[ubuntu-uk] stickers free with Linux Format Magazine this month

[Andrew Oakley]

As a subscriber I also received the stickers, and was very impressed and 
very, very happy.

Sean Miller wrote:
> two back the man said "blimey! £5.95? that's expensive" -- and it is,
...
> I don't actually NEED any of the stuff on the DVD most months - it'd
> be nice to have the option to not receive it.

Yes, yes, yes.

> Why do I want a copy of Mandriva 2000 if I'm happily running Ubuntu,
> or OpenSUSE or whatever else (which I could download anyway)....

Well, I can kind of see the point in encouraging people to try other 
distros, especially the special-purpose ones such as Damn Small Linux. 
But it's a British magazine. We've all got broadband. I live in an 
extremely rural area, and even I can get 2Mbit/sec.

They should replace the DVD with their own in-house TinyURL and just let 
people download what they need.

The DVD goes in the bin same-day every issue, the only exception being 
Ubuntu 8.04 and even that went in the bin once 8.04.1 came out.

If they offered me a sheet of stickers every issue, instead of the DVD, 
I'd still be happy to continue paying subscription price. How people 
justify paying 6 quid for the mag off the shelf in Whsmiths (whom I note 
have stopped placing the punctuation in their shop signs, which since 
they are a bookseller can only be deliberate, so presumably are now 
pronounced "wuhh-smiths" rather than "W. H. Smiths") I can't fathom.

I want to encourage everyone, of any technical aptitude, to try Linux, 
and I hate people who are condescending to the technically 
inexperienced, but the sensible attitude is, if the reader is such a 
newbie that they can't figure out how to download and burn an ISO, they 
really, really shouldn't be upgrading or replacing their operating 
system, they should get someone else to do it for them before they brick 
their PC. Frankly I'm amazed that the DVD doesn't garner a billion "Your 
DVD hosed my PC" letters each month (although perhaps it does, and they 
censor them). Therefore shipping a DVD is at best superfluous for 
experts and at worst highly damaging for newcomers. Using such a DVD to 
justify a 6-quid pricetag on what should be a 4-quid mag is ridiculous.

Thankfully the subscription discount is significantly large enough for 
me to ignore this.

-- 
Andrew Oakley