Well If you look at MS and many other companies there is that mentality of "Yea we no that product is trash but here is the new one, buy it and your problem is solved."

With open source one of the millions of programers in the world will fix it or add the needed update and it will be available for free.

The other thing is that it's just better software in most cases. The developers put what they want into it instead of having a few 9 to 5'ers patch it up enough to get it to retail.

I have to disagree oopicmaster. With Open Source anyone, even you if so inclined, can fix a bug or provide updated features. Closed source makes you dependent on the good will of the "greedy" corporation that controls the product. As has been demonstrated time and time again by Microsoft, they often don't fix bugs, forcing customers to buy the next version of their product instead. The Windows 98 line is an excellent example. 98SE was primarily a bugfix version with virtually nothing new added. Millennium Edition, which many people still call 98 Third Edition in jest, provided additional bug fixes and a few enhancements (mainly WDM support and some apps like Movie Maker). No service packs are available for WinME and support will be discontinued at the end of this year. Again forcing people to buy a new version whether they want to or not. With Linux gaining momentum, MS will have to come up with more compelling reasons for users to upgrade, or risk losing customers to a community where everyone supports each other. It's sort of ironic because that's how Windows started out itself, not with Open Source, but with a self-supporting community, which they've now replaced with service contracts and mandatory upgrade cycles. They made their choice, like RedHat, to cater to large corporations instead of "personal" computer users, and now have to live with the consequences. JMHO

Hey oopicmaster.... Just one question for you...
When was the last time you saw Windows for free?

Also just to let you know that the companies who make linux distros also make other porgrams that they sell for money.

One more thing. I saw this operating system on the internet, it says "linux based". But basically it's another linux distro. And it's not free.

I just hope that linux will be free at least untill year 3000.

i see you're not very familiar with the concept of marketing. i ask you consider, though, that hundreds of billions of dollars are spent in the US alone every year on advertising to get people to buy things they otherwise wouldn't buy. the success of those products often has very little to do with their quality, or else more people would buy organic food, for example, or better, safer cars instead of SUVs. and on and on.

>or is it tens of billions spent on advertising? well, it's at least somewhere in the billions.

Yes... with Open Source... I can fix a bug... But how many other bugs does my bug fix create?

Well, for EVERY version of Windows prior to XP... Thats when. FUCK... Ive got at LEAST 5 machines running NT 4.0..... GEEZ!!!!

Duh.... Linux is NOT free!!! For the average Shmo that feels the desire to install Linux.... That SHMO will have to BUY.... GET IT? BUY... a distribution from one of the Greedy jackasses (Redhat, Suse, etc) that decided to put a price tag on it... Geez! some of the folks around here are about as smart as a bag full of hammers!


The morons who think that Linux is ANY different that Windows from a marketing perspective... is all that Linux will ever need from a marketing perspective. Duh.... This ENTIRE board is Linux Marketing!!!! Just because your teeny mind doesnt recognize marketing when you see it... doesnt mean that it isnt MARKETING!!!!!

Its Just like if you have a well mixed drink, you dont taste the Alcohol...

If you have a well sung salespitch.... you dont realize that you are being sold to.


Now... what am I getting at? Easy.... dont believe the HYPE (public enemy)!

well, oopicmaster, either you don't know what you're talking about (make that "ranting about"), or else you are trying to be intentionally inflammatory. the truth is that there is more to linux than Red Hat and SuSE. no one has marketed anything to me or ever forced me to give any money to run linux or gnu software, and the money i have given for slackware has been completely voluntary, of my own FREE will, because i believe the software is worth the money and not because i had to pay money to use it legally. and as for linux in general, the fact is that "free" can partly mean "free as in free beer," at least for right now as well as for the foreseeable future.

There's a difference though.

Lets say a guy is being paid to write some program he really isn't all that interested in. He's doing it just to get paid.

But a guy working on an Open Source project most likely is doing it because he decided that it's something that he actually is interested and will devote his time towards.

And companies don't neccesarily do what's right for the users to keep the dollars rolling in... they do whatever they can to keep the dollars rolling in. They may put out a product that's "just good enough" for the average person but could easily be better. In that case, the money would come in and they'd put out a mediocre product.

A linux distrobution doesn't have to be free. They just have to provide the source code (assuming this is a gnu-based linux distro which I doubt there's many that aren't).

Depends on if you suck at coding or not.

Huh? So you're saying that because you've got computers running Windows NT, that Windows NT was free? What the hell are you talking about?


Strange, I've never paid for any linux distribution. Originally I got Redhat ISO's from a guy on our school's computer server (and you can find ISO's for most of the major distro's just by doing google searches). And I've installed versions of BSD. And now on my computer at school I'm dual-booting WinXP and VectorLinux which I got for free. Well I guess you could say I got it for 30 cents because of the cd I burned for it. But that's nitpicking.

"Originally I got Redhat ISO's from a guy on our school's computer server (and you can find ISO's for most of the major distro's just by doing google searches)."

Or visit http://linuxiso.org

Probably also worth noting that when you buy a boxed set, typically there's a 'value add'. Could just be some sort of installation support and printed manuals, or maybe its some super-duper special purpose server edition or something. If you don't want the value add and don't want to download and burn yourself (heck of a long download over dialup) you can buy just the cd's for a few bucks, if not from the vendor then from somthing like http://almostfreelinux.com/ (and I'm sure there are others). And it's all legal, unlike 'free' windows.

Hey! Use cdrw's and you can overwrite them when you decide to upgrade.


Linux is the kernel and it's not even for sale. Check kernel.org, there is no way to buy the kernel at all. The OS is GNU and it's not for sale either, same story.

Companies that put the package together and support it can charge for that. Anyone can put their own together for free if they are so inclined.

Windows is not free, if you stole it from MS then that's up to you. GNU/Linux is totally free.

What are you saying? That your using illegal copies?


Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, etc., etc. ALL can be downloaded for free.

HI guys,

The reason i still have WinXP on my comp is that i need the voice chat of the yahoo manager. if i can substitute it, that would be great.

but i must say, LINUX ROCKZ!

see ya

I use Linux and Linux only! Proud of it too. I can run games on Linux through WineX, DosEmu, and there are actually a lot of pretty good games running natively on Linux, some even open-source. Ever heard of Cube? Oh, and I never paid for Linux. Got my first ISOs from linuxiso, and eventually used Knoppix to install an LFS system. Now I have my own distro, which is free like talking beer.

We should chnge this thread to " Linux is great but can we live without Red hat " my answer is NO I COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT RED HAT, I live without Windows, and I'm happy to also live without Mandrake, rating Mandrake I would put in same the classe as Windows 98, as Windows is far better than MDK 9.1 or 9.2 MDK 9.0 was much better than 9.1 or 9.2, but try Red Hat 8.0 or 9.0 that is the best, well I will bet testing SuSe soon, so that I can not comment on..