ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Hannie Dumoleyn <lafeber-dumoleyn2@xxxxxxxxx>]

To all,
Where do we go from here?
Finishing the last version of our manual, 14.04 LTS, was a real 
struggle. There were hardly any contributors to do the job. As you may 
have noticed, we did not start Utopic because we did not get enough new 
active contributors in time.
We would like to start a discussion on what to do next.

Is the manual useful to Ubuntu users?
Below you find statistics on the number of printed purchases and 
downloads of our manual.

How many active members do we have?
@ all, please let us know via this list if you are still interested in 
contributing as an author, editor, translator, screenshot editor or 
coordinator. After receiving your reactions, we can make up a list of 
all remaining ACTIVE members. We would also appreciate it if those of 
you who do not wish to continue contributing let us know of this decision.

Standard versions or only LTS versions?
We could opt for the publication of LTS versions (every 2 years) only. 
This means less work for a small team like ours, but it implies the risk 
of contributors losing interest.
@all: please let us know if, as an active contributor, you would prefer 
to contribute to all versions or only LTS versions.

How can you contribute?
By dividing the work in chapters and sections, contributors 
(authors/editors) can decide what chapter they want to work on. Some 
sections are very small, others are lengthy. If you want to contribute, 
but do not have much time, you can just choose a small section.
We also need author/editor coordinators. This will require more time. 
Let us know if you are interested.

Current situation
It is too late to start working on the Utopic version. In order to be 
able to decide what to do next, we urge all of you to respond to this 
email As Soon As Possible, but before October 17th.

Thanks,
Hannie

=================

Here are some statistics.

The number of printed book purchases since the beginning of 2014 (only 
showing the 13.04, 13.10, and 14.04 editions):

Erste Schritte mit Ubuntu 13.04 - 741
Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.04 - 63
Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.10 - 212
Getting Started with Ubuntu 14.04 - 56
Premiers pas avec Ubuntu 13.04 - 29
Premiers pas avec Ubuntu 13.10 - 120
Primeros pasos con Ubuntu 13.10 - 10

Here are the totals for the downloads (since the beginning of time):

Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04
 - English: 194,721
 - German: 47,899
 - Greek: 40,111
 - Dutch: 19,657

Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04e2
 - English: 91,472
 - German: 19,712
 - Lithuanian: 6,397

Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.10
 - English: 73,569

Getting Started with Ubuntu 11.10
 - English: 25,378

Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.04
 - English: 72,840

Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.04e2
 - English: 44,465
 - German: 33,481
 - Spanish: 28,668
 - French: 6,778
 - Dutch: 14,688
 - Slovenian: 449

Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10
 - English: 19,5683
 - French: 32,050

Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.04
 - English: 51,245
 - German: 26,676
 - French: 16,632
 - Slovenian: 1,941

Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.10
 - English: 76,883
 - Spanish: 17,503
 - French: 48,170

Getting Started with Ubuntu 14.04
 - English: 13,021