[Linux-aus] Grant proposal: Software Freedom Day CDs for Australia

[Arjen Lentz]

Hi Paul,

On 13/06/2008, at 11:01 PM, Paul Wayper wrote:
> | For ubuntu, why not just issue a special SoftwareFreedomDay  
> request to
> | shipit.ubuntu.com
> | They do the Ubuntu disk thing for free already. You just need to  
> give
> | 'em enough time to get it done + sent to you.
>
> For two reasons: shipit is already overloaded for Software Freedom  
> Day, and
> because I feel a little wrong having CDs sent all the way across the  
> world
> when they can be made 'locally' (i.e. at least closer to home than The
> Netherlands - which is close to Nether for Australia).
>
> Last year the Canberra SFD group put down a request for 1,000 CDs.   
> We got 30.
> ~ The year before we requested 250 and got around 100.  This to me  
> doesn't look
> like a good situation.  And my feeling is that if Australia can take  
> its
> burden off shipit, then other groups who are more strapped for cash  
> may get
> closer to what they need.
>
> And in this age of soaring fuel prices, having a piece of cargo go  
> from SE
> Asia (where the CDs are manufactured) across to The Netherlands for  
> printing
> and then back to Australia for distribution seems wrong to me.   
> While I
> appreciate Donna's point that if I really wanted to make a  
> difference I'd get
> local communities to print them and keep the money local, in reality  
> I think
> Australia-wide printing is a good trade-off between cost and  
> supporting local
> business.


Fair point! Makes sense. So this would then possibly be a larger batch  
for different SFD events in various cities, with leftovers getting  
used at local groups still....
I'd be in favour of that. Ubuntu is like the only non-frisbie Linux  
distro IMHO, at least right now. I don't think Fedora cuts it in that  
sense, and I don't see a reason to have both at SFD. LA/SFD should be  
in the business of frisbie-distribution.

(and I have a good grip of where Netherlands is even, being from  
Amsterdam ;-)

Cheers,
Arjen.
-- 
Arjen Lentz, Founder @ Open Query
http://openquery.com.au/   (ph. +61-7-3103 0809)
Training for MySQL in  
Brisbane,Sydney,Canberra,Melbourne,Adelaide,Auckland