On Thu, 2010-12-09 at 22:37 +0000, alan c wrote:
> > I never regretted paying what seemed to be fair price. However as my > confidence in the community grew, so did my ability to judge between > 'free' gratis and 'free' Free software offers. > -- > alan cocks > Ubuntu user Very true, I've noticed that Windows users are very wary of 'free downloads' - for this reason we distribute FOSS apps and Ubuntu installation images on CDs or pre-loaded USB sticks to our end users. We hand these out free at events but charge for mail-order CDs and always for USB sticks as these are seriously too expensive to give away. To hand out a few dozen CDs at an event means that a couple of volunteers have to spend an afternoon feeding CDs into a row of laptops (we can't afford a pro burner - one of the Councils for Voluntary Service offered to buy Fossbox one but the cuts kiboshed that), plus the cost of the CDs, covers and labelling. We're a small non-profit, I can't really cost per CD accurately, so we charge three quid per CD send out in an SAE - people are happy to pay it because they don't trust their own ability to get the right stuff by going online. We don't make a profit on it, any money we make just goes towards keeping the non-profit organisation going - if it were a purely commercial decision, I wouldn't bother, not worth it. There's no restriction on charging for CDs, and we've talked about asking for people to contribute to refreshments at our free sessions too - same thing, in my view. Paula
-- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
