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Did you pay for Linux, or did you download it for free?

Discuss Did you pay for Linux, or did you download it for free? in the Linux Help forum on Dev Shed.
Did you pay for Linux, or did you download it for free? Linux Help forum discussing topics including usage, troubleshooting, modules, and distributions. Linux is an open source OS, based on UNIX.
View Poll Results: Did you pay for Linux, or did you download it for free?
Linux was aquired for FREE (please see below comments) 13 59.09%
Linux was purchased (please see below comments) 9 40.91%
Voters: 22. You may not vote on this poll


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  #1  
Old February 22nd, 2002, 11:19 PM
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Question Did you pay for Linux, or did you download it for free?
Everyone touts the fact that Linux - any distribution - is free.

BUT - did you decide (or, did the company you work for decide) to 'get' Linux for free (via download, trade, swap, etc.), or did you (or your company, etc.) decide to purchase Linux?

I'm really interested to see the answers to this one!


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Just for the record, the company I work for purchased RedHat 7 (the server edition) for our web server.
Last edited by drgroove : February 22nd, 2002 at 11:22 PM.
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  #2  
Old February 23rd, 2002, 08:52 AM
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Should've had a third choice- both.

I've bought a few distros and I've downloaded a bunch too. I (or work) have purchased Mandrake 8.0 and Redhat 6.0, 6.2, and 7.1, and I've downloaded a few others too.

I think it's pretty important to give some money back to the folks that are developing these distros, but I'm very happy I don't need to buy a license for each and every machine I want to install on to be legal.
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  #3  
Old February 23rd, 2002, 10:23 AM
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I received all but one of my distros from books that I purchased about the OS. I purchased Linux-Mandrake off the shelf for something like $6.00 at a discount outlet to get started, and I got Red Hat 7.1 which I'm about to install out of a Red Hat 7.1 book.
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  #4  
Old February 23rd, 2002, 07:07 PM
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Our company bought SuSE linux for about $70. This is nothing compared to how much money we spent on MS, Macromedia and Adobe products though.. (take it times 500 about... and we are only 6 people!)
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  #5  
Old February 25th, 2002, 10:28 AM
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company suse buy
me first slackware now debian, mandrake-ppc free

more important: ximian gnome free - fresh apps almost every week!
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  #6  
Old February 28th, 2002, 02:46 PM
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since most linux distros are less than $100, i consider this kind of "pocket-money" for a company - you can install it on as many machines as you want.

if i download it and have to deal with burning the cdrs etc... if it takes me, say, 2 hours, sending our secretary to wall-mart buying it is much cheaper than the money i could make for our company in this time.

not talking about if i have to install a windows machine and reboot like 5-10 times till all drivers and software are installed...
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  #7  
Old March 1st, 2002, 06:25 PM
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Downloaded it =)
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  #8  
Old March 1st, 2002, 07:52 PM
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if you employer has a fat pipe to the net, like an OC48 in my case, then obviously you would download...
but i have also purchased it in the pass..
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  #9  
Old March 5th, 2002, 10:28 AM
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Polls are meaningless if not all poll answers are covered.

First time I used Linux was when I was a real newbie - I got it for free with some gaming magazine. I was about 14 or so then and didn't see any point in using it, so I deleted it again.

About a year ago, I thought it would be cool if I could use this packet sniffing program for this online game I played called EverQuest. It was only released for Linux, so I figured I'll give Linux a try again. That time I bought Linux (SuSE 7.1 Personal).

A few months ago, I thought I want a newer Linux distro, but it wouldn't really be worth the money to buy a new one, since I don't use Linux for extremely many things - it's still just a hobby for me - and new distro would only have a few upgrades which aren't all too significant to me of SuSE 7.1. I downloaded Red Hat Linux 7.2 and am now using that.

So basically, my answer to the poll would be: BOTH.
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  #10  
Old March 16th, 2002, 12:56 AM
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Both for me as well. Actaully if I wasn't so broke I would pay for distro's I don't even use. I might buy rh 7.0 and never use it only to use 7.2, just to support them. I agree it is well worth it.
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  #11  
Old March 22nd, 2002, 05:53 AM
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I downloaded the distro, and after spending a few coins I got it on three CDs. Still, now that I've used it I'd want to consider buying it. This is because when I burned the CDs, I got three. But I could get the distro on seven discs if I buy it. Haven't made up my mind yet.
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  #12  
Old March 22nd, 2002, 11:22 AM
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Talking I got it with a book
I was going to buy RH 7.2 for 12 US$ but got it free (3 cds wow) for 6 US$ with RH bible
If i had got some money and was living in or around a metro I had purchased it last year. Now I plan to buy the Pack from RH whenever I get The (Pocket full of ) money. I have now Mandrake on a cd which i got with a magazine.

I support loblaw, and I will surely buy Linux if I started using it for making $$$$$$(All u out there pray for this)

Nothing more to say
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Last edited by shleda : March 22nd, 2002 at 11:27 AM.
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  #13  
Old March 22nd, 2002, 02:11 PM
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I think the point of being open source is to pay for it if you make money from it, if you make money from it and don't volunteer and pay for it then I would consider that low down. But if you don't make money off it downkoad it and learn it. It's like free education and you pay it off when you have a job.




Also and advantage of purchasing it is the support. For personal use this may be pointless, but on a large network the support can come in handy =)
Nico
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  #14  
Old April 16th, 2002, 04:16 PM
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If that large network really relies on that kind of support it's better off that they should stick with Windows and don't bother with Linux.
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  #15  
Old April 17th, 2002, 06:42 AM
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I paid around £65 for Suse 7.3 pro. I've installed other distros from magazines, books in the past. The amount of software that I got with the distro is amazing 7cds and 1 dvd, 5 thick manuals and a bunch of Suse stickers I think that £65 is peanuts considering the amount of work that these guys put in on these distros. I agree with the idea that if you make money from it you should contribute to its ongoing development.

Cheers,

gdp
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