Filling the gaps in the spec: media

[Jiri Eischmann]

Kalev Lember píše v Pá 21. 02. 2014 v 22:39 +0100:
> On 02/21/2014 10:24 PM, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> > Trying with a new thread: One of the edits I did yesterday was to add a
> > section for 'Installation methods and media'. So far, it is empty.
> > 
> > Are there any ideas for doing something other than live USB sticks
> > here ?
> 
> USB sticks are probably most convenient for end users, but I guess we
> should keep the live DVD media option around as well -- mostly because
> it's very cheap to produce to hand out at promotional events.
> 
> Having main focus on live USB sticks makes sense to me though, and
> having them promoted on the http://get.fedoraproject.org web page as the
> main installation option.
> 
> -- 
> Kalev

I've been responsible for Fedora media production in EMEA since F16, so
I can even give you some hard numbers.
We currently produce 6000 DVDs per release and the unit price is $.35.
I've been expecting the decline of DVDs for some time, but we actually
had to raise the number by 1000 for Fedora 20 because we ran out of F19
media pretty quickly. (there has been one trend, though, almost no one
requests installation DVDs, everyone is fine with a live system).

I've been checking the prices of flash drive options for at least two
years because it seems to be the inevitable future, but the cheapest
flash drives with at least 4 GB capacity are still ~10x more expensive
than DVDs. And the gap doesn't seem to be closing.

Moreover you just can't buy some shitty flash drives that are empty.
Someone who has ever loaded Fedora images on more than 10 flash drives
knows how much time it would take to load it on 6000 drives. So you
really have to pay a company who does it for you. I've also ordered
several hundred rather cheap flash drives for Red Hat and know how high
the defection rate is. We could easily end up with dozens or hundreds of
broken flash drives while the defection rate of pressed DVDs is very
close to zero.

So the price of decent quality flash drives would be at least 15x higher
than the price of DVDs and we can't really give away media for $5 each
in larger amounts.

For the scenario where the user downloads an ISO from fp.org and loads
it on their flash drive, usb-drive-optimized ISOs are fine. If we want
to give away physical media, DVDs are still the only option.

Jiri