[Fsfe-ie] The Sunday Business Post and the Live CD

Glenn Strong Glenn.Strong at cs.tcd.ie
Mon Apr 26 11:52:16 CEST 2004


On Monday, April 26, 2004 at 10:19 +0100, Malcolm Tyrrell wrote:
> > they're doing a Linux spread in about two weeks time (Sunday week I
> > think, and I suggested they include a Knoppix CD with the supplement.
> > I think if the IFSO LiveCD is ready to rock, it might be a nice
> > inclusion (with or instead of) the Knoppix 3.3 ISO from the net.
> 
> That's very interesting. However, I might want to wait before
> considering publicising the IFSO CD this widely.

I think this is a really good opportunity to promote Free Software,
and I think producing a CD "in association with the Irish Free
Software Organisation" is the way to go, if they agree. 

I was also very impressed with the disc as it stands.  I agree that
the CD David produced is really good - I haven't had a chance to try
the revised image yet,

> * We might be swamped with people looking for support. We're just not
>   big enough and, besides, this isn't our core mission.

We will (probably) never be big enough to handle support on any
serious scale. It seems to me that the solution is to direct people to
the usual online support sites, and try to include a reasonable
collection of troubleshooting documents on the CD. 

The chance to include Irish-localized ISP scripts and the like is a
strong argument in favour of an IFSO CD, I think. It's the one place
where we can add some value over a standard Morphix disc. I think it's
a no-brainer that we want to do this (the current disc is only missing
this stuff because of time pressure, I think). 

> If they are looking for a CD image fast, I think the safer bet might be
> to go for a standard Knoppix or Morphix image.

Depends what fast means, I guess. The existing CD was produced fairly
quickly, wasn't it (David?); they are proving very popular, so we will
use them again. Work on improving them will not be wasted (in fact, on
Sunday I spent a little time pricing short-run CD duplication in case
we wanted to get serious batch of them done).

If the Business Post like the idea then we should work with them on
this; it's a golden opportunity to get some high quality Free Software into the
hands of the general public, with a proper explanation of what it is
they are holding. Getting IFSO's name out there as well is a bonus,
but one we should pursue.

Thanks,
-- 
Glenn Strong



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