Re: SuSe 7.3 Sparc

[Mike808 <mike808@users.sourceforge.net>]

Tighe Schlottog wrote:
> Those of you with Sparcs that would like the new SuSE 7.3 for Sparc, bring 
> some blank CD's. ...

Everyone,

Over on the west bank here, I've started up a program for CD/RW exchanges.
I run mine kind of like a library. Folks bring in some CD/RWs (maybe they
have good stuff on them, maybe not - it does not matter) and they exchange
them for current CD/RWs with distros burned on them.

We've found that this seems to be working pretty well, and especially for
betas or new releases that people don't have time to suck ISOs down their
56K dialup. And the cool part is once you're done with them, or the
new beta comes out, or the final is out, you just keep recycling the CD/RWs.

Have you burned more than 5 CDRs? Do you save the old distro versions or
just add the old CDRs to the AOL disks in the landfill?

Although I don't make it to your meetings, I'd be glad to help with
establishing a program (branch library?) for SILUG. I see Steve-O semi-
regularly, or can arrange special bulk swaps of CD/RWs. The cool thing
is that you can always only burn *exactly* what you need, and never feel
guilty about burning "too many". If that happens, you just wipe 'em and
burn the next batch of whatever.

And by making it an *exchange* program, you don't need much of a "starter"
expense for initial media. And you always get back more media, so it's
not a "generosity" thing for the person doing the burning.

We're planning on bringing plenty of the new RH and MDK to our next 
meeting, but we can always bring a special request distro, such as
what Tighe is offering here.

If any of the more "regulars" that go to the meetings want to start
your own, or want my help in getting this sort of service available to
SILUG, email me off-list and we can work on the details and mechanics.

We've got a core group of 'burners', a substantial 'library' stock (50+
CD/RWs) and I've only been running the thing for three weeks now, and seems
to be well-received by the attendees. Especially by the adventurous that
want to try out betas and new releases.

Another area we are looking into is to put large packages (i.e. KDE,
OpenOffice, etc.) onto the CD/RWs to save folks the download time, since
some of them are pretty bulky. When they're done, they exchange it for
other stuff, and the program's simplicity has been a breeze to do.

We're still working out the details for folks that don't bring anything
to exchange, but it's not been a problem so far, and we're not too worried 
about it. YMMV, but it's something to think about how to handle in advance.
I think we decided it's a flat $20 per distro or item, basically to dis-
incent this behaviour, and if they're willing to pay that much, they
probably ought to just buy a commercial distro, and at the least let us
buy more media than they're leaving with.

Comments welcome.

Mike808/
-- 
perl -le "$_='7284254074:0930970:H4012816';tr[0->][ BOPEN!SMUT];print"

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