From fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com Sun Jul 18 12:08:01 1993 Received: from fishpond.cygnus.com ([192.195.187.11]) by toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (4.1/UCD.CS.2.3) id AA06062; Sun, 18 Jul 93 12:07:59 PDT From: fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com Message-Id: <9307181217.AA17616@fishpond.cygnus.com> Subject: CD-ROM based library distributions To: announce@cs.ucdavis.edu (comp.sys.announce moderator) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 93 12:17:27 MST >From: Fred Fish Content-Length: 4040 Content-Type: text X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Status: RO I am considering a possible radical change to the way the current library works, and would like to bounce it off the user community to guage the interest level, gather suggestions, etc. For the last couple of years, I have been regularly asked why I don't distribute the library directly on CD-ROM, rather than floppy disks. I'm starting to think that this may be the right time to consider switching from a floppy based distribution to a CD-ROM based distribution. First of all, the price of CD-ROM drives have dropped dramatically over the last couple of years, and the cost of producing CD-ROM disks has dropped as well, to the point where it might actually be cheaper to do a monthly CD-ROM than to maintain the current floppy distributions of 10 disks every 3 to 4 weeks. The current cost of a floppy based subscription averages about $40/month. Depending upon quantity, the cost to subscribers for a CD-ROM distribution on a monthly basis could be in the $20-$30 range, with vastly increased limits on the amount of new material that could be distributed each month. With CD-ROM distributions I could easily include material that I now have to routinely reject because of size considerations. The material could be organized in a more natural manner, along subject lines, like separate directories for demos, games, utilities, animations, etc. There would also be no need to pack any of the material, it could be distributed "ready to run", regardless of size (assuming no 300Mb animations of course). The way I envision a CD-ROM distribution channel working is that each monthly CD-ROM release would contain some fraction of older material that has appeared on a previous monthly CD-ROM, along with the current months new material. As space is needed for new material, the older material would be deleted, on a first in - first out basis. Thus there would be a significant overlap in the contents of each successive disk, with the amount of overlap depending upon the quantity of new material appearing on each CD-ROM. Subscribers could elect to receive a new CD-ROM every month, every two months, every three months, etc, according to their needs, and probably not miss any material as long as the interval doesn't extend past 5-6 months, assuming up to 100Mb of new material every month. It would help me a lot to decide how feasible a CD-ROM distribution might be if people interested in receiving the library directly on CD-ROM could fill out the following short questionaire and either email it or send a hardcopy back to: email to: fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com or hardcopy to: Fred Fish 1835 E. Belmont Drive Tempe, AZ 85284 USA Please feel free to repost this message to other electronic services. Thanks. -Fred =========================================================================== CD-ROM Distribution Questionaire (1) I would be interested in receiving the library directly on CD-ROM: (1) [ ] Yes (1) [ ] No (1) [ ] Check here if you are a subscriber for the floppy distribution. (2) I would have to purchase a CD-ROM drive to be able to make use of a CD-ROM distribution: (2) [ ] Yes (2) [ ] No (3) I would subscribe to a CD-ROM based distribution only if the price per CD-ROM disk was (check all that apply): (3) [ ] $20 or less (3) [ ] $30 or less (3) [ ] $40 or less (3) [ ] $50 or less (4) I would be most interested in receiving a new CD-ROM disk every: (4) [ ] month (each new CD-ROM disk as released) (4) [ ] 2 months (every other CD-ROM disk) (4) [ ] 3 months (every third CD-ROM disk) (4) [ ] 4 months or longer (4) [ ] on demand (I'll order each one when I want it) (5) I would like to be placed on a direct email or hardcopy mailing list for further future information (fill out either or both addresses below, as desired): email address: joeblow@nowhere.com hardcopy address: Joe Blow Nowhere, USA (6) Other comments, suggestions, etc: ===========================================================================