[RFC] ShipIt CD-RW

[Gabriel Dragffy]

ben darby wrote:
> i think your missing the point of shipit, in general the people ordering
> these discs are the ones who are unable to download a 700meg iso over
> the internet, or are just looking to try ubuntu for the first time,
> being given the disc from a friend or expo. i cant really see any point
> in canonical sending out blank dvdrws around the world when anyone can
> pick one up from the local milkbar for less than a dollar, as they're
> still going to have to download the images from the internet and anyone
> low on bandwith is not likely to download multiple full prerelease
> iso's. there are many authorised merchants [1] to buy cd's from for only a
> few dollars if you'd like it faster.
> 
> [1] - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/purchase#distributor
> 
> 

I totally agree with your point of view, Ben. I think that people who 
use shipit do so because they really can't download such large images, 
and for those people anything is better than nothing. When I was living 
in China it took about a month for my shipit CDs to arrive, but I was 
still extremely happy to get them at all. I don't think people should 
expect anything more for free.

I'd say that Cannocial are doing it right at the moment. Any surplus CDs 
left over from the last release are unfortunate, as with the length of 
time it takes to dispatch. Perhaps these problems can be alleviated by 
looking at the supply chain and making some changes to minimise wastage, 
and increase efficiency.

Perhaps this might mean Cannonical agreeing a JIT (just in time) 
approach to getting CDs pressed, so at the end not so many are left 
over. Perhaps the online shipit order could actually be processed by a 
third party, i.e. Cannonical out-sourcing the shipit system, so they 
don't have to worry about dispatching CDs World-wide.


Regards
Gabe