The Free Linux Disk project has been working away quietly. We have received the Mandriva One disks from Mandriva, thank you Walt. The Bid Daddy Tux fundraiser has been a great success so far, we are almost at our target.

Jeff Moe from BLAG has made a generous donation to our latest fundraiser. The fundraiser was started to help the project purchase some CD/DVD duplication equipment. Jeff has generously donated $1025 USD. This donation has allowed the fundraiser to make a huge step forward. We are not far off from being able to produce Free Linux Disks, hundreds at a time. Please help us succeed and contribute to the fundraiser.

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It is with great delight that I announce the first bulk shipment of free Linux disks from the Free Linux Disk project. This shipment will put Linux into the hands of people from around the world. This would not have been made possible without support from the contributors, the sponsors, and your donations. A huge thank you to everyone that continues to help and make the project a success.

I would like to give special thank you to the project contributors. They have shipped over 1000 requests at their expense. They are a tremendous help to the project and their efforts are very much appreciated.

This shipment is our largest shipment so far, but we still have thousands of requests to fill. We just cannot keep up with demand. The project is looking for ways to create disks at a faster pace. One of the best ways to do this is to acquire some CD/DVD duplication equipment. So, we have recently announced the “Big Daddy Tux” fundraiser for this equipment. The price/bonus pools for the fundraiser are of great value and they continue to grow.

It has been a tough time to put this first truly bulk shipment together. We have faced many obstacles, but we continue to step up and face them as best as we can. The generous help from so many people has made it so much easier. If you would like to contribute to the project, please visit the contribute page and the Big Daddy Tux fundraiser page. We look forward to our next shipment.

PS - I hope you like the pic, we decided to try to get creative with some of the disks before we sent them out.

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Update: Mandriva has of offered some goods for the prize/bonus pools.

If you are not familiar with the Free Linux Disk project, please visit this page.

The project is currently facing a production capacity problem. We just can’t keep up with demand. We can currently produce 60-100 requests a day. Our contributors have been producing an average of 5 requests a day. We have 20,000 requests to fill. That means it will take 307 days to produce these requests. That’s a long time, too long. We need to find a way to pump out the requests at much faster pace.

The solution
There are a couple ways we can speed up production.

First, there are many companies that will duplicate disks in bulk. But the down side is, this will cost 4 times as much as option 2. Option 2 is to purchase automated duplication equipment to make the production much faster. We like this option as it is the most cost effective solution resulting in more requests being produced for cheaper (a win/win). The current demand is 400 to 500 requests a day. We have done the research and we believe the rImage 2000i machine would fit the projects requirements perfectly. This machine costs $4500 CDN after taxes and shipping.

The need
We will be sending the first truly bulk shipment of requests on Tuesday (Watch the news page for an announcement). We are using most of the existing funding to produce this bulk shipment. As a result, we are announcing the “Big Daddy Tux” fundraiser. The rImage 2000i will become the father of thousands of Linux disks. So we think Big Daddy Tux is a fitting name. The fundraiser is also looking for people or compaines to add to the prize/bonus pool.

The fundraiser
The goal is to raise $4,500 to purchase “Big Daddy Tux” in order to meet with the ongoing demand for Linux disks.

Raised to date: $2591.51 (last updated on Jan 14 at 8:00am EST)
Big Daddy Tux Fundraiser Goal: $4,500

If you have anything you would like to add to the bonuses, please email us.

Prizes/Bonuses

$1 to $49
Get listed on this page

$50
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

$100
1 month free advertising on the project’s website
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

$250
3 months free advertising on the project’s website
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

$500
3 months free advertising on the project’s website
Your logo or url printed onto 10,000 requests
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

$1000
1 year free advertising on the project’s website
Your logo or url printed onto 20,000 requests
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

$4000
Life-time advertising on the project’s website
Your logo or url printed onto 100,000 requests
Mandriva One Disk from Mandriva.com
Get listed on this page

The contributors
All contributors to this fundraiser will be listed here (Unless they have asked to remain anonymous).

