The project is uninterested in advocacy, or increasing the user base, unless that drives revenue, perceived as CD sales.
You could propose an alternative revenue stream -- such as a USB stick delivery system to replace or sell in adjuct to CDs. You would need to overcome the following five fairly difficult obstacles. As I see it, these are:
- It must be simultaneously bootable on all of the architectures currently bootable with the 3-CD set.
- The release engineering effort must be automated, and provably negligible.
- Packaging must still include the artwork and stickers and such in a form suitable for bookshelf storage. A large number of people who purchase the CDs do not actually use them, the discs and packages are mementos of their support.
- Manufacture, profit margins, costs, shipping, and storage must all be equivalently similar -- the vendor must pre-load the sticks, and the costs then borne by the project and users, and the profits made by the project must be in line with CD sales.
- Theo.