[tex-live] Distribution of TeX live Cd

Sebastian Rahtz sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk
Sat, 9 Jun 2001 14:18:03 +0100


Antonio Rodriguez writes:
 > What about if it is made available for $5,6, just enough to cover
 > Cd,shipping, etc cost?

sure, you can do that. you can give them away, or sell them for $100,
we do not impose any restrictions

 > I haven't seen any place yet that makes TeXLive available for purchase. 
you can join TUG, but that makes it a trifle expensive just for a CD

 > best solution would be of course if Dante would have the instructions in
 > English so that the greatest amount of people would understand it.

Dante make *different* CD, the CTAN one. are you confusing the two?

 > Again my friends, my questions to you and my desire to do what is right from
 > the point of view of the group are the consequence of pure respect and
 > admiration for what you all are doing.

do whatever helps TeX users. but do keep at the back of your mind that
while Fabrice, Staszek, Kaja and I (the people who have done most work
on TeX Live recently) do not get any money for our time, the cost of
maintaining the computers on which the system is stored is not
trivial. TeXLive is managed on machines belonging to Dante and to TUG,
which cost real dollars, and which will need replacing one day.

conclusion: if you want to press a few hundred or thousand CDs and
sell them at $6 apiece, I suggest that you donate half the profit to
TUG. that way:

 - people can buy a cheap TeXLive CD
 - you make a few dollars for your trouble and expenses
 - TUG make a few dollars to put towards ongoing maintenance

Note! I stress that I am not currently a member of TUG, or involved in
any of their committees or workgroups. They host this mail list, the
web site etc etc. They might feel differently about all of the above,
and you might like to talk with them if you start getting into large
scale CD production.

Sebastian