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Best Buy Is Selling Ubuntu

Posted by kdawson on from the but-wait-you-also-get dept.

SirLurksAlot writes "It appears that Best Buy is now selling Ubuntu, both through its Web site and in its brick-and-mortar locations. Going by the release on the product page, Ubuntu has actually been available for the low, low price of $19.99 since May 6th of this year. It is being packaged as the 'Complete Edition.' While they don't specify on the site what version is being offered, a quick call to a local store revealed it to be Hardy Heron, the latest Long Term Support version. How did this development fly under the radar for over two months without anybody noticing?"

4 of 656 comments (clear)

  1. Great news! by Daryen · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If you have friends or family with an older PC that aren't very technically skilled, chances are it's a Windows PC and it's infested with malware. More than likely, they have a CD burner but don't know how to use it, or their computer is so slow it won't even burn CDs. Sometimes the PC will be running Windows 98, which is a bit of a security risk these days.

    .
    Why not have them get Ubuntu for $20 at Best Buy? The fact that you can buy it at a brick and mortar store increases it's apparent validity as an operating system, and it has open office and firefox right out of the box, so the functionality they're used to is still there.

    Another point: Why not buy a copy of Ubuntu yourself to drive up support for Linux? If sales analysts see that X number of Ubuntu boxes were sold from Best Buys than it's likely we'll see more and more vendor support for linux coming out.

  2. Best Buy review by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Customer Rating: 5.0

    Worth every penny and then some 07/08/2008
    By StarReviewer from Moronville, KY Read all my reviews

    Pros: Cheap, includes office software, robust
    Cons: Doesn't come in Ultimate and Premier editions

    "I could go on and on, but Ubuntu Linux is the way to go. I have been using Windows XP for at least 3 years and when Vista was released, I went and upgraded to Vista Ultimate.
    Even though Vista Ultimate has some really good features, I had to purchase Office software separately. Total cost of software: ~$1000.00!
    That is when I said enough is enough I need to look for a new Operating System. A friend of mine pointed me to Best Buy's site and send me a link to Ubuntu. I purchased the OS and also Installation by Geek Squad for only $150.00. Even though I paid $170, I can tell you the included software was worth it. It includes office productivity software similar to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Not only that, updates are free. Which means when they come out with a new version of Ubuntu, I don't have to pay more money - which I gladly will if I had to!
    I would highly recommend this product. My only question is why doesn't it come in different flavors? I would be willing to pay for features like Media Center and stuff like that.
    --Grateful computer user."

  3. Re:It flew under the radar by srussia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    5. [pure personal intuition] Nowadays, mouth-to-mouth is still the best way to spread Ubuntu, or any Linux distro, and hey, the initial mouths know where to get it, and that won't be Best Buy. And that relates to your comment.

    Emphasis is mine.

    Either this guy is only telling women about Ubuntu, or I'm glad he didn't tell me about Ubuntu!

    I would guess that fgaliegue is a native Spanish speaker. "Word-of-mouth" is "boca a boca" in Spanish, literally "mouth to mouth".

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  4. Cool Ubuntu (Linux) Story by doomicon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This reminds me of something that happened this very week at work. Local Windows Admin came by my desk and asked me for a copy of Linux, he's never tried it, wants to start learning it and playing around. I give him a copy of my Ubuntu CD and he's off an running.

    He comes to me the next day disappointed. He continues to explain, "This sucks... I installed on my laptop with zero problems. First thing to tackle was an AIM client.. but it was already installed. So then I decided I need VNC for work, but it was already installed to, along with a terminal services client. Finally, I realized I needed a VPN client.. DAMMIT! It was there too! I heard all these stories about tinkering around and getting stuff to work.. I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT! "

    He then asks me if I have another version of "Unix" that is more difficult.

    Linux has come a loooooong way since I was playing with 1.0.xx kernels on Slackware.

    --

    Awesome!