From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Apr 10 03:06:02 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA09504 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Fri, 10 Apr 1998 03:06:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from phoenix.welearn.com.au (suebla.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.44.81]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id DAA09474 for ; Fri, 10 Apr 1998 03:05:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sue@phoenix.welearn.com.au) Received: (from sue@localhost) by phoenix.welearn.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA05191; Fri, 10 Apr 1998 20:05:44 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <19980410200542.08150@welearn.com.au> Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 20:05:42 +1000 From: Sue Blake To: Nicholas Charles Brawn Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Fw: Your Article "Freeware: The Heart & Soul of the Internet" References: <6218.892195002@time.cdrom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: ; from Nicholas Charles Brawn on Fri, Apr 10, 1998 at 06:55:37PM +1000 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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*- find / -name "*.conf" |more To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message