Hard copy publishing of the guides

[Matthew East]

On Wed, 2006-04-05 at 11:49 -0700, Corey Burger wrote:
> <snip>

> > > 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 don't see why it will be savaged. The guide is perfectly respectable,
and hopefully will have a number of things which other books might not.
The style of writing is very good, clear and internationally accessible.
It's well targetted to an audience of many Ubuntu users. Having read the
"official" book, I'm not concerned about negative comparisons. As I said
already, I see them as separate and complementary projects.

> 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.

I'd obviously like to do this with all the guides, so both the Desktop
Guides, Server Guide, Packaging Guide, and translations thereof.

Matt
-- 
mdke at ubuntu.com
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