[ubuntu-uk] CDs

[Alan Bell]

below is an edited version of the article at 
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2011/05/28/ubuntu-uk-loco-cds/

The allocation of CDs for the Ubuntu UK team arrived last week, to the 
excitement of the chickens. They have been using Kubuntu 10.10 for the 
last six months and are keen to evaluate the features of 11.04 (I prefer 
GNOME, the chickens prefer KDE).

After the upgrade I took their old Kubuntu 10.10 CD and gave it a bit of 
a wash, when it stopped smelling too much I put it in my laptop and 
booted it, there was a bit of a crack on the outside edge and it didn’t 
fully boot, but it got to the bootloader and did about 15 seconds of 
productive loading before it failed. Check back in 6 months to find out 
how the Kubuntu 11.04 CD boots.

So now we need to decide how best to use the remaining 49 Kubuntu CDs, 
50 Ubuntu Server CDs and 250 Ubuntu CDs. Preferably in a slightly less 
frivolous way than entertaining livestock.

Now that shipit has stopped doing individual CD requests we are going to 
reserve some for people on dialup who want CDs. The procedure for this 
is as follows.

* Email me, alanbell at ubuntu.com with a clear subject line saying you 
would like a CD.
* I will then respond with my snail mail address.
* You send me a stamped self addressed envelope big enough to hold a CD.
* I put CD in envelope and send it back to you.

So this is mildly inconvenient, and costs you more than free, but only 
about a quid, in postage. If you are on dialup (or an obsessive Ubuntu 
CD collector) this is still well worth doing, those on broadband have 
probably already got the .iso and burned it already.

Another batch will go to people distributing recycled PCs pre-installed 
with Ubuntu like Remploy I want these PCs to go out with an official CD 
in the pack, and some information about the LoCo team for the end user. 
Any company or charity involved with recycling PCs for distribution in 
the UK through the RaceOnline initiative or anything else is welcome to 
contact me to arrange CDs and help with doing an OEM build image for 
cloning (so on first boot it asks the user their name). These kind of 
organisations are not going to engage Canonical services, they just 
don’t have the margins, working constructively with them is certainly 
something we can do as a community team.

The rest will go to events and conferences where we have a presence, 
which means we need to have a presence at some events. I would really 
like the team to run a few bring-a-box installfests at university 
computing societies. If you want to help organise one that would be 
great, I am happy to support it with CDs and help get some people along 
to help.

If you have further ideas on how to use the CDs then do comment here on 
the Ubuntu-UK mailing list or at the next team meeting on IRC.

Alan Bell
Ubuntu UK LoCo Team Leader