$1,095.71 - Jeff Moe
$500 - TheLinuxStore.ca
$100 - www.sportsdot.org
$50 - Henry Laxen
$50 - Adam Storey
$50 - John Campbell
$50 - See Yen Goh
$50 - Michael Chrosniak

Fernando Morgado Leitao
Ramani Yamajala
DominateVideos.net
Sathia Musso
Gary Lomax
James Fysh
Martin Albisetti
John Anderson
Scott Lopez
Bruno Alves
Jonathan Hull
Jeremy West
Michael Castellon
evanp on eBay
Dave Shanker
Jesse Maupin
Matt Horning
Andrew Davidson
Gareth Evans
Adam Reiswig
Ruth Shepard
Jan Klopper
Juan Taveras
ID Computing
TDI Computer & Networks
Patrick Mariano
Clyde Beeler
Martin Volesky
BaySearch.net
Chris Cole
GILAD BLUMBERG
Marcel Kamps
Steven Houston
Richard Andrade
Alexander Bos
Peter Hart
Good Things Services
Javier Derderian
Brian Mayo
Tyler Tompkins
Andreas Fischer
Tom Gruben
Jordan Brown
Gary Stewart
Carlos Marcano
William Gong
Chris Wagner
William Dika
Yuanhua Yang
Brad Pitcher
hacker not cracker
eBay Critical
Marco Pepiciello

A HUGE thank you to everyone that is donating. We will continue to update this list as more donations come in. Last updated on Jan 14th at 8:00am EST

Read about our first shipment here.

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The Free Linux Disk project has registered 2 new domain names, www.freelinuxdisk.com and www.freelinuxdisk.org. We felt it is important to move the project off the thelinuxstore.ca domain. TheLinuxStore.ca is a sponsor and currently they are the project leader, but the project is an entity on its own. Also, hosting the project at thelinuxstore.ca may have given the wrong impression that the project is completely funded by TheLinuxStore.ca. Although they do provide some funding, the project is primarily funded by donations and sponsorships from other companies and individuals.

You can now reach the project at 3 URLs:
www.freelinuxdisk.org
www.freelinuxdisk.com
free.thelinuxstore.ca

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We have been receiving many emails lately from people wondering why their requests have not been shipped yet. This post should answer that question.

The Free Linux Disks project was started to help spread Linux disks around the world, especially to those on dial-up or limited internet connections. There are some things we should have done differently when we launched the Free Linux Disks Project. At first we accepted all requests into the system and we received almost 10,000 request in the first few days. During this same time period we only received about $300 in donations. The website has now been modified to only accept a limited number of requests a day.

We have also had difficulty finding paying sponsors. TheLinuxStore.ca is currently the only paying sponsor. Remember, donations and sponsors is what fund this project. We have about 5% of the funding needed to fill all the current requests. We underestimated the number of requests we would receive but we also anticipated more financial support from donations and sponsorships. We have also started a contributor program that will enable other people to send out linux disks on behalf of the project.

We started off with a rough start, but we are confident the project can be successful. With the new contributor program in place and with TheLinuxStore.ca soon to be providing additional funding, the project will be moving forward and sending out more Linux disks soon. If you would like to sponsor the project or send a donation, please visit the contribute page.

If you have requested a disk, please be patient as we raise more funding to pay for your request. If you can and wish to, you can always fund your request directly. You can also cancel your request at anytime by visiting the cancel request page.

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The Free Linux Disks project is starting a contributor program. This program will enable others in the community to help distribute the thousands of requests we receive a week. The program is very new and we are still working out all the bugs. The contributor sign-up page is now online. We hope to have the administration side of things completed by August 11th.

