We’re working on new ways of getting donations. The idea is to make SD memory cards with Ubuntu Eee logos and Ubuntu Eee 8.04.1 preinstalled. You just stick it in your Eee and run Ubuntu Eee straight from there – without installing. You get more free space as you don’t need an OS on the hard drive / SDD and you’ve got yourself a nifty little Ubuntu Eee card.
Question
How should we distribute this card?
Solution 1:
You get a card if you donate X (50$ ?) or more
Solution 2:
We sell the card for production price * 2. So that you donate the same amount that it costs. The price will then be about 100$ 50$.
Please comment with your ideas and thoughts. Remember to not think about how you can get the SD card as cheap as possible, but how Ubuntu Eee can get as much donations as possible ;)
Do you like this idea? Would you buy it? Do you have a better idea?
Update: Thanks for the comments, but I need even more feedback! I’m thinking about getting these.
Positive? Negative? Why? 18-20 MB/s read speed for 14$ – seems a little too good to be true?
I have to get them to Norway to install Ubuntu Eee on them before shipping. That means we have to pay Norwegian tax (anything with a value above 40$ being shipped into Norway). Is it possible to have Ubuntu Eee be installed somewhere else? Any other workaround?
Related posts:
I’d rather have my Ububtu-EEE installed on my internal card anyway, since I use SD cards a lot for other purposes.
There should be a script that installs it or you could choose to run from SD – whatever you want.
Other than that I think donating for gift is a good idea, but one should be able to choose only to donate and not get any SD card if one want that. I’d go for that option, since I download from the web anyway and all of my donation then would benefit Ubuntu-EEE.
./nalle.
Thomas, the cards are 19 mb/s read, 7 mb/s write. This isn’t close to the internal SSD. It has been reported, however, that running Ubuntu from a class 6 SD card works great. Our cards are class 6
Hi. How is the r/w speed on the memory cards? Have you runned any tests (i.e benchmarks) to verify that the sd-card will perform at the same speed as the internal?
Thank you for your great work!
I am a little bit lost with that idea. Currently I am not in the position to “donate”. I also read here, that it is not necessary to donate at all. I understand that the SD card cost something, but shipping, custom is a big concern too. I can buy the card here too. (Don’t miss understand me, I just cannot donate at this moment).
Is it possible to make the card here? What is the trick to make the card?
I am also confused about “internal/external” card reader. Does it mean the card reader on the EeePC 901 right side is an internal or external?
Looking at the EeePC it is “internal”, considering that the SSD is in the box, than the right side is an external, …
The donation + gift seems the safest. The heating issue as stated would be a really big issue if people were to “buy” the cards, but if its a gift I think it would be a lot easier for you to explain that its an issue with the eee and not the card.
The stickers is ALSO a brilliant idea. I LOVE stickers, and a little “Ubuntu EEE inside” sticker on my eee would look amazing.
What about a 20$-49$ donation for a gift of a few stickers and a 50$+ for the gift card.
I think you could get A lot of stickers pumped out for a good price, and people love stickers…. especially if they’re shiny.
Jon,
I think $50 is a lot better. I dont believe everybody here in Brazil would buy it, but a lot may and will (myself included), but the points mentioned by Francesco are important, because not everyone will understand that donation plus gift is different from buying.
Bruno
I Live in Denmark, i can mayby do something?
This is a great idea. I’d definitely buy one.
Thanks for your comments and observations!!
@Xenon
Happy to help! Have you donated the 50 bucks yet? <— semi-joke ;)
@Dberg
Stickers – I hear you loud and clear! How about free sticker with your Ubuntu Eee SD card?
@Francesco Munafò
Great comment, thanks! Do you think it can be a problem connected with overclocking? Ubuntu Eee would have a hard time surviving a full callback / refund every card. That’s why I like the donate x and get a free card approach. Shipping is included in the price. Around the globe. Same price if you’re my neighbor and if you’re in Somalia. A padded envelope doesn’t cost too much
Hi. I think this is a great idea, but a bit risky on your side, for the same reason, I will explain.
SDHC cards tend to be problematic on many Eees. Google around for “eee SDHC issues” or similar. It seems to depend on temperature, as they starts warming, some Eees start having problems writing (but also reading I am confident) to many SDHC card models.
