If ubuntu wasnt free, how much would you pay ?

[weasel fierce]

Just something I figured would be fun to poll people about here.

If Ubuntu was not a free system, how much would you be willing to pay for it, given what you know of it at this point ?

[poofyhairguy]

Just something I figured would be fun to poll people about here.

If Ubuntu was not a free system, how much would you be willing to pay for it, given what you know of it at this point ?

You should make it into a poll. Personally I would pay about $50 or so (at some point running Sid wouldn't sound that bad) if I could have unlimited access to the repos.

If I was like that pay as you go click and run mess....I would have never looked in this direction.

But if I paid, I would expect more....so....its a hard question.

[benplaut]

ehh... somewhere around $25

i'd use Kanotix if Ubuntu wasn't around

[TristanMike]

Would that be in USD??? :)

[KiwiNZ]

Around $NZ25

[bored2k]

No more than 20 US dollars, plus I would have to be able to dist-upgrade for at least three future versions. If not, I would have probably looked closely at Debian or any other "powerhouse" distro.

[manicka]

If Ubuntu wasn't a free system I would'nt use it.

It's the best distro I've tried but there's lot's more out there should the need arise.

[Lord Illidan]

I probably would have looked elsewhere too..
I don't like paying for Linux because if there is a problem which I cannot fix, then what do I do?
Plus I have no credit card, yet...

[Dragonfly_X]

About £15

[tom-ubuntu]

If Ubuntu wasn't a free system I would'nt use it.

It's the best distro I've tried but there's lot's more out there should the need arise.
Same for me. Either it is free or I do not use it.

[GeneralZod]

For a nice box, manuals, printed CD and unlimited upgrades and access to the repositories, £75-100. I'm more interested in "Free" than "free", and am a firm believer in rewarding people whose work I find useful - especially if they don't even ask for money! :)

[papangul]

Right now $12 but if all the problems that I face now(that I don't face in windows) were taken care of, then --> Windows retail price+$1.

[SKLP]

Same for me. Either it is free or I do not use it.Same here.

[Stormy Eyes]

$20. $40 if it comes with a printed manual.

[djmadkins]

I would spring for 100 czech koruny. :wink:

[sapo]

I dont know how much.. but i would pay, and its far more that i ve ever paied for windows.. never spent even a cent with windows.. but i would buy ubuntu.. it rlz! :grin:

[somuchfortheafter]

around 80 usd for a boxed set of cd's with unlimited repo access and 20-25 to upgrade to the latest release. What can i say i really like ubuntu lol.

[miscz]

I'd wait for something like White Box Linux (free RHEL). Ubuntu is GPL'd, you can't possibly expect users to pay for the product. The only way to get some money would be to charge for support. Anyway, Mr. Shuttleworth said Ubuntu would remain free as long as it's Ubuntu so it's just theoretical discussion.

[Freddy]

I have already donated some money for this distro but I wouldn't pay a single dime for it though, not because it's bad distro (I wouldn't use it or donate money, if it where) but is not allways everything you wan't to work to actually work, ok the hardwaresupport for this distro has been great for me but with linux you never know :)

/Freddan

[ubuntu_demon]

If Ubuntu wasn't free I would still use windows XP as my primary desktop and a bit of debian when necessary. I didn't feel debian was ready for my primary desktop.

Maybe I would have tried out sarge for my primary desktop when it released.

With my current Ubuntu experience I would prefer debian above windows XP

[AllenGG]

I have already donated some money for this distro but I wouldn't pay a single dime, not because it's bad distro (I wouldn't use it or donated money, if it where) but is not allways everything you wan't to work that actually work, ok the hardware support for distro has been great for me but with linux you never know :)

/Freddan

Like Freddy, I have already donated money, sent a postal money order in Pounds to The Isle of ?? ,I did pay for Mandrake, and for Suse, because I expected support, for my home business computer. BUT >>>> Ubuntu works much better, now 5.04, on 2 machines. And support lies within these forum walls !!!!!
And I will continue to send $$$ but in Pounds .
Long live Ubuntu

[weasel fierce]

Anyway, Mr. Shuttleworth said Ubuntu would remain free as long as it's Ubuntu so it's just theoretical discussion.

That was the point of the whole thread

[macgyver2]

If Ubuntu wasn't a free system I would'nt use it.

I concur. Plus, there are ways to pay for Ubuntu, besides money, that aren't so quantifiable.

[ubuntu_demon]

I concur. Plus, there are ways to pay for Ubuntu, besides money, that aren't so quantifiable.
I agree. an OS should be as free as possible (at least the kernel should be open source). Ubuntu is super free and practical :)

indeed not everything is quantifiable for example helping other people with Ubuntu :)

[jdodson]

I would pay nothing. I like Ubuntu because it is Free as in both definitions. I use Fedora Core before Ubuntu, most likely, I would still be using that because it is Free in both definitions.

I, perhaps might have moved to Debian someday, it is _much_ easier to install now.

