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blazemore
January 26th, 2010, 04:33 PM
Would it be possible to sell boxed versions of 10.04 in stores, with the manual and a LiveDVD included, and all restricted software/drivers installed? The price would pay for marketing and distribution, plus the printing of the manuals and royalty fees for patent-encumbered software.

Techsnap
January 26th, 2010, 04:34 PM
Yes but I'm not too sure about the restricted drivers.

Puck7
January 26th, 2010, 04:35 PM
You actually need to settle this with Canonical.
One useful link: http://www.canonical.com/oemservices

danwosere2007
January 26th, 2010, 04:36 PM
God i hope not.

The whole awesomeness of Ubuntu stems from the fact thats it free, that people are awesome and willing to devote time to helping you out with problems you might have (albeit i do wind people up yes i know, shame on me) But yeah for it to be sold...Meh it would no longer be "Ubuntu" thats for sure.

Paqman
January 26th, 2010, 04:46 PM
Would it be possible to sell boxed versions of 10.04 in stores

Yep. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubuntu-Linux-Desktop-32bit-Hardy/dp/832900001X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1264520603&sr=1-1) There's loads of places that will sell you an Ubuntu disk.

Including restricted extras would depend on the licenses those extras are bound by. You may need to pay to distribute them.

Psumi
January 26th, 2010, 09:12 PM
We have a private computer/office supply store here in town that has a bunch of 5.10 ubuntu disks in a nice ubuntu display cardboard case.

They cost almost 5 USD a disk. apparently, they've been there since before 2007 (when I foolishly sold a laptop there.)

szymon_g
January 26th, 2010, 11:12 PM
God i hope not.

The whole awesomeness of Ubuntu stems from the fact thats it free, that people are awesome and willing to devote time to helping you out with problems you might have (albeit i do wind people up yes i know, shame on me) But yeah for it to be sold...Meh it would no longer be "Ubuntu" thats for sure.

well... i hope you are joking, right?
and no- if it could be buyable, it would not mean that it can not be downloaded for free... you would just pay for printed book, support etc. And, it would probably make ubuntu even better (do not forgot that most of linux 'base' /kernel, glibc, alsa etc/ have been written by people who get paid for it).

And ad rem: yes, you could probably sell cd's with ubuntu + restricted stuff- but prior to this you would have to check licence of drivers. And, please do not forget, that USA's software patents (dvd, mp3) aren't important in other countries (afaik only france has some sort of software-patenting, but I may be wrong)

blazemore
January 27th, 2010, 09:25 AM
I think you are wrong about France, because I think that EU explicitly DO NOT have software patents (ie they are forbidden, rather than just not specified)
Another interesting point is, would it be possible to distribute patent-encumbered software purely outside the US? One could make a Linux distro which was "Not for distribution within the USA" and technically be operating above the law.

chriswyatt
January 27th, 2010, 01:39 PM
Wouldn't see a problem with a paid version of Ubuntu, as long it only contained extras and the free version didn't become crippleware e.g. the paid version could contain PowerDVD and the Fluendo codec pack.

blazemore
January 27th, 2010, 01:52 PM
The paid version should simply contain ubuntu-restricted-extras
It could also contain all languages, and a selection of the most popular software, to fill up the DVD.

ssam
January 27th, 2010, 02:56 PM
All this has happened before. All this will happen again.
http://blog.canonical.com/?p=18

the free in ubuntu is the gnu/freedom type. you already have to pay to get it even if it is just bandwidth cost. I used to buy linux CDs before broadband was available in my area.