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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!uwvax!grilled.cs.wisc.edu!jcargill From: The BSDisc subscription (bsdisc-info@grilled.cs.wisc.edu) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: [repost] Inexpensive distributions of FreeBSD/NetBSD on CD-ROM Message-ID: <1993Oct17.182703.14503@cs.wisc.edu> Date: 17 Oct 93 18:27:03 GMT Sender: news@cs.wisc.edu (The News) Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. Lines: 189 Originator: jcargill@grilled.cs.wisc.edu [ Apologies if you see this twice. I forgot to include comp.unix.bsd the first time, when I posted it to the 386bsd groups... ] Announcing the BSDisc: Affordable subscription-based CD-ROM distributions of BSD-derivatives NetBSD, FreeBSD, XFree86, and other free-ware on a disc for under $20. ($19.50, to be exact, but with even lower prices to come later!) (Note: non-subscriber rates are somewhat higher.) Our Mission: ----------- Our goal is to provide the FreeBSD/NetBSD/386bsd communities with distributions that are convenient and affordable. For distribution of large software packages, cd-rom makes incredible sense. We want to make it affordable for you to *always* have the latest/greatest stuff on cd-rom. Ok, so it's convenient to be able to install conveniently from cd-rom. But what's the point of buying "bits on disc" which are going to be out of date in 4 to 6 months? Who wants to keep shelling out $40 or $50 for what's largely the same thing you bought last time around? Our answer to this problem is **low-priced** distributions. If it's cheap enough, why not have the latest stuff? Cd-rom also provides a convenient access method for things you *don't* want to waste hard-disk space on. With a RockRidge-format disc (the only format we consider worth producing), you can just mount the disc, and have an extra 600M of useful data on-line. It looks just like any other filesystem. Our Pricing Goals: ----------------- We hope you can tell from the pricing we've mentioned above that we're serious about starting things off in an affordable manner. But even more importantly, we plan to reduce our prices significantly as soon as subscriber volume makes it possible. Our short-term goal (within one year) is to drop prices to around $15. Long-term, we would like to sell the discs for about $10. And we *will*, as soon as subscriber volume makes it possible. Sounds great, but what are you doing with my money? -------------------------------------------------- We want to give something back to the community whose cooperation and work has give us a great OS. We plan to devote at least 50% of any profits to the following worthwhile causes (not necessarily in the order listed): 1. Making future distributions even cheaper. Need we say more? 2. Contributing financially to the FSF and other devlopers/friends of free software. This may include the Jolitz's, depending on their level of future activity in the 386bsd project. As hard a time as people may have getting along with Bill & Lynne, they've given us much; it's likely that none of this would have happened without their efforts. [ So why do I feel like I have to justify this? ;-) ] 3. Waiver of subscription fees for significant contributors. This might be tough to do, since it will undoubtedly get "phased in" over a time-period. So how do you decide who has contributed "the most", and should get precedence? Yow! Regardless of the difficulty, I think it would certainly be a nice way to say "*thank you*" to the core groups who are making things happen for us. 4. Donations of freely available net-hardware, to serve as a "reference" platform. The above are preliminary ideas, and I'm certainly open to other suggestions. The order listed does not necessarily represent the order in which they will happen, nor is it a guarantee that any or all of them *will* happen. Who knows, I may lose money, in which case none of them will happen! ;-) What is this business about a subscription? ------------------------------------------ Keeping prices low is our way of helping you; Subscribing is your way of helping us. By having a base of subscribers we can count on to help pay for the costs of producing the cd-rom (mastering and production costs), our risk of losing money each time we cut a new disc is significantly decreased. Since we are able to reduce our risk, there's no reason for us to charge high prices for data which is publicly available. Simplicity, huh? Lower risk, lower prices. If you prefer not to go with a subscription, you can purchase single issues at a somewhat higher price (about $35, to begin with). So am I locked into this deal? ----------------------------- Not at all. You can cancel at any time, and receive a full refund of unmailed issues. In fact, if you're ever dissatisfied with a disc that you've already received, simply return it within 30 days for a full refund. How does the subscription work? ------------------------------ We envision releasing a new disc whenever significant new version of the software is released on the Net. We anticipate releasing 2-3 issues per year. Rather than publishing on a rigid schedule, we plan to release a new issue when there's "enough" changes and new versions of the software on the net to make it worthwhile. If you're a subscriber, each new edition will be mailed to you automatically. How do I order? -------------- A couple of logistics items for ordering are still being worked out. Complete ordering information will be available in about a week. If you'd like, send mail to us <bsdisc-info@grilled.cs.wisc.edu> and we'll email it to you as soon as its out. We're currently arranging to accept credit cards, since that would be the easiest way to bill people who don't want to "pre-pay". If you prefer, you can also pay by check, though we may require pre-payment for more than one issue. As you can tell, the final details are still being worked out; but they will be available in about a week. When will you start shipping? ---------------------------- We're currently testing an early version of the disc. Our group of beta-testers seem quite happy, so we should be mastering the final version in about a week. Since we're going the inexpensive route for mastering (15-day turnaround) in order to keep prices down, we'll be shipping the real thing in about 3.5 weeks. Depending on the feedback we get from our subscribers, we may try to improve this turnaround time on future editions. However, it's a simple trade-off of price vs speed. Tell us what's important to you, and we'll try to accomodate the majority of subscribers. Our hope for the future: ----------------------- We sincerely hope that in the future, the NetBSD and FreeBSD developers will merge into a singe group. This will allow us to fit loads more freeware onto future issues of the BSDisc. Even if this doesn't happen, we can allow more room for other freeware by producing two different subscription lines (NetBSD and FreeBSD each on a separater disc). This would work, but then users would have to know in advance which flavor they'd like. With our current disc, which contains both, you can try them both and see for yourself which one works best on your hardware. This option is also less desirable, since it would lower the number of subscribers to each version, which means we would not be able to drop our prices as quickly. Keep your finger crossed for a merge! ---- BSDisc is a trademark of DiscNet, Inc. -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Jon Cargille jcargill@cs.wisc.edu Want your .sig compressed? 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