Just had a thought that it would be megacool for Haiku R1 to have a big box release styled a little something like this
Maybe even include a manual and a extra DVD with bonus content like wallpapers and software too, that’d be even cooler, I would definitely be down to buy something like this.
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R1 would deserve nothing less. Though I don’t know who would “buy” a boxed release of a FOSS OS, and it would have to cost money to cover the cost of the packaging. But having a few made for a limited run would be great, I’d buy it for sure.
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Would be trickier to get these made as they aren’t standard anymore (the last few years of boxed software moved to boxes roughly the size of DVD cases). The remaining old BeOS users would probably buy one to go alongside their BeOS era ones though.
The full install image is only marginally larger than a CD currently - even a DVD with a huge amount of haikuports content would probably still have space on the same disc for susbtantial amounts of wallpapers etc.
I definitely want a R1 box!
It would also be nice a special limited luxury 2-disc box including both 32 bit and 64 bit editions, would it? (I would buy this, no doubt)
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I completely fail to understand why anyone would need or want this but if it benefits the Haiku project I’m all for it 
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Surely no one will need it, but why would people not want it?
It’s just a cardboard box. It’s not hard to get a cardboard box printed, but we’d have to print probably at least a 1000, for example here: Dozen ontwerpen en bestellen | kleine & grote aantallen | Packhelp
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There’s probably many reasons for wanting it, I don’t know … maybe it’s just been too long since I had an operating system come with packaging, or even on a physical medium.
Most likely I’d order one anyway to celebrate the release of R1
A big box Haiku R1 release could be valuable to Haiku and BeOS enthusiasts, software preservationists, collectors, and eventually museums.
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I think they’d rather preserve the digital release, that’s a bit easier to do.
Definitely it will be interesting for collectors, and possibly also people who want to support Haiku by buying something instead of just donating.
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Maybe someday, the Computer History Museum would have an exhibit with BeOS on a BeBox next to a machine running Haiku R1, with some text about how awesome open source is.
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I’d buy one for sure. It would be great if it could come with a DVD box and a USB disk! You can get things like this, for example:
I guess a printed user manual would be too much to hope for, though!
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Current full install disc, I’m willing to assume R1’s install disc will be larger than what B3 is right now
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I would be absolutely astounded if it came close to breaching a single layer DVD in size.
Do a Kickstarter type presale
The presale is the easy part.
Who will store the 1000 boxes, fill them with the dvds (and printed manual, I guess), and then ship them to various parts of the world?
Should we do it ourselves, or outsource the work? If we outsource, who will do it? How much will it cost? Will there be enough QA control?
We’ll have to figure all of this out as we approach R1. And we didn’t even bother to do dvds for the last two beta releases.
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Has anyone bought/assembled a PC in the last decade with an optical drive? PS> I’m not looking for a show of hands.
Other memerobilia like special t-shirts, plastic figurines, mugs/mouse pads and even pens are in my opinion (however weird) more appropriate in 2022.
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Thumb drive, manual, poster, stickers and pin.
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Just outsource it, take a percentage and move on.Have the marketing team handle the co-ordinatian
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Look, I wish it were that easy, but last time we tried with DVDs and USBs it wasn’t so.
One company we approached wanted a $100 USD a month (!!) shipping fee or something like that, and we still weren’t sure whether the disks/USBs we wanted to order from them would actually boot with Haiku in them!
That’s the issue with USBs/disks, really. Since Haiku is an operating system we need to ensure that the ISOs we load onto the USBs/disks are done so that a computer can boot directly from them: from what some services imply they simply just copy some files you choose onto a USB/disk and I don’t think that makes it bootable.
And then there’s the whole thing with packaging, including manuals etc. Who will design packaging, the manuals and print them? We’d need to setup a whole supply chain and have manufacturers talk to each other which seems like a huge task.
As with things that others have mentioned such as T-shirts, mugs, mousepads etc., we thankfully have Freewear so as R1 gets closer we can organise for people to submit designs etc. and we can have them sold on Freewear.
If anyone has any idea on how we can make USBs/disks work please let us know, I’ll try and keep looking for potential solutions too.
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It is always easy to buy, but difficult to sell…