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I got mine in 1999 from Cheapbytes: http://www.cheapbytes.com/

Clicked on the link out of curiosity, got a splash screen that looked like it was designed in the 90s. (*) Anyway, clicked on the "Click here to enter the CheapBytes store" and I got...

Great Success !
Apache is working on your cPanel® and WHM Server

If you can see this page, then the people who manage this server have installed cPanel and WebHost Manager (WHM)

So are they still trading or is this just a zombie remnant? Guessing that their business would have shrunk quite a lot since the days when everyone was on dialup and you'd have had to be on crack to consider downloading even a CD's worth, let alone a DVD. (Used to order Linux discs quite a lot myself, haven't done it since I got broadband.)

(*) Come to think of it, old-style splash-screens-for-the-sake-of-it (and people thinking they were actually a good idea even when they were obviously just irritating corporate-ego "look at me" wankery that got in the way) are pretty 90s in themselves.

I got mine in 1999 from Cheapbytes:

http://www.cheapbytes.com/

Corel Linux FTW!

While I downloaded many .isos back in 1999 using download managers (there was no broadband in the dorms at Kunsan AB) I also tried plenty of distros via Cheapbytes, who are still around:

http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart

Yup, there were a bunch a long time ago, I used to order from them as well. The one I used the most was cheapbytes, http://www.cheapbytes.com/ , however there were a few other good ones too.

Does it come on a live CD?

How much will it cost the Windows PC user to run it?

For someone with a CD burner in their computer the cost to download and burn a linux CD is anywhere from 30 cents to 2 dollars.

If you don't want to download and burn it, you can get a linux CD for anywhere from free to 13 bucks

Free https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
$3.80 http://www.osdisc.com/
$5.99 http://shop.cheapbytes.com/
$6.05 http://www.linuxcd.org/
$6.30 http://linboo.com/
$13.00 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3937514775

Cheapbytes has survived selling distros for several years now. Purchased from them myself to have a complete set rather than downloading a couple DVDs. Generally speaking, they're a lot cheaper than $20 but, then, not so much on the pretty retail box and store distribution.

I can purchase 'Pink Tie Linux' from cheapbytes. So can Larry Ellison. If sites start contracting with Oracle to support their Linux, don't you think they could order a bunch of 'Pink Tie Linux' CDs from cheapbytes? Cheapbytes only charges $12.99 for the distro on DVD.

Get him something you'd want: http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/0670010002 .html

I think you're looking for CheapBytes

Alternate solution:

1) Pick any formfactor x86 PC you want, from small to "I have this obnoxious beige box hanging around";

2) Install a tuner -- USB, firewire or PCI

3) KnoppMyth (http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html)
3a) $4.99 from CheapBytes if you don't want to download and burn an .iso (http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/007001102 5.html)

3.5) Stay up all night browsing support forums, because the cheap Taiwanese IDE bridge on the "obnoxious beige box" you had hanging around is not on the Linux Compatibility List and nobody seems to have heard of it except for two people asking "how do I get this to work?" on the web archives of some old newsgroup list, neither of whom ever got an answer. Then try out several drivers to "similar" bridge circuits to see if you can find one that mostly works, before giving up and trying it on your laptop instead, just to make sure you can get everything else working before running out and buying a new system the next morning, only to find that your laptop runs everything fine, but with no sound. Then spend the half-wakeful following morning pondering whether you should go with a new PC made of carefully-selected Linux-compatable parts, or just go with a Windows or Mac solution.

4) Set up your universal remote

Done.

There. Fixed it for you.

(Mostly kidding... Linux hardware support is much better than it used to be. Still, I always look parts up before attempting to use Linux with them, because I've had far too many Linux install experiences along the lines of: "Generic 2-Button mouse!? What do you mean generic 2-button mouse!? It's a three-button-plus-scroll-wheel mouse from a top-5 name-brand manufacturer!" Ahh... good times, good times.)

Alternate solution:

1) Pick any formfactor x86 PC you want, from small to "I have this obnoxious beige box hanging around";

2) Install a tuner -- USB, firewire or PCI

3) KnoppMyth (http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html)
3a) $4.99 from CheapBytes if you don't want to download and burn an .iso (http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/007001102 5.html)

4) Set up your universal remote

Done.

When was the last time you needed to edit autoexec.bat or config.sys to play a game? That may have been true for you, but it won't be for your kids.

Though I suppose you could give them them this and a computer without an OS and tell them they have to get Linux running before using it to play games. Perhaps that'd be a little cruel, if you wanted to be really cruel you could just give them the source tarballs and not the book.

http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/os2.html?v ar_distribution=OpenBSD

$4.99 for just the OS, $12.99 for OS and packages.

Even if I hadn't known about cheap bytes, it would have cost me a whole ten seconds to find them with Google. But then again price never was why you haven't tried OpenBSD, it was just a nice point to whine about, wasn't it?

Linux doesn't really have this economic effect attached to it. Even if you buy a distro, you can buy the distro(s) made in your country.