[aysiu]

I don't believe in charging money for OSes, just as I don't believe in charging money for museums. Such things should be funded by donations. Clearly, Ubuntu has a sizeable donation from Mark Shuttleworth, but we can all also donate as our means and inclinations dictate. Sure, waiting for donations doesn't give one the most secure feeling in the world, as charging people up front does, but you also ensure that you're making something available to even those who can't afford stuff.

When I made more money, I gave freely to all sorts of things (charities, church, etc.). Now, our household's a little tight on money. It's great to know that people appreciate support when I have the means. It's also great to know, though, that when I don't have the means, I'm not excluded from such wonderful projects as Ubuntu.

[trash]

I have paid for a disto before, however the experience was not so great since I was an extreme newb and support was not willing to deal with that... which I somewhat understood, but that said I have their cd's which i do not use, recommend or promote them.

Would i do it again? hmmm... well.... actually for Ubuntu i would, largely because of this support forum, but thats only if i also got a whole bunch of cool stickers and a t-shirt to help me promote it:P

[ubuntp]

Not a single $, i'd be using Debian instead.

[pmj]

If I had to pay for Ubuntu I wouldn't use it at all. I am considering donating some money though.

[basse1989]

If Ubuntu wasn't free I would most likely still be using Gentoo Linux since that's the mess of an OS I was using before Ubuntu. If Ubuntu would turn "pay to play" now I would, since Ubuntu introduced me to Debian, most likely use Debian unstable.

[atilasendil]

me too would pay as much as I have paid for M$ --meaning I would get a pirate copy peer2peer.
but guess I would be donating to ubuntu in the future :-)

[Brunellus]

H'm.

If I didn't have an internet connection, and I was back in the Philippines, I'd probably pay 200 pesos (about four dollars) for the live and the install CDs, together. In fact, I'd probably bargain down to P 150, and buy dinner with the rest.

I would probably pay twenty dollars for nicely-pressed CDs and the inclusion of multimedia codecs at my local book/software store.

[N'Jal]

Simply put i am a student and cannot afford to pay for much, hence no window's and if ubuntu was pay to play i would use gentoo.... if i could ever install it, though i have been succesfull once, with the latest CD

[KageKeeper]

If it wasn't free I would use a distro that is. *shrug* Simple enough.

[SKLP]

If Ubuntu wasn't free I would most likely still be using Gentoo Linux since that's the mess of an OS I was using before Ubuntu. If Ubuntu would turn "pay to play" now I would, since Ubuntu introduced me to Debian, most likely use Debian unstable.I'd be using sid too i suppose.

[professor_chaos]

If it wasn't free, I'd pay nothing.
Because it is free, I'd pay $100US.

[UbuWu]

Paid 30 euro for Windows, I think I would pay 50 euro for Ubuntu for a nice set of dvd's (3 or 4?) containing all the repositories.

[xequence]

Probly not much, but that is considering some things...

- Ive only used the live cd, and not for long, so I dont know how good it really is. Ill know soon I hope.
- I dont have a credit card.
- There are other linux distros out there, maybe not as good, but free.

[Strangerdave]

For a nice box, manuals, printed CD and unlimited upgrades and access to the repositories, £75-100. I'm more interested in "Free" than "free", and am a firm believer in rewarding people whose work I find useful - especially if they don't even ask for money! :)


I would have to agree with this and probably pay just as much ($75-$100 CAD). Sure it would be great if all OS's were free, but I always think of the programmers and their lives. They need money just like the rest of us, and lets face it, some things don't come cheep. If they did, there would be no reason for charging money for things.

I started out using SUSE, bought a book with 9.1pro. That was what go me into Linux, but there was always something I didn't like about the distro (maybe the slight tinge of corporate backing) and the fact that there were some hardware issues. Then I found Ubuntu, and I am really happy with it. I am a simple user, who doesn't require much from the programs that I run. with Ubuntu, everything worked like a charm, I was really impressed and am donating to the cause. But if they ever decided to charge, I would pay sure.......we are after all consumers :)

-SD-

[student]

I've been feeling guilty about downloading.
Maybe like my ISP, 1€ per gig, I would certainly find that fair.

[ghostintheshell]

I would be sincere: I would use another distro.

[Lord Illidan]

You know, after using Ubuntu to solve a problem at work, I think I would definitely pay 50 dollars for it.. However, I am planning to make a donation to it, as soon as I get my own credit card!

[nickless]

I would probably stay with Debian then :D
... until I get to frustrated.. maybe I would then pay 25-50$

[gorkhal]

I had pay 39.99 CAD plus the frickin taxes ](*,) ....

But it better be one of those 'forever' licenses.

[Kvark]

To be honest... If the software itself costed then I'd either pirate it or still be pirating windows software. What I would gladly pay for is plastic disks+shipping (note that a plastic disc does not cost $50), access to official online repos/updates/upgrades, a paperbook manual, support, custom bug fixes/feature requests (I know... the GNU/Linux kind of developers would probably never accept "400 users thinks your program should work like this instead, change it and they'll each give you $20") and t-shirts or whatever with cool logos on.