"No thanks, I got Linux."

shizz

So there's an interesting idea going around about donating the equivalent price for Windows 8 to your favourite Linux distro or opensource app.

Seen a thread on the ubuntu forums here, through there are links to the original thread and various blogs supporting it.

Windows 8 will be unleashed, Kraken-like, on an awaiting public on Oct. 26, which is this Friday. For US$79.99 — let’s just round that up to US$80 — one can get the latest version of the Windows operating system which, by many reports, is not ideal yet not as bad a some of the other products Redmond has forced upon the public in the past.

A CrunchBang user with the handle merelyjim posted this thread on the CrunchBang forum under the title, “No thanks. I got Linux” where he thinks that this $80 can be better spent elsewhere — like on your current distro or your favorite FOSS program.

If I had the money to spare I'd seriously consider it. But I'm not sure Ubuntu would benefit from a donation as much as some other distro's.

What do you guys think?

Khannie

shizz wrote: »

I'm not sure Ubuntu would benefit from a donation as much as some other distro's.

I'm not sure whether they're making money or still loss making. In 2009 they were moving towards profitability. It's in an unusual position in that it has a devoted user base, but has failed to make a dent in the server market (where the real money is). I wouldn't rule them out for a donation just because they're big but I take your point.

matrim

Khannie wrote: »

I'm not sure whether they're making money or still loss making. In 2009 they were moving towards profitability. It's in an unusual position in that it has a devoted user base, but has failed to make a dent in the server market (where the real money is). I wouldn't rule them out for a donation just because they're big but I take your point.

They certainly seem to be pushing for donations with the default donation box when you try to download.

It can also hard to tell where to donate with Linux as so many projects are offshoots or made up of different parts. E.g. Do I donate to Ubuntu, their parent dist Debian, the Linux Foundation / Kernel, the desktop environment (for me Gnome 3)

Scruffles

perhaps the larger linux distro developers need to go back to making retail copies of their distros and selling them on the shelf,there was nothing quite like browsing a pc stores operating systems and finding SuSE and mandrake amongst them.:cool:
they came in a nice case;included some exclusives and closed source programs, contained premium case badges/stickers to cover up the manky windows one.
in the olden days of ubuntu [hoary hedgehog and earlier],they used to send out cheap case stickers with their official copies to.

the retail copies were a way of contributing to a distro and itd be amazing if we coud have that experience back again,itd also finaly make the windows reliant general public realise they have more choice in their OS than they realise,and hopefuly that woud get the developers more money coming in to.

with the thriving geek driven linux community we have, they coud even do a colletors edition of the retail version; obviously put the cost up to pay for it but include a official distro t-shirt and/or official pin badges,free advertising for them,collector value for the buyer.

though am not a fan of being told to donate by people who have donated and think because they did everyone else has to,otherwise they put on that we dont care about the dev team and distro.
am often not able to afford food and drink due to being severely disabled and living in residential care let alone be able to donate.

contributing can be done in many ways,from the grass roots,of recommending and educating people up to being a developer,tester,coder etc.
it doesnt have to involve money,some people think theyre better than others for giving money but they woud probably help a lot more if they got into the development and debugging side.

am personaly a fan of pre beta testing and reporting back for distros and programs.
have also educated many,many people on linux since the milenium year,gave away free copies,set up many basic linux systems for people,and have even managed to get dad and his brother [absolute computer illiterates who screw up windows and have no confidence in their computer abilities] working a linux system with confidence.

Will91w

The funny thing is, i bet most linux distros would actually out sell windows if they were not open source... i would much rather pay for the linux distro i am using now than pay for the crap microsoft force on people.. i wish linux was more well known so that maybe they could start to get more donations from their users and the public, which would then lead to having/developing better features on their distros which could give windows a run for its money.

shizz

Will91w wrote: »

The funny thing is, i bet most linux distros would actually out sell windows if they were not open source... i would much rather pay for the linux distro i am using now than pay for the crap microsoft force on people.. i wish linux was more well known so that maybe they could start to get more donations from their users and the public, which would then lead to having/developing better features on their distros which could give windows a run for its money.

It annoys me how it really is up to the users to get people using linux. Most of my family use it because of me. I've made my little sisters netbook usable again. She regularly complains to me of how awful it is having to boot into windows to sync her music to her ipod because its incredibly slow. When I get home I'll try set it up so she wont have to do that though.

I got my uncle on the internet by installing lubuntu on an old family laptop and he loves it.

This christmas time will be a linux installing marathon for a few more people in my family. Can't wait :v

Will91w

shizz wrote: »

It annoys me how it really is up to the users to get people using linux. Most of my family use it because of me. I've made my little sisters netbook usable again. She regularly complains to me of how awful it is having to boot into windows to sync her music to her ipod because its incredibly slow. When I get home I'll try set it up so she wont have to do that though.

I got my uncle on the internet by installing lubuntu on an old family laptop and he loves it.

This christmas time will be a linux installing marathon for a few more people in my family. Can't wait :v

Yea it really is up to the users to go about installing it themselves.. but the problem there is that most of the general public only no two operating systems 'Windows' and 'Mac'.. and i bet most people dont even no that mac has a different os than windows lol.. thats what we are facing when it comes to making the linux community bigger!

Personally i love linux.. at the moment i am running linux mint 13 64bit and i must say that its the best linux distro i have ever used.. it runs great on my laptop..

Which version of linux are you personally using?

shizz

Will91w wrote: »

Yea it really is up to the users to go about installing it themselves.. but the problem there is that most of the general public only no two operating systems 'Windows' and 'Mac'.. and i bet most people dont even no that mac has a different os than windows lol.. thats what we are facing when it comes to making the linux community bigger!

Personally i love linux.. at the moment i am running linux mint 13 64bit and i must say that its the best linux distro i have ever used.. it runs great on my laptop..

Which version of linux are you personally using?

Yeah. Something else I find is that people have a negative approach to linux because it's free to use. They assume that an OS you pay for will be better. So they just don't want to .

I'm triple booting at the moment with Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.04(Main OS) and An unstable build of Elementary OS Luna. I'm thinking of putting on Ubuntu 13.04 as well as I'd like to be involved in that development cycle.