Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 24881 2002-09-21 03:46:00 Linex for free. Drgee (1970) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
81636 2002-09-21 03:46:00 Geoff Palmer;
In October 2001, NZ. PC. World you wrote about "loving
the penguin",
I understood that Linux was FREE, what's happened to
the free variety? or is this not possible anymore? I'm really
curious to know, can you give me a site or sites to visit in
this regard,
Drgee (1970)
81637 2002-09-21 04:13:00 When you "buy" Linux, you are usually paying for packaging and distribution costs.

You can download most popular linux distributions from here (http://debian.paradise.net.nz/) free.

The basic operating systems tend to be free, or you can buy them in a pretty box, with a helpbook, and pretty CD covers, which can be preferable. To show support, you can also buy linux caps, T shirts and all sorts of products that support the webhosting, and related costs of getting this product to us.

Yes thats right, in essence, Linux is funded by an online school fair.. so long as the T's are sold, the free downloads will continue!
Chris Wilson (431)
81638 2002-09-21 04:23:00 I just noticed, you are in the same village as me.
If 13hour downloads on your cable modem dont appeal, i (of course) have multiple flavours of Linux i can copy for you.

13hours is about what it takes me to download per CD, on dial up i expect it would be about a day and a ½ per disk.

Most distributions are 3 disks

I also have noppix, which is a version you can run from your CDrom WITHOUT installing any operating system.... (haven't tried it yet though)
Chris Wilson (431)
81639 2002-09-21 06:48:00 http://www.xsolutions.co.nz is also a good option. I have dealt with this guy before, and he has always been fast and reliable. Alasta (1420)
81640 2002-09-21 07:03:00 Linux is free in that it is freely distibutable, and the source code is freely available. It is the source code which is free.

If someone takes that source code, and makes it into a pretty operating system with lots of cool programs, and utilities, writes thick manuals for it, spends money on packaging and advertising, and puts it onto a nice CD set, then you must expect to pay for it.

If you want to go online and download a copy, you are welcome to at no charge (except ISP fees).

Once you have Linux, you can do what you like with it, including copying it and giving it away. In this way it is free, but it is not free in terms of $$, just in copy restrictions.

G P
Graham Petrie (449)
81641 2002-09-21 08:11:00 Hi Drgee,

The next(OCT)PC WORLD cover disc will have the
Knoppix version of Linux on it according to The Powers?

It can be run on Windows I believe?

I am awaiting with interest!

Cheers,Kiwitas,;-)
Kiwitas (514)
81642 2002-09-22 03:24:00 The sensible way is to buy the CDs . . . Chris's offer is great, but his time must be worth something to him too .

xsolutions in Lincoln is good; Copyleft (http://www . copyleft . co . nz) in Dunedin also gives good service .

The "commercial" packaging by Red Hat, Mandrake, . . . , adds value: support, printed manuals, etc , but they are obliged by the terms of the licence to make the source of anything they add to the system, and the compiled code is also available free . That doesn't mean that they have to give away the media . It is available, for download . That can be a problem if you have a dial up connection, at 650MB per CD .

I have obtained most of my Linux versions on cover CDs of magazines . Many of the books about Linux come with a full installation CD too .
Graham L (2)
81643 2002-09-22 03:36:00 from the small taste of linux i've had i would buy it with the BOOKS .

very very handy to have a book to refer to . (yep that means i actually read the manual from time to time) :)
tweak'e (174)
81644 2002-09-22 05:18:00 Yes, I agree, you NEED those books. I bought an excellent book "Linux Unleashed" recently from the Warehouse (marked down to $25) recently and it has been a great help. :) Rod J (451)
81645 2002-09-22 08:53:00 With my experience of Linux. If all you want to do is install it on a bog-standard computer and use a GUI to surf the net. It's really simple provided that you have a gateway for the internet already and someone has already told you the startx command.

Other than that a book would be VERY handy.

*runs off to buy a book linux*
-=JM=- (16)
1