Fork & Trailer

[Saint_Technika]

Where can I buy offline software repository of any relevant distribution locally the same way I can buy ones from osdisc.com? The rand/dollar exchange rate is not gentle on my pocket.

 

[envo]

Where can I buy offline software repository of any relevant distribution locally the same way I can buy ones from osdisc.com? The rand/dollar exchange rate is not gentle on my pocket.

You can download any distro's for free and write it to disc for less than R10 (bandwidth cost included)

 

[ZCFOutkast]

You can download any distro's for free and write it to disc for less than R10 (bandwidth cost included)

Lol! MyBB - not for the fainthearted!

 

[Saint_Technika]

Please I would like respondents to be realistic, currently I run LinuxMint 15 of which anyone can easily download from the net. Now I'm talking about software repositories like last time I bought one from osdisc.com weighing in @ 15 DVDs for around 37000+ software packages & you have to factor around 50GB space to host those files on the harddrive.

I'm about to upgrade to either Ubuntu 14.04 or LinuxMint 17 64-bit, and last time I checked osdisc.com for linuxmint 17 64-bit software repos weigh-in @ 18 DVDs(Repository size 74GB) 48000+ software packages with updated security fixes included.

 

[shadow_man]

Please I would like respondents to be realistic, currently I run LinuxMint 15 of which anyone can easily download from the net. Now I'm talking about software repositories like last time I bought one from osdisc.com weighing in @ 15 DVDs for around 37000+ software packages & you have to factor around 50GB space to host those files on the harddrive.

I'm about to upgrade to either Ubuntu 14.04 or LinuxMint 17 64-bit, and last time I checked osdisc.com for linuxmint 17 64-bit software repos weigh-in @ 18 DVDs(Repository size 74GB) 48000+ software packages with updated security fixes included.

Uncapped + an apt-cache box works for me. That way all your PC's get the cached updates and you only use the bandwidth 1 time over...

 

[envo]

Uncapped + an apt-cache box works for me. That way all your PC's get the cached updates and you only use the bandwidth 1 time over...

+1

But I guess a fool and his money will soon part...

Saint_Technika, I'll download/write everything to DVD for you (a technology that was quite popular up and till 2005). My charge is R850 for the lot

Off topic question. Why would R5-R10 difference with the crappy exchange rate make such a big dent in your pocket?

 

[HibiscusTunes]

+1

But I guess a fool and his money will soon part...

Saint_Technika, I'll download/write everything to DVD for you (a technology that was quite popular up and till 2005). My charge is R850 for the lot

Off topic question. Why would R5-R10 difference with the crappy exchange rate make such a big dent in your pocket?

+1

I see no reason to have a local complete repository of linux software as they change daily and you would only use <5% of it.

By the time you get the disk, 20% will already be out-dated.

 

[MickZA]

Dug back in my linux cd collection to find these guys in Pretoria but it seems they gave up offering anything new around 2012:

http://orderweb.co.za/linuxshop/

... anyone else remember them, I think there were a couple of sites offering distros back then (Fedora Core 3 was the last time I purchased media instead of downloading the iso).

 

[Saint_Technika]

The objective of having an offline repository is an enabling factor in having various packages installable in a moments notice including dependencies, & also when you are installing exotic packages of which no distro has but at least the dependencies are there just in case.

In my experience it saves a lot in terms of bundles for some of us who live off prepaid data & are realistically not in a position of having wired internet.

Less distro-hopping because you can customize installation because packages are met for certain situations: Ubuntu + repos is better than having to download various *buntus. Thus you are focused on installing that software that is not standard per distribution(s) repo(sitories) like: Sagemath, Kiwix(including wikipedia zim file(s)), Tunesviewer(downloading free iTunes stuff/educational material), pdfshuffler(for those free ebooks you have download chapter by chapter thus needing concatenation), Xmind, CipherShed/TrueCrypt...

Charging R850 for offline repositories is greed as such can be purchased online for less than half the price if less, the very reason there's less penetration of open source software in this country. Please don't assume 5%(maybe your closet usage benchmark) usage as for one I use about 30% out of all available packages at any time and in a way I think beyond myself so a to reach others. The packages mentioned above are what you could consider Value Added Service if you are indeed going to sell at such a crazy price.

Long term support distributions(CentOS, Debian) are what I use in cases where security updates are a matter of must in terms of updates.

You are more flexible in terms of demonstrating flexiblity of Linux in a range of roles & thus able to install a distribution specific to a person's usage scenario.