Interested in becoming a contributor? Sign-up now

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Due to overwhelming demand for free Linux disks, starting on August 3rd, we will temporarily limit the number of requests we will accept a day. The project is still in need of about $50,000 in additional funding to fill all the current requests. We grossly underestimated the amount of requests we would receive and the amount of funding we would receive. We have raised some funds via donations and sponsorships, but the current funding will only fill about 5% of the requests.The word has spread far and wide to users about the free Linux disks available via this project. But not far enough into the Linux business community. Not far enough to attract some big sponsors.

If you will be attending LinuxWorld, please tell the vendors about this project. I am unable to attend this year’s conference. I am using all available time and funds to fulfill as many requests as possible. I am confident there are many people in the Linux community that can help spread the word to the vendors at LinuxWorld. Please contact us if you will be attending and you are willing to help.

If you have requested a disk, you can ease the funding issue a little by paying for the cost to fill your request. You can do so when you check your status. When you check your status you will be shown the cost to fulfill your request and a PayPal Buy Now button. The cost to fulfill your request includes the media, packaging and stamps/postage. We add a very small amount to pay for the infrastructure needed to keep this project going (web hosting, CD/DVD duplication equipment, etc). It is not the goal of TheLinuxStore.ca to profit from this project. Our goal is to spread Linux disks to users around the world that are interested in Linux but do not have the means to obtain it themselves.

You can also help by donating. You can send donations online using PayPal or MoneyBookers. We have also setup a post office box for you to send cheques and money orders. A post office box keeps your mailings safe and sheltered indoors. We have also setup a bank account dedicated to this project. You can deposit donations directly to the bank account. You can also send donations using Western Union. 100% of your donation is used to fulfill requests.

Together with support from the community, we are confident and determined to fulfill every single request.

Here are some statistics on the requests:

Top 10 Countries
3537   United States
1790   Chile
1210   Argentina
1005   China
949   India
775   Spain
741   Mexico
709   Russian Federation
669   Bulgaria
547   Canada

Top 10 requests disks
5462   SUSE 10.1, 32-bit, DVD
3133   Fedora Core 5, 32-bit, DVD
2223   Debian 3.1, 32-bit, DVD
1549   Mandriva 2006, 32-bit, CD
1311   Knoppix 5.0.1, 32-bit, DVD
1207   Gentoo 2006.0, 32-bit, CD
623   SUSE 10.1, 64-bit, DVD
473   Knoppix 5.0.1, 32-bit, CD
324   Fedora Core 5, 64-bit, DVD
243   Debian 3.1, 64-bit, DVD

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BLAG has now been added to the Free Linux Disks project. The BLAG project has volunteered to fully sponsor the costs of any requests for BLAG. If you are unfamiliar with BLAG, here is an quote from their site:

blag is a single-cd distro with everything desktop users “expect” from a desktop, plus a collection of nice server apps. BLAG50000 (grass) is based on Fedora Core 5 and uses packages from Extras, FreshRPMS, Dries, and ATrpms. It includes all Fedora updates as of time of release.

Thank you for your support BLAG.

If you wish to sponsor or help the Free Linux Disks project, please check out our contribute page for more information.

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Linux Magazine is the Free Linux Disks project’s newest website sponsor. Linux Magazine is full of many useful articles with the latest and greatest information from the Linux community. Check out the latest issue, many articles are published online for free. Thank you for your support Linux Magazine.

If you wish to sponsor or help the Free Linux Disks project, please check out our contribute page for more information.

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The Free Linux Disks project website has relaunched with a new design. The old design was very disorienting and many people could not find what they were looking for. The new design is much more clean and easier to navigate. The site is also now available in Russian and soon in Bulgarian, Chinese, French, Gujarati, Italian, Persian, Polish, Spanish and Swahili. If you can translate into any other language, please contact us.

Some people have expressed an interest in donating by bank transfer. We will have an account available very soon for you to deposit to. Watch the contribute page for details. Paypal, Moneybookers and Cheque or Money Order donations are already available.

Thank you everyone for your continued support as we move toward our first shipment of Free Linux Disks.

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