Forwarded message:
It pains me to often be the one who throws cold water on what seems to be a good idea, and what comes from a well-intentioned person. But I have to call 'em as I see 'em. And maybe I'm wrong. But here are my thoughts.
You know you love it...;)
1. The CD-ROM "freezes" the various programs, archives, etc. at the moment the files are finalized and the CD-ROMs are pressed (or burned individually on a CD-R, at somewhat higher per-copy price). If the author of the CD-ROM is not committed to updating the CD-ROM at frequent intervals--say, every few months--then the programs will exhibit "version decay" and be nearly useless. The next point is the reason.
I do soho consulting and I help provide several of my customers with software of various nature. One thing I have come to realize is that they are not interested in being in the fast lane. They are secure in knowing that the software behaves in a predicible way (not necessarily designed that way either). A large part of this attitude is based in their not being computer anything sorts. I find CD's a great way to keep libraries of old software that sometimes comes in handy.
2. The Web does a better job at making the latest versions instantly accessible. True, a CD-ROM will generally have faster access, but I care more about getting the _latest_ version of PGP, even if takes a minute or two to snarf off the Web. That I could get an _older_ version of PGP in fractions of a second off this CD-ROM is not compelling to me. (And fractions of a second is too charitable: in actuality, I'd have to locate the CD-ROM, dismount anything already mounted, mount the CD-ROM, search it for "PGP," etc. Probably not even faster than using Alta Vista and downloading.)
Yes, except it is much easier to track my access to the web than my CD-Rom.
4. The Web approach allows powerful search engines, links from other pages, and--importantly--multiple jurisdictions. The PGP could come from the U.S., the Digital Postage code from Sweden, and so on. And, again as noted in # 1, the developers could keep improving and iterating the code.
CD's are great advertising.