I have no idea which country Cheapbytes.com has their CDs pressed in.

Think Geek: (Link already on Slashdot)
Amazon
eBay
Froogle
Graigs list
Koamart: For ramen.
Bevrages direct for caffine.
Ramen Depot also for raman but I prefer Koamart
Cheap Bytes for Linux related stuff (books, Linux distros, The Linux from Scratch book. Everyone must buy the LFS book. Forget Debian LFS is god
Easy Linux CDs Primarly linux trainning matereal.

Sounds like a lot of hassle. If you're on dial-up but want all the cds, I would:

a.) Get a friend to download/burn them and give/mail them to you.

b.) Buy a set from an online store such as CheapBytes. sets run about $18.

Either way, you'll end up with your cds without dumping hours of painful work into a plan which sounds infeasible. But you know, it could be fun.

And collectively [the WMA music stores] have about 10% of the market.

Another 10% being MP3 downloads from eMusic.com, MP3Tunes.com, etc., right? Besides, as people find that they can play music on a console that they already own for games, they'll be more likely to buy music from playsforsure stores.

Sony's rumored to be in talks with Apple right now

Where would a Sony-Apple deal leave Warner, Universal, and EMI?

up to this point nobody ever, ever uses a game console for anything but playing games. That's reality.

Darn right. Even if your console does have a DVD player built-in (like the PS2), you still can't play a DVD on one TV and a game on another. Might as well go with the GameCube, which costs the same as a PS2 minus the price of a low-end DVD player, which you can use on a separate screen.

and as MS is currently the only commercial OS producer making a Media Center OS, they've pretty much got that market locked up.

By "commercial" do you mean "proprietary"? As soon as anybody starts to sell copies of the KnoppMyth distribution, KnoppMyth becomes commercial free software. But given s/commercial/proprietary/g, you have a point.

Except that it doesn't actually happen that way. If a company wants to distribute something enough, they *will* ask.

Nonono-

You don't understand-

You're talking about taking photographs, and then putting them online. If some magazine wants to use them, they pay you. Fair enough: The CC license with non-commercial is okay.

But that's totally different than the icons scenario. Here's why.

Let's say you have some icons for some GNOME project. Now lets say this little project wants to be in the GNOME distribution. And the GNOME distribution, in turn, wants to be distributed with, say, Red Hat, and Debian, and all these other zillion projects.

The little project isn't going to take your icons, because it's totally unfeasible that Red Hat is going to be tracking down the rights for all the little projects that live within all of the major projects.

It gets even goofier when considering something like CheapBytes, which sells Linux distros at only a couple dollars more than the price of the CD printing. We're talking major mom & pop here.

It's absolutely rediculous to think that they're going to to be phoning up all the people of the gazillion projects within the hoards of Linux distros that they sell, maintaining contracts, hiring lawyers, yadda yadda yadda.

So:

If you sell photographs, and you also release them CC non-commercial, then-- that's great! That's really cool! I totally appreciate that.

But, if you're someone who's making icons for use in Free Software projects (or whatever,) and you're confused why nobody's making use of them-- it's because of the reason I just gave above.

Why not order your distros on CDs from various companies that download it for you then burn it to CDRs?

They could also buy it for less from somewhere else (Cheapbytes? I don't know of any others.) I bought Mandrake 9 from them before.
Yes, I'm on dial-up.

You don't have to do that. All you have to do is call it Red Hat Linux and the boys at RedHat will come after you. Ask a business entity like this one who have to sell something they brand as 'Pink Tie Linux' because of RHAT's legal muscle.

The other day I was trying to install 'Pink Tie' Linux on a laptop, and every time the [CD] boot process got to /sbin/loader there would be a kernel panic. D'oh! Anyway, the cap-lock and scroll-lock were indeed blinking in what appeared to be Morse Code. Go figure. (I didn't try to record the characters, though.)

Not even if the price is on the order of those jewel-case only bargain-bin programs? Places like CheapBytes sell them for about that price (Gentoo is $8.99), or you can buy (most of) the non-profit distros' CDs from their own site for about the same price.

Well, you can buy a *BSD sampler at www.cheapbytes.com/
I don't know if they sell Linux samplers.

What's to stop folks from buying from Cheapbytes or other discounters?

First, some undisputable facts.

And now some helpful sites are found here

That's not piracy.

I checked out Cheapbytes to see if I could purchase a $1.99 version, but couldn't find any.

Cute, but show me a "Mandrake Upgrade Edition" or "Slackware Upgrade Edition" and maybe you'd have a case.

There is a severe price difference between Windows and desktop Linux distros... Therefore, there's no market demand for a "Mandrake upgrade edition"

I bought my first Mandrake distro as a closed box, because I wanted the manuals (and contribute with some money to their development), but all of my upgrades have been purchased here

It's a tradeoff I guess. You could always buy it on DVD for fairly cheap, but you'd have to wait for the release...

