by machines on the network each individually > updating themselves. Yes, a location with multiple machines that all need updating/installing can get a head start with a "repo in a box". They can then keep that up to date. > with a chip set that we know functions well with Ubuntu / Linux. From this > you'll realise I'm looking at each HDD having one architect for one release > cycle on it. My only question is whether a USB v2.0 or v1.1 or mixture; > probably v2 only for availability reasons and data transfer speeds. > It's rare to find mass storage devices that Linux cant use these days. Get a USB 2.0 one and it will be backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and USB 1.0. > Next is the physical side of things. As Alan says you need a central server > with about 400 - 500 Gb on it with the ability to handle updating at least 2 > HDDs at a time. It can update multiple disks at a time, you can plug multiple disks into the various USB ports (or a switch). I dont think keeping the disks up to date is an issue myself. It's just a case of running apt-mirror regularly and then rsyncing the master down to each USB disk. > I don't think more is needed as the uptake in the UK would > be fairly minimal but at least the service is there. The ideal locations > would be in developing countries. So the question here is whether to look > at sending items from the UK, getting local offices set up through the local > or nearby Loco teams, or just limit ourselves to the UK and Eire. > You'd be surprised how many people in the UK have ropey internet connections. Especially those who cannot afford the upgrade to Vista, or high speed broadband. But yes, I agree there are plenty of non-UK places who could benefit from this. > Next is the physical location of the business. Well that actually doesn't > matter that much; in fact it could be quite easily run out of the proverbial > spare bedroom. > Somehwere with good net connectivity is all really. > This of course also leads onto the question of how you actually ship them > out to the client and get them back again. I realise that the HDDs are > designed to be portable but you still would probably need to have some > specialised packing to protect them whilst in transit that could be reused > to send it back to the "spare bedroom". > The box they come in would be a good start, but specialised containers which survive multiple postings would possibly be better. Look at how other people ship stuff for return. > Lastly, is how do we let people know that the service exists? Ideally, it'd > be from the official Ubuntu sites, and also from those sites linked to > Ubuntu and Linux. > Marketing the service is another subject, yes. I can think of plenty of ways to pimp a service like this. > So that's my thoughts on the actual project, but what about the competition? Well, anyone can do this, anyone with a fast connection and a little money to initially put into the project. I envisaged doing this myself as a private enterprise, but there's nothing stopping anyone else doing the same. > Other questions which spring to mind are: > > * client gets their HDD, how do they pursuade apte-get or whichever to use > that repo? A sample sources.list and some documentation would be on the hard disk. > * finances I have thrown together spreadsheet with details of costings and it certainly isn't a "fast buck" kind of business. > * licencing This is something I worried about a bit. The potential inclusion of the multiverse (and other 3rd party repos such as medibuntu) would make the whole thing more usable and attractive but may be a legal minefield. > * sole tradeing or LLP for the business Or if you're already an existing LTD you're sorted - there are a few LTDs on this list (myself included). > * binaries / source code or both This could be a selectable option. User just ticks a box or specifies in an email that they would like the source and this doubles (roughly) the size of the repo they get. I'll be thinking about this a bit more this week whilst on holiday :) Cheers, Al. -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
