[LUGSB] Linux LiveCDs

[Richard Yao]

I called Kinko's and asked about how much it would cost for them to
print labels on blank CDs. For a quantity of 50 to 100, they charge 50
cents per CD. I didn't bother to ask about the inserts, but it seems
to me that it would be cheaper if we just produced the CDs ourshelves.
Newegg has the stuff we would need:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817292020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827998021

If we order a burner with accompanying CDs and jewelcases for 100
LiveCDs by Monday (there is a $3.99 coupon code that expires on
Monday), it would cost $81.70. That is less than Kinko's would charge
us if we take into account the fact that we would still need to
purchase something to store them. Anyway, if we get those things, I
imagine that we could repurpose one of the machines in the SBCS office
to manufacture LiveCDs. We could likely print our own inserts in the
translab. This would have the advantage that we could produce CDs for
any Linux distribution and not just Ubuntu Linux and that they could
be made on more of an as needed basis.

Unless Canonical could give us a break on their CDs, this approach
seems more feasible, although someone would need to volunteer to go
through the trouble of burning the discs, printing the inserts and
assembling them.

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 10:18 PM, Matthew Gruen
<wikigracenotes at gmail.com> wrote:
> On the subject of allocations: our funds are shared with SBCS. I don't
> think there's a danger we won't use our joint budget by the end of the
> year, especially because they're going to be doing some community work
> this semester... but it is definitely nice to have LiveCDs lying
> around.
>
> <http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=746>
>
> 5 Ubuntu 10.10 CDs are about $8, and 10 for $16, and 20 for $28. If
> Canonical doesn't give us a special deal, this seems a bit pricey.
> 11.04 is coming out in 2 months, and buying nicely packaged CDs every
> 6 months seems like a nice way to get a large collection of nicely
> packaged CDs, if nothing else :)
>
> If you're worried about packaging, it's not too hard to make something
> nice-looking by yourself. Kinkos can print out pretty CD labels and
> case sleeves. Still, buying straight from Canonical seems like a
> reasonable expense to me. Bring it up at the meeting tomorrow.
>
> Cheers,
> Matt
>
> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Richard Yao <ryao at ic.sunysb.edu> wrote:
>> Dear Everyone,
>>
>> Every semester, I meet a few Windows users that would probably be
>> happier with a Linux distribution, but going through the trouble of
>> downloading an burning an ISO is enough trouble that they never do it.
>> I know I could give CDs that I burn myself to people, but software
>> tends to be unappealing to people unless it comes in professionally
>> designed packaging, which is something that I could not afford to do.
>>
>> I ran into such a person today. I demonstrated my laptop and told her
>> that it does not slow down as it ages and she was interested in it. I
>> had some Ubuntu CDs that Canonical had mailed me a few years ago, so I
>> gave them to her. I told her that one ran KDE, which was like Windows;
>> that the other ran GNOME, which was like Mac OS X; and that she should
>> try them both to see which of the two she liked better. I also warned
>> her that the software was two years old, but she ran Windows XP, so
>> she did not mind. Unlike the past when I would tell people to go get
>> the software to use it, she said that she would try them out and let
>> me know how she liked them the next time we ran into each other.
>>
>> With that in mind, I would like to get more professionally packaged
>> LiveCDs to give to people so that they can try Linux. Canonical gives
>> free LiveCDs to people, but I seem to have reached my quota for them.
>> I imagine that being a University Linux Users group Canonical would be
>> willing to give us a large allocation of LiveCDs for little to nothing
>> if we asked. Is there any chance that we could try asking Canonical
>> for a large allocation of them through LUGSB?
>>
>> If it turns out that we have to pay for them, then we would not be
>> restricted to buying Ubuntu Linux LiveCDs. There are other
>> distributions that target new users that we could consider, such as
>> Sabayon Linux and Linux Mint. Maybe we could talk about allocating
>> funds for this at our next meeting. Also, I believe that the
>> university has a policy of cutting funding for clubs that did not use
>> all of the previous semesters' funding, so instead of taking a funding
>> cut next semester, we could use any excess funds we have to either buy
>> Linux LiveCDs to give to people or donate to open source development
>> (e.g. Sabayon Linux, Codewavers, KDE).
>>
>> Yours truly,
>> Richard Yao
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