[ILUG-BOM] Ubuntu/Debian/Gentoo and updates: bandwidth?

[sherlock at antispam]

On Tuesday 14 June 2005 22:56, Satya wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 10:09:28PM +0530, Rony Bill wrote:
> >All suggestions are most welcome. :)

> Let's say you have a business where you go around installing this
> hassle-free new computer system for people, 

which people. All are not equal.

> How do they get updates? These systems must be kept updated, at
> least once in 2 weeks, to do any good. 

Not necessarily. U as the knowledgeable vendor decides when your 
client needs an update. IMO critical systems (public access) need 
security updates maybe monthly or less depending on importance AND 
on what the competition is offering.such systems will have good 
bandwidth and remote updates from your repository will do a good job.

Most linux desktops actually need an update once a quarter. Good 
customer relations require at least a quarterly visit by your 
service engineer. So unless it's something critical, that is the 
update cycle. 

> The usual way to do it is to 
> point the system at an online package repository. Bandwidth and
> download limits in India cause this to be a big pain in the wallet
> -- no ordinary user is going to do it and many technical users will
> not want to.

Not if you want to maintain good CR. Doing the above pitches you 
against RH / Novell and makes your CR critically dependent on dialup 
/ cable / DSL.

> So, any solutions? A local package mirror is one, but you still
> have the last-mile link being a bottleneck. Update CDs that they
> can subscribe to, that Rony can have delivered once a month or so?

Ideal a quarterly update will cost about Rs.50/- per cd. *4=200 p.a. 
Great PR and the customer actually receives something in hand for the 
money he dishes out. Compare that with what M$ provides. 

rgds
jtd