Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 20:05:42 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05@uow.edu.au> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Fw: Your Article "Freeware: The Heart & Soul of the Internet" Message-ID: <19980410200542.08150@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.980410183013.18216C-100000@banshee.cs.uow.edu.au>; from Nicholas Charles Brawn on Fri, Apr 10, 1998 at 06:55:37PM %2B1000 References: <6218.892195002@time.cdrom.com> <Pine.SOL.3.96.980410183013.18216C-100000@banshee.cs.uow.edu.au>
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On Fri, Apr 10, 1998 at 06:55:37PM +1000, Nicholas Charles Brawn wrote:
[about shopping for FreeBSD in Australia]
> The last time I found FreeBSD cd's, it was a "Turbo-FreeBSD" distribution
> from someplace I can't remember, with 2.1.5-RELEASE on it and 2.2
> snapshots.
It is extremely difficult to get FreeBSD in Australia, but Linux is pushed
at us all the time.
One mail order place in Melbourne (forgot their name, sorry) said they won't
be getting new versions of FreeBSD until they sell all the old ones, because
the old version they have is slow to sell. Apparently they can't be bothered
to return them.
If you go to Dymocks in Sydney and ask for FreeBSD, all you will be offered
is a dusty old Turbo FreeBSD 2.1.5. They have all of the ORA books, and a
huge range of Linux books and CDs. They say have never heard of Walnut Creek
or Walnut Creek's version or The Complete FreeBSD but they don't expect it
would sell any better than their current copy of 2.1.5 hasn't. They would be
prepared to try to order one copy for a customer but require payment before
the order is placed and expect a wait of some weeks or months. I don't know
of any other shop in Australia where you can hope to see FreeBSD books or
CDs.
A lot of Australians don't have or don't like to use credit cards and mail
order, and sending money overseas is quite expensive (my bank charges $10),
not to mention the costs and delays of freight. Internet access is expensive
here too, and all the above would apply to several other countries. Why
bother trying FreeBSD when Linux books and CDs are everywhere.
There's only so much enthusiastic supporters can do. When the people who can
make money out of FreeBSD won't pull their finger out it's bloody hard for
anyone else to. PR is little help if we cannot conveniently access the
product behind it.
Is there any way around this bottleneck, or is general promotion as well as
sales to be targeted at the USA until we get that warm trickle-down feeling?
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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