On Friday 07 October 2005 16:14, Carl Hartung wrote: [snip]
In fact, now that I've pondered this sufficiently, maybe it's a good idea to start encouraging Novell/SUSE to build a "pay as you download" subscription site for the retail version and scrap shipping a physical product entirely!
I agree wholeheartedly. Get all the free stuff with the usual torrent, then buy a license for the extra stuff in the retail version on line. This could give access to e.g. an authenticated extra installation source, which you simply add to YaST, and there you go - full retail version of SuSE achieved. I have been wondering how much of the �35.99 I pay to Amazon to get a SuSE 10 box goes on the physical stuff (as an aside, I could buy a dual layer DVD _burner_, a dual layer DVD+R disc and enough recycled paper to print the documents on, all for less than that!), and how much pays for licenses for extra software included in the retail box. _Is_ there somewhere a list of what's on the Retail DVD (apart from multiple architectures all on the same disc) that isn't on the Eval DVD? I'm all in favour of paying for stuff I want, but I am another who would rather pay for actual software (which can be delivered efficiently down my ADSL connection) than cardboard, plastic, diesel etc. [snip]
There are also many people who are unable to read an online manual.
Let them print whatever they need to meet their personal requirement. The price of everybody else's product shouldn't be driven up just to meet the needs of this small segment of the market.
Exactly. Decent duplex laser printers are not expensive any more, nor is recycled A4 laser paper, and nor are ring-binders etc. So if you want hard copy, make your own!
I can usually remember where something is in a printed book, plus/minus 5 pages, after I've read it once. In 20 years, I have yet to begin to develop the same ability with an online manual.
That's what "bookmarks" are for. And, when bookmarks aren't available, text editors make great "notepads" (shiver). I keep .txt files containing notes parked in the same directories as all of the fixed, published documents I have and I've done this for many, many years. It is very effective. [snip]
There's also the "search" facility in acroread, for example. I often find using that a lot quicker than leafing through an index ... -- Bill