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To: netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: Export NetBSD CDs 
From: Herb Peyerl <hpeyerl@beer.org>
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Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 15:35:17 -0600

Rick Kelly <rmk@toad.rmkhome.com>  wrote:
 > Marc Baudoin said:
 > 
 > >Of course I can't ask you on behalf of the NetBSD Foundation.
 > >What do the official NetBSD people think of this CD issue?
 > 
 > One thing for sure, we need a source of CDROM distributions that
 > can supply them on an ongoing basis. NetBSD can't be increased in
 > popularity by pressing small batches, and saying "SOLD OUT" and
 > "No, there won't be any more" when the batch runs out.
 > 
 > There needs to be an organization that sells NetBSD "stuff", and
 > is also able to kick back money to the NetBSD Foundation for
 > future development.
 > 
 > I'm willing to be the web storefront for such an endeavor. I have
 > another domain, tencats.com, which is on a leased line and could
 > easily support such a business. I would need help from those who know
 > how to set up shopping cart, credit card acceptance and all that other
 > boring stuff.
 > 
 > It's all possible, and needs to be done, or we will continue to be
 > the short guy standing behind FreeBSD and Linux.

Wow. I'm breathless..

I'm continually amazed at the amount of complaining I've encountered
since embarking on this CD project... Especially from people who
haven't actually had anything to do with it...

What sucks about NetBSD is not that we don't sell a million CD's 
every month.  It's that whenever someone actually _tries_ to do 
some good, they get shat on...

Let me tell you what we _have_ done.

	We pressed CD's. 
	We used money out of our own pockets to do so.
	We wrote shopping cart, order processing, order fullfillment, and
	credit card acceptance software. We did this out of pocket too.
	We setup a www site, registered a domain.
	We securely accepted online orders, processed them, and actually
	even shipped out CD's.
	We dealt with lots of email from customers and potential customers.
	We sold enough CD's to pay ourselves back and pay for the next
	batch; assuming there is one.

Let me tell you what I'm seeing here.

	I see a lot of people who haven't done any of the above, spending
	a lot of effort complaining about what "we" did and claiming to
	do better.

Well, I invite you to.  We certainly don't own the CDROM market.
There are 3 other CD vendors who are selling NetBSD CD's; but yet
you feel you can jump in and do it better.  Well, you know where
the ftp site is.  Go for it.

I invite you to spend at least 3 times the amount of money that you
all have calculated on pressing 1000 1.3.2 CD's.  I will continue to 
sell them online.  However, if someone releases 1.3.3 or 1.4 and I've
only sold 50 of your 1.3.2 CD's, then you don't get the rest of your
money back.

I also won't tell you how many CD's you can expect to sell in a finite
period of time, because we didn't have that information when we started
on this venture...

Is that a deal?