Hard copy publishing of the guides

[Corey Burger]

<snip>
>
> > As Matt mentioned, I raised a few concerns. They break down into two categories:
> >
> > 1 - Completeness
> >
> > The Desktop Guide is far from a complete guide. It is good at what is
> > covers, but has major holes in it. I would be embarrased to charge for
> > it. It will also be compared, as a book, to the other Ubuntu books on
> > the market. Lions and Circuses come to mind. The result will not be
> > pretty for us.
>
> Ignoring the gratuitous hyperbole here, I'm afraid I don't buy the
> reasoning: if this were right (which I don't think it is), we would be
> embarassed to ship the guide as Ubuntu's primary guide, and on the
> website, in html and pdf format. Adding a hard copy to this is simply
> another means of permitting users to use it, alongside those. The whole
> point of this would be that users can read the guide first, and if they
> like it, buy a copy. If no one likes it, no copies get bought, and none
> get produced.

Ok, we disagree on this, but when you add it to the 2nd point.

>
> > 2 - Dilution of Market
> >
> > We already have an official Ubuntu book. We are the official Ubuntu
> > Doc Team. Having the official doc team publishing a book which is not
> > the official book like quite amateurish. (For full disclosure, I am on
> > the authors on the official book, but that has ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING to
> > do with what I am saying here)
>
> First of all, I don't think there is an issue of competition or market
> here. Anyone who buys a copy of this book would be someone who reads and
> uses it online/offline and wants to have a hard copy without printing it
> themselves, and is willing to pay for it.

If we market it as the "Ubuntu Desktop Guide" by the "Ubuntu
Documentation Project", it will be compared to other books out there
and it will come up short. Actually, it will likely be savaged. This
is about first impressions.

I like Jordan's idea about the Packaging Guide. So rather than debut
with the Desktop Guide, lets go with it. It is much lower risk and
there is nothing to compare it to. Plus we get out there with a
totally unique product to generate buzz.

Corey