I have installed eeeXubuntu, full Gutsy, and full Hardy on my 3 types of SDHC cards (4, 8 and 16GB, classes from c2 to c6!) and had problems with ALL of them. The same cards run ubuntus smoothly if inserted into an external USB reader (and when the Eee is cold), just to clarify that it’s not installation or OS problems.
That said, if you find a card that is tested to run smoothly on *all* the EeePcs, you’d do a double favour to all of us: 1st it is a SDHC tested to run smoothly, 2nd it has Ubuntu preinstalled. So double gain, double advantage. Id buy it instantly.
But.. what if people start complaining that their smooth and cool “OsOnCard” starts freezing when the computer gets warm? Can you afford having thousands of people returning you “defective” cards (actually their computers are defective not the cards, but can you explain it)?
So the idea is great, just be careful in choosing the type and have it tested around A LOT..
If I were you, I’d go for option 2, that might let also users choose different formats like 4GB/8GB. They pay x2 and you ship the right one. Or you may start with one format and then, as the costs fall down, you migrate to a larger card. In the middle users may choose both. With option 1, one day there will be one last user that donates 50$ and gets a 4GB and the following user donating 50$ will get an 8GB.. someone might get angry. Or you may stick forever with 4GB but someday someone might start thinking that 50$ for a small card is too much.
P.S. how will you handle shipping to .. hem.. for instance, let’s say Italy? You will ship to Italy, will you?
Francesco
I’d rather pay for something like this: http://www.csv-direct.de/artinfo.php?artnr=A1710851&pva=geizkragen and it’s closer to Norway.
Hi, before jumping into those sd cards buy, I would recommend a quick look at the folowing url: http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-FAKE-FAKE-Kingston-4GB-50x-Elite-Pro-SD-cards_W0QQugidZ10000000002771721.
Now compare the picture shown in your url with this one http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/290/10393290.jpg and check the resemblances.
When I first saw the picture, I thought it resembled a product i had seen/had.
I would buy this for up to $50, just to save me from the hassle of trying to install it and make the card bootable.
I would pay a few bucks for just a sticker to put on my eee or on the sdhc I have in my eee that has the ubuntu-eee logo. (either a nice one fairly large (3X3?) to put on the front computer or a small one like the ones going on the sdhc)
Yes, Yes Take My Money, I want One NOW!!! Please….
Thanks very much Jon! :D I will try it tomorrow. I want to use the default Xandros on the 4GB and use another 4 GB SD for this great Ubuntu-eee ^^
Its possible good idea, but -for me- when I install on a SD card, the boot take 3 or 4 minutes… when I install it on the internal SSD disk the boot take only 1 minute or less !
But I think its a good idea because many people does not know how to install…
very good job this distro!
Thanks again for your comments!
@Xenon
Sure you can! Here’s a quick how to:
1. Install Ubuntu Eee on the SD card
2. Install the custom kernel (http://www.array.org/ubuntu/) on the SD card and make sure it’s the default kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst
3. In bios, set the sd card as default start up location
Voila!
@victoria
Thinking about 4gb. Could probably fit it on a 2 gb card, but then there wouldn’t be any space for swap. With a 4gb card you’ll get swap and 1,5 gb more free space.
I think its a great idea, since many asus users will be buying sd card anyways. What size are you thinking of using?
So it’s not possible to install it on a SD card just now? I wanted to do it today…
@Eberhard
True true
Will use a better, custom made kernel for the 8.04.1 release that will fix those problems :)
AFAIK hibernate does not work if running Ubuntu from SD (that is at least my experience) Also the installation on a SD does not work out of the box ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-eee/+bug/238780 ) . So there is more to do then just package and deploy.
Thanks for you comments!
@Mika
We’re interested in discounts ;)
@Burno
Seems that you’re right! Sorry about that!
A SD card is about 15 $ * 2 is 30$, but with shipping it’s probably 40-50$, not a hundred bucks.
How do you feel about this price?
Isn’t US$100 too much for third world countries?… it is almost half the price of the Eee PC itself… :(
The idea seems good for improve donations with sales, but the price is not attractive…
I want to buy it, plug it in, and then be happy with it. This is a great Idea, and I would definetly buy it.
I (and most non technical people) hate installing things, so this option feels allot less intemidating then trying to install and remove the current operating system.
I have a export trading company in china and sell SD cards to Europe and the US. If anyone can put orders to buy alot of them, we can get nice discount on them.