Slashdot Mirror

You can order disks here: https://www.osdisc.com/

If you go to OSdisc, you can buy the OS for $6, or a thumb drive for $15. I found OSdisc useful for getting a copy of TrueOS, since the PC-BSD guys ain't making them at the moment.

D is based on C...

I develop web apps in C (and postgresql on freebsd), including a forum for a site called tuxforums (shutdown a couple of years ago)... and they are just as fast as that forum... you hardly even have to try. GCC takes care of most of the optimizations.. you just have to avoid doing anything really stupid (as far as resources go)

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/index.html

Average page generation time for that page: 17ms
Average page gen time for the entire site: 58ms

The downsides of using C are that it's C.

The law defines a "copy" as one physical medium

Well that's a flaw right there. No that's now the definition The material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the copyrighted work is first fixed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

For computers the "phonorecord" standard applies i.e. a CD is automatically an aggregation. Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds embodied in the sound recording. Copyright registration for a sound recording alone is not the same as registration for the musical, dramatic, or literary work recorded. The underlying work may be registered in its own right apart from any recording of the performance.

  I.E. (we think) software is copyrighted individually and the complication / aggregation is also copyrighted and those are two different copyrights.

____

As for the bandwidth not being available I've lost you. If you don't use computers and just use phones then this conversation doesn't apply. If you use computers then mostly to use the internet on them (wifi or ethernet cable) you have a land connection based connection and aren't paying $10 GB. If you don't have a land based connection then go back to sneakernet, use the mail http://www.osdisc.com/

It would still be faster to download it, Canonical says delivery takes 5-6 wks

I wasn't talking about buying directly from Canonical. In another comment I mentioned an online store that ships within a week. Besides, it's not fun to tie up your phone line for 5 to 6 weeks.

The Windows GIMP installer is 16MB if that takes 5 hours to download

Add another 24 MB for the help file in one language, and you're up to 40 MB (2.5 hours). Further add throttling to 2 KB/s to allow e-mail and images-turned-off web browsing to be less horrible, and we're up to 5 hours again.

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

For what it's worth, there's even a legit reason for selling FOSS software: not everyone has easy access to high-bandwidth connections. Sometimes, it's a lot easier to just pay someone $5 to burn you a CD/DVD and ship it to you. Ubuntu is one of the few FOSS applications you can get a free copy of on disk straight from the source -- and even then, it can take weeks or months to get a copy.

If you want any other FOSS project on a disk, delivered in a timely manner, you've either gotta burn it yourself, have a friend do it, or find a 3rd party retailer like OSDisc. And for some people, the first two options aren't available.

But no company can make something and offer no help or support, period. That's not legal.

Really? What happened to selling things "as is"? What happened to the disclaimers that ship with lots of software? ("There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE"). Are the guys at OSDisc required to provide support for the linux distros they sell?

Yes, Vista is inferior to XP in many ways. Lots of new products are inferior to old products in many ways. If a company is done with a product, consumers do not have a right to force them to keep supplying it.

You're right, we have no right to force them to, but we have every right to let them know, loudly and publicly, that we really, really want them to.

It's not a matter of "We'll make whatever we damn well please, and you'll buy it because we tell you to". In a functioning market, producers respond to consumer demand. And consumers are demanding something other than vista.

Because unfortunatelly and for the embarrasment of the Linux community. Suse is hardly seen as a distro with good customer support.

However many Linux users are more than willing to spend their free time to help you out migrate.

First thing buy a few cheap Live-CDs to find out which distro picks up the wifi.
Check the wifi itself is OK.

There one of many online shops that sells cheap Linux CDs - like OSDisc.com
They cost about few dollars each.
Make sure you include a few classic Live CDs such as:

* Knoppix
* Kanotix
* Slax
* Mandriva - old name Mandrake (know to be good at hardware detection)

Check out forums:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/

Check out a Linux User group near you:
http://www.linux.org/groups/

If you end up liking Mandriva, their support is better and for a small subscription fee you can join their "Club" to get help.

Commercial distros such as Xandros specially and Linspire are known to have very excellent customer support. But I've never had direct experience this is what I keep hearing.

For Debian systems Libranet is known to have very good customer support also.

If all this is confusing, just make a list of what you need and I will try my best to help you out.

The CD costs money for users that don't have high-speed Internet access.

And how is that any different to using services like this for those people without broadband access who want to get hold of their favourite Linux distribution?

EduKnoppix
Gnoppix
NordisKnoppix
KnoppMyth
Augustux
Condorux
BitDefender
FeatherLinux
Flonix
Overckockix
Knoppix STD
Sulix

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?