Fedora Vendor/Distribution Information (Wiki/Project idea)

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 7/31/05, Patrick Barnes <nman64 at n-man.com> wrote:
> The URL you pointed out provides only very limited information, and
> lists only online vendors.  It is far from the kind of comprehensive
> information often sought by OEM distributors and local vendors.  

So let me get this straight... you want a fedora website, to list
business information about distributors who have absolutely no online
information?  I'm not sure that makes a hell of a lot of sense. It's
very easy to get a static url hosted somewhere with contact
information.  What are you going to suggest instead of a url... the
street address?  "Fedora Core Cds $5, Joe's Apartment, E. 128th St. 
NYC"   But first things first... show me an example of a distributor
who is selling fedora install media who has absolutely no contact
information on the web.  Let's see if we can't get them on the exist
list instead of inventing a new list.  I think you are making some
assumptions about how flexible the existing vendor list is. Perhaps
when the list was created noone gave a thought to url-less
distributors because quite frankly it seems very logical that someone
who was distributing fedora would have a url, advertising they were
distributing fedora. So just give me one example of a local
distributor that has no contant url, and we can work from there to get
them listed.


> It would be nice to provide one clear source for information on
> obtaining Fedora, no matter what media the person is after.  A person
> might visit the site thinking the only way they can get Fedora is by
> downloading ISO images.  Upon arriving at the site, they could be
> presented with options to purchase CDs online, find a local distributor,
> learn about efforts like the LiveCD project, use BitTorrent, or even
> conducting Internet or network installations after downloading just a
> small ISO image.  

pretty sure there is going to be some disagreement as to whether or
not its worthwhile to recommend inexperienced users to attempt to do
an internet install.  While it is technically possible, it also has
additional risks due to volatility of the network.... doubly so during
release week when the mirrors are hammered. I don't see any advantage
in encouraging novice users into attempting an install method that we
know runs a higher risk of undiagnosable problems.  Network installs
from a local network are covered in the install guide I believe. And
how about we hold off on talking about the livecd until we actually
have a livecd.

-jef