Do We Spend More On Linux Or Windows?

jmcneal writes with this chin-stroker: "My colleages and I have been debating this for a while at work: 'Do people spend more money on Linux Distributions or on windows?' The limited sampling we have is that users buy distros almost every six months, at full price, at retail outlets. We have only one person who has gone out and purchased Windows at a software outlet, the rest of us only get a new copy when we purchase a new PC, about every 1.5 to 3 years. Is this behaivior common? How much have /.ers spent on distro's vs Windows in the last 2 years?"

I know I've spent more money specifically on GNU/Linux distros than specifically on Windows, buying various boxed sets and books-with-disks, but when an operating system is part of an OEM package, some costs are hard to tweeze out. (Not to mention whether, and how much, Windows users would have to pay for the functionality of the nice free, Free software that comes with typical Linux distros. And that in a workplace, support costs more than the OS's initial purchase price.)

Comments

Not typical behavior. Anyway, you need Debian!

[Bruce Perens]

HP finds that most of its Linux customers download their Linux. We also find that Linux usage is consistently under-reported because the install happens after the sale, and the installation has no correspondence with a shipped unit of an operating system. This will probably change as the character of customer changes and more of them go for enterprise-quality support, as we ship our own load more often, etc.

I'll tell you what I'm doing on my personal system. Every day, I type

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

and my system is updated to the latest version of Debian. No charge, ever, and the software quality is best-of-class. I have my choice of "stable", the released version, or "testing", or "unstable", with "unstable" being the least tested (and the one I use) and "testing" being leading-edge packages but ones without show-stopping bugs. Over the past 5 years or so, I've really had only one situation where I had to stop and fix my system before I could get work done, because a package was badly broken. If I were running "stable" or "testing", I would have avoided that.

Thanks

Bruce

Re:Not typical behavior. Anyway, you need Debian!

[Imperator]

I'll tell you what I'm doing on my personal system. Every day, I type

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
and my system is updated to the latest version of Debian.

There's a program called "cron" that you might want to use to automate this. To learn more about it, try "man cron". No need to be ashamed about this advice; I was a newbie once too. Hope this helps.

--

Re:It depends...

[RickHunter]

Having been in the same situation a year ago, allow me to ask you this. If you want to learn Linux, why are you using Windows for your everyday work? If you're using Linux every day to get your work done (not even complicated things - just getting familiar with the text editor and some of the other common tools available), you'll find that it becomes much easier to use very quickly. Even if you avoud the config files initially - once you learn how to read (not access, read) man and info pages, they're easy. (Although the fact that Debian's config files are very well-commented helped a bit...)

Yeah, there's a learning curve. But if you don't jump back to Windows every time something starts looking difficult, you'll get past it fast.

-RickHunter

Re: 'set your own price' version

[mrpull]

You already can set your own price for Mandrake :)

Go to Mandrake's Donation Page and give them a buck or two. You can even specify a project you'd like to help fund.

my $.02

mr

Re:are all your friends retarded?

[mami]

My retarded half brain bought the boxed distros in the beginning, because I was too retarded to download all the stuff over a stupid modem.

Later my retarded brain became so sophisticated that I bought the boxed distros for the accompanying documentation to see which distro cares more about their customer's fullblown retarded brains.

Who would try to use the opportunity to write good handbooks for their distros so that potential clients would finally get cured from their retardism and be ever so grateful to become loyal supporters of open/free software ? That was THE
question which my heart desired to get an answer to.

Now I am cured and have a big, mellow heart. That's why I am still buying every disto I want to try out in a boxed version from my neighborhood computer store. I just fell in love with the idea that people work to keep the source code open and I think they deserve my support.

Actually I am proud to be a retarded supporters of companies, who support free/open source software and am quite willing to invest my couple of pennies in them.

If just the geeks would be as retarded as I am, the world of /. would be a much nicer place to live in.

Why people buy boxxed retail

[DaSyonic]

I can speak from experience. Sometimes we are caught off guard, and need a Linux distro on a machine with out network access, and didnt come prepared with the CD pack of various CD's (Find me a sysadmin that DOESNT have a cd pack of several free OS's and sunsite archives). I have found it quicker and easier to run into a best buy and get it there. So I alone have bought 2 boxxed sets before because of this, And I'm sure I'm not alone.

If it's a company you believe in, there's nothing wrong with buying the product that keeps them afloat.

Linux: Because a PC is a terrible thing to waste.

Do you count piracy?

[s20451]

Linux, by definition, can't be pirated, and I have spent essentially $0 on Linux. However, I know plenty of people who install Windows with all its bells and whistles, including Office, etc., who also spend $0. Of course these people aren't doint it legally.

I will reiterate a previously raised point ... MS's decision to crack down on piracy opens a window for Linux, since these people will be looking for a new free (as in beer) OS.