Hard copy publishing of the guides

[Jordan Mantha]

> > Robert Stoffers suggested via irc yesterday that it would be nice to set
> > up some kind of mechanism for making hard copies of guides available. I
> > think it's a really good idea. He suggested a publisher
> > http://www.lulu.com which will make copies of the book as they are
> > bought. So what happens is that if someone wants to buy a copy of the
> > book, they pay, lulu publishes the copy, and sends it. It has the
> > advantages that:
> >
> >  * There is no risk of people not buying the book, because only copies
> > which are actually bought are produced.
> >  * It's free for us because the customer pays the cost of production
> >  * We have pdf versions, so we would simply send them that, and maybe
> > ask the art team to produce a cover design.

Sounds cool

> So in summary, lets not tread down this path right now. Our first
> foray into printed publishing should be with an amazing product, not
> as an afterthought.  I really like the idea of Lulu for Dapper+1. We
> can merge the desktop guide and the official book and have something
> truly great to offer for low cost.

What about the other docs beside the User Guide? I think that the
Server Guide and Packaging Guide might eventually be good candidates
for this sort of thing. They don't have large audiences so
print-as-you-pay seems good. I wouldn't think they would be
competition for the offical Ubuntu book. I've had a few people ask me
so far if the Packaging Guide was going to be published eventually.
Granted, at this point it is no where near publishable but I think
that in the next few releases it could get there. I think it would be
awesome for Ubuntu to have community created publications. Definitely
something to think about for Dapper+1 and beyond.

/me gets back to work writing :)

-Jordan

--
"That's all very well in practice, but will it ever work in theory?"
      -- G. Hill, Education in Chemistry, 1992(1), 28.

A tidy laboratory means a lazy chemist.
       -- Jöns Jacob Berzelius (Swedish chemist,1779-1848)