Wrong board. It's not (insert random character here)bCode, it's HTML. <a href="http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/0070 010833.html">cheapbytes.com</a>. Observe:

cheapbytes.com

Also, it's 1/100 of the cost of a SCO license, but no free shipping! ($5 for USPS)

It's called Cheapbytes.
Fedora Linux 1 Install Set

No one has actually bid on any of those. It's not technically a scam but there are better deals out there. When I buy, I use Cheapbytes.

I've seen old copies of commercial linux X servers out there for stupidly cheap prices, that have better support for the laptop video cards found in old laptops. example: metro-x for three bucks.

What if there was a place that could recoup costs by selling CDs (whether they be audio, or filled with MP3s) as sample music? Sort of like Cheapbytes.

Sounds like Pink Tie Linux ala Cheap Bytes

If you get Linux legally on cd in a format that a normal person can install, it costs more than Windows.

Picking the first one on CheapBytes.com:

Fedora Linux 1 3 CD Installation Set $6.99

Do you think it's an illegal CD?

The CDs are available from Cheapbytes, among others.

One consequence of the move to 'Fedora' seems to be that companies like Cheapbytes may (if I'm interpreting this correctly) be allowed to produce Fedora-branded CDs from the ISOs without having to jump through hoops to avoid calling them 'RedHat' .

I can guarantee you that you won't get support but it will be interesting to see how Red Hat goes about publishing updates since I somehow don't see some of their larger customers downloading and compiling source code and then rdisting the non-RPM, binary updates to their Red Hat systems. I'm guessing Red Hat won't really care since the people who would go to the trouble of figuring out how to make this work probably wouldn't cough up $1,499 or whatever it is anyway. There's always Mandrake, Debian, Slack, Red Hat's own Fedora, etc. for us cheap bastards.

Or Cheapbytes. That's a pretty good site. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck.

Copying myself from OSNews . . .

From http://fedora.redhat.com/about/name.html:

The rules for using the Fedora trademark will be generally more permissive than the rules for using the Red Hat trademarks. The separate name and trademark are necessary in order to have different rules for using the trademarks. The rules for using the "Fedora" trademark will be available before the first release of Fedora Core.

I wish Red Hat weren't so non-committal here, but does this mean that instead of CheapBytes selling Pink Tie, LinuxCD selling Blue Jacket, and OSDisc selling Red Tux, every third-party CD Vendor will just call it Fedora?

No. As mentioned elsewhere, that feature was removed with 3.2. 3.1 is still very available, (at CheapBytes.com for instance) but... uh... it's not 3.2.

I define broadband in terms of the total round-trip latency to fetch all bytes of a given object and the number of such given objects that can be pushed through the pipe. For the World Wide Web, my standard object is one 10 KB HTTP download followed by five possibly-simultaneous 10 KB HTTP downloads followed by two possibly-simultaneous 10 KB HTTP downloads (e.g. HTML -> CSS -> page background images, or frameset -> HTML -> images), and because of the round-trip latency inherent in communication with geostationary satellites, v.90 can be as good as or better than satellite Internet access.

For downloading an operating system, on the other hand, the standard object is a 640 MB HTTP download, quantity one to three. Because of the high volume of each object, latency is affected by total throughput more than by first-byte latency. Downloading three 640 MB .iso files through v.90 up USPS down can be much faster than downloading them through v.90 up and down because USPS parallelizes more efficiently.

Wrong agian. Please try to base your arguments on facts. You can redistribute RH and mirror it, I can give the ISO's to as many people as I want. I can buy one copy and give it to 100 people. You can even make a Red Hat Clone, you just have to remove their copyrighted logos. You can go to cheapbytes and get a Red Hat 9 clone called Pink Tie 9 for $18. The only thing you pay Red Hat for is support and to use their Red Hat Network to manage upgrades, etc. The Anaconda installer is GPL and infact for a long time Mandrake was just a re-done Red Hat distribution.

Can order CDs from cheapbytes most of the distros they have are less then $6.

try CheapBytes.

And why can't you find them at places like Cheapbytes or any other CD vendor? Oh yeah, I forgot, they are a bunch of control freaks marketing closed source software. They don't get it and will never be as easy to get, deploy or use. My bad, what was I thinking?

Before I had DSL, it was a mail-order show to get a new distro. Well; big deal. It takes time for boxed sets to reach the stores, it takes time for silver ISOs to be shipped out. Point is, even if all distro makers were to abandon the cardboard box, companies like CheapBytes (only plugging since I've dealt w/ them numerous times in the past) will be happy to step in and take the money being left on the table.

buy a box regularly: the "big-bang" upgrades make this more or less compulsory, at least as long as downloading and burning cd-sized ISOs is still a pain.

That ended in May 2001, right? Is it actually bothersome to download an ISO anymore?

If for some reason your network can't pull down 2100 megabytes overnight, then just ask a friend with a cablemodem to send you some disks. The friendless can even order those CDs online, for between $2-3 per disk.

The tricky part is that "Red Hat" is a trademark, and the company has stopped ISO resellers from putting that label on their wares. To buy cheap R3dH@t discs, try CheapBytes or Edmunds. Or many others.