Suggestion for DVD distribution

[pj]

I've been a big fan of Knoppix for a while now, but this is the first time that I have ever used the Forums system. I have only read portions of the forum, so my appologies in advance if these topics have been discussed before.

One of the general themes I have noticed is that the reason for the lack of a DVD ISO is due to the cost of DVD burners. I simply cannot agree with this. Here in the US, an OEM version of one of the premier +/ format drives (the Pioneer 106) can now be had for $160. I am certain that more basic drives will soon drop below the $100 mark.

I see network bandwidth as a far more substantial expense. If this is not already the case, it will be very soon as DVD drives get cheaper and Knoppix gets more popular. At this point, the bandwidth offered by the Post Office becomes far more affordable.

The drawback of having DVD spressed in quantity (as opposed to burned) are the obvious startup costs. I doubt there is much profit to be had selling Knoppic DVDs and the risk of losing money selling DVDs one-at-a-time is quite high.

As a solution, as anyone considered the subscription plans like Walnut Creek CDROM used to offer? (They may still, I have not heard about Walnut Creek in quite some time) The basic idea was that you paid a fixed amout, say US$40/year to have an updated version of package $x sent to you roughly four times throughout the upcoming year. Back in the days when my net connection was ISDN, this was a great way to get the latest and greatest FreeBSD releases.

The subscription route has a number of benefits from a business standpoint. First off, there is the up-front cash of the subscriptions. But more importantly, there is a known base of purchasers, an important factor when having DVDs pressed in quantity.

I always tried to give away my old FreeBSD cdroms, but they never really had much value -- the time issue involved in installing a FreeBSD system made it silly not to install the latest version. Anyone wanting to install FreeBSD would be better off just bowworing my latest CDs, and I regularly lent out my current copies.

Knoppix, however, is a different case because anyone can pop in any version and be presented with a completely workable system. I've probably downloaded a half-dozen different ISOs of knoppix and I never have any problems finding good homes for my older cdroms. Even a six month old version of Knoppix on DVD would make a great gift to *anyone* with a PC.

Now, I'm sure that getting into this business is not something that Klaus has any interest in. But that doesn't really matter.
The system could be set up by anyone. It would certainly help if there was some coordination between Klaus and the rest of the Knoppix team and this porposed comapny to coordinate scheduled quarterly releases, or whatever release cycle is more apropriate, but that would really be the extent of it.

Thoughts? Comments? Discussions?

I know I'd certainly pay 40 bucks a year to have a fresh Knoppix DVD show up in my mailbox every three months...

-p.

[certifieduser]

Knoppix DVD is available for just $10 and may be plus $10 S&H from http://www.linuxandbsd.com/productde...ppixlinux.html

Hope this helps.