On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 08:49:08AM +0000, liam jackson wrote: > Hi > I have asked several people this question, but do not get any replies, > I have just installed ubuntu onto my pc at home, but as I am not on line i > have to use a library pc for any downloading at present, (i on the sick and > cannot afford it at present). i want to install a different media player, but > just can't seem to do it, > 1st, do i have to be online to load programes?
Further to this.. I have often thought that someone should provide a service where you can "rent a repo" on a USB hard disk. You would pay a company a deposit for the disk and then subscription, and for that money you get sent a USB disk containing the entire Ubuntu repository for the release you are on (or the next one up you want to upgrade to). At any time you could send it back and get it updated and returned (24/48 hour turnaround would be appropriate). This would work well also for people on dialup or people in outlying areas. It would also be good for people with many machines which need updating - such as a school - but limited bandwidth. For the technically minded this could be easily implemented with the use of apt-mirror to mirror the repo(s), and rsync to update the USB hard disks. The entire repo for one release is about 30GiB at the moment, which easily fits on a cheap small USB hard disk (retail currently around 35GBP. Using laptop sized ones there is no need for a power supply (although if a machine has issues with power the user can supply one themselves), and the postage would be relatively cheap. The main issues I see with this are:- 1) Licensing - would it be 100% legal to redistribute the entire (main, restricted, multiverse, universe) repository? 2) Cost - it would need to be less than the cost of capped broadband - although for those people with no opportunity to get broadband this might not be a problem :) 3) Drive failure - disks being sent back and forth in the post might lead to a shorter lifespan? 4) Trust: Would a customer trust that the disk really does contain the repo and not some nasty spyware etc. Maybe a system with different levels. Bronze: You get one repo on the disk and can send the disk back once a month. Silver: You get two repos (e.g. Feisty and Gutsy) and can send the disk back twice a month. Gold: You get three repos (e.g. Dapper, Feisty and Gutsy) and can send the disk back four times a month. Platinum: You get all the repos for all versions of Ubuntu released so far (Warty through Gutsy) and can send the disk back as many times as you like. All disks would also contain the ISO images which match the version of Ubuntu being mirrored, and would clearly contain all packages for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu, server etc. Of course for platinum I realise that some versions are no longer supported, but if people have machines that have been installed from Warty and want to upgrade rather than re-install this provides an option to them. It should be possible to upgrade/downgrade at (for example) three times a year between bronze/silver/gold/platinum. Yet another hare-brained popey idea. Comments welcome :) Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
