[plug] CD not free.

[steve at rumah.iinet.net.au]

I haven't been to a meeting, or paid any subscription yet, but...

I feel the value in joining a user community is in the hard information to
be gained by pooling collective understanding.  

Believe me, never having had the benefit of formal computer training I
have found the documentation side of linux to be a maze, sometimes with no
visible way out.  I dropped uucp over tcp for that reason.   Had I had
access to the knowledge in this group, or the time to search further for
info in newsgroups that I don't have time to read, I might have got it
working.

When I join plug I want the satisfaction of being a contributing member of
a group centred around enjoying and learning Linux (with a little
proselytizing thrown in :)

Access to the various linux distributions is not hard to get, although a
full download takes a while at 14400.  Everybody probably wants different
things from linux, so providing a fixed contents CD might be a bit
misdirected.  

Most people wanting to join plug will probably already have installed
Linux, and having found it to be good are looking for ways to make it
better for them.

I want to know that I can get the latest and best software in a given
area, for example should I download Star Office, or would another product
be more compatible with the stuff I need to do (like read that pricelist
in Excel format that even Lotus SmartSuite in windoze95 can't read).

Making software available on CD is a good idea, I think, but letting
people choose what they want on the CD is even better.  I don't have
access to a lot of software, having a 33k6 modem on a 486dx280 and about
1Gb of HD, but I have a PII with a CDRW drive (running w95 for video
editing) with which I could make up a few disks per month from other CDs.

I propose charging $10 per disc, with plug getting $5, the person doing
the burning gets the other $5, from which they buy the blank and cover
electricity/wear&tear and, in my case, a $1 scratchy to help pacify the
wife for all the time spent on the computer.  :)



Well, that's what I reckon anyway.

Cheers,
Steve