Re: vendor

[Paul Cager <info@debiandisks.co.uk>]

Daniel Baumann wrote:
> Jonathan Norman wrote:
>> Hello.
> 
> Hi,
> 
>> I would like to become a vendor for debian but I have some
>> questions that where not answered in the vendor information section.
> 
> great.
> 
>> Is there a set price that I can see the CD / DVD at or am I allowed to set
>> my own price? Ideally I'd like to make a small profit to fund
>> development for some of my projects.
> 
> Debian is free software. You are completely free to choose the price you
> find appropriate (for the binaries).
> 
> Remember that some of the source code is licensed under the GNU General
> Public License. This means, you have some special obligations when
> distribution binaries without source accompanied (such as GPL version 2,
> clause 3b).
> 
>> Also does it matter what media I
>> used as I was thinking of buying bulk DVD-R and CD-R discs and burning
>> the image to them. Does it matter if it's got a debian logo on or says
>> something like "TDK DVD-R" with "debain 4.0 etch" written on with pen?
> 
> Debian is free software. You are completely free to choose the media you
> find appripriate.
> 
> wrt/ labeling the discs, it's usually done by writing the official disk
> label on it. You can find the label of the respective disk in
> /.disk/label on each of them.

I think this is /.disk/info (on etch, at least). But I always just write:

  Debian "Etch" 4.0r1 DVD n

> 
> Regards,
> Daniel
> 

Daniel has already answered your questions, but here's a few other
thoughts (I've recently started to sell DVDs in the UK myself).
Apologies if I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs - not all of this
was obvious to me when I started.

  * Don't underestimate the time it will take you to write / verify the
DVDs. It can be quite a disruptive chore on occasions. For my own peace
of mind I always run a "md5sum --check md5sum.txt" on the disks before
sending them out.

  * Sometimes I can go two weeks without an order; sometimes I will have
6 in one day. It seems quite random.

  * It can be easy to underestimate the "hidden" costs - domain
registration (if you decide to register one); paypal charges; Post
Office staff who insist your package is really a parcel; disks you
accidentally leave a thumbprint on; ...


I use Jigdo to download my DVD images, and I'd recommend it. It puts
much less strain on the Debian cdimage mirrors, and can mean you do not
have to download as much data yourself (for example when a new version
of etch comes out, you would only need to download the *changed*
packages). Using apt-proxy is also helpful. I've got some jigdo scripts
if you'd find them useful.


I used to ask customers to send me payment by cheque but this was
inconvenient for my customers and for myself. I now use Google Checkout
(they are free until the end of this year).


Hope this helps, and good luck.

Paul
paul-debian@home.paulcager.org