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View Full Version : If Ubuntu had a Price tag what could it be



asifnaz
December 9th, 2010, 02:51 PM
I use both Ubuntu and Mac . But the price fector is huge . Ubuntu 10.04 runs neck on neck with Mac OS X snow leoperd . Ubuntu has some adventages on Mac OS and vice versa .

But price factor is huge ...My 400$ ubuntu laptop (with 0$ OS & software cost ) gives tough compitition to 2000$ Macbook pro (+about 2000$ OS & software cost )

Now I wonder if Ubuntu was not free . What price tag it had ...

cyberphrog
December 9th, 2010, 02:55 PM
$0. Because it's open source.

asifnaz
December 9th, 2010, 03:00 PM
$0. Because it's open source.
I know it . "IF" it had I mean

fatality_uk
December 9th, 2010, 03:00 PM
BestBuy wanted $20.

nolag
December 9th, 2010, 03:03 PM
88.42 pounds if you want desktop support, so I guess I would go with that http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=715

To be more fair, you need to compare the OS not the computer, I doubt the preformance (although you may not need more) is neck and neck. Also battery life (macs are like a million years or so now, 10 hours in all hounesty). So the fair comparison is with the OS only, as you can even run them on the same computer (if you buy a mac or a compatible mac comp).

But this not 100% since the support that canonical offers is not the same anyways, but that was not the question the price was :P.

Evil-Ernie
December 9th, 2010, 03:07 PM
Tough question as being free Ive never thought what I would consider value-for-money for Ubuntu.

wojox
December 9th, 2010, 03:09 PM
Laptop - $400.00

Macbook pro - $2000.00

Ubuntu - Priceless

:D

steev182
December 9th, 2010, 03:10 PM
My dad paid £60 for a boxed copy of SuSE 6.4 for my 13th or 14th birthday.

Red Hat seems to be able to put a price tag on RHEL...

asifnaz
December 9th, 2010, 03:19 PM
Laptop - $400.00

Macbook pro - $2000.00

Ubuntu - Priceless

:D
well said

DoeNietWil
December 9th, 2010, 03:28 PM
sorry but i have to say it


OVER 9000!!!!

nlsthzn
December 9th, 2010, 03:32 PM
*sigh*

Open Source is free like in freedom of speech, nothing says it has to be free like in free beer... this is something that the majority of users of open source software tend to forget...

As for how much, I am pretty sure that is something that will differ from user to user... some people use Ubuntu because it costs $0, others because it is open source, others because they feel it is better... most I would say is a mixture of the 3 and maybe some other factors...

As for myself I don't know how much I am willing to pay as I don't have too :)

samalex
December 9th, 2010, 03:37 PM
I think I gave $19.99 for Red Hat Linux at Best Buy around 1997 or so, which came with the CD's, bootable floppy, books, stickers, plus this came with a small bit of support for I think a number of months. I still have the RH case sticker on my system at home and had the bumper sticker on my car for about a year before it started to fade with the Texas sun and had to take it off.

So yeah I wouldn't pay for Linux, but having a boxed copy where you get a book or two, some vendorware/stickers, and the media might be worth $20-$50... closer to $50 if they bundle an Unleashed book or O'Reilly book/Safari membership with it.

Sam

dh04000
December 9th, 2010, 05:19 PM
quote(One Million DOLLARS!)/quote

clanky
December 9th, 2010, 05:39 PM
I don't think you could put a figure on it without actually trying to sell it.

It would come down to supply and demand, the price would have to be set at what enough people would be prepared to pay for it to make it viable.

Given the fact that Ubuntu is free and has a tiny market share I think the answer would have to be not very much if it Canonical were to start charging now, this could of course change in the future.

asifnaz
December 9th, 2010, 06:55 PM
I don't think you could put a figure on it without actually trying to sell it.

It would come down to supply and demand, the price would have to be set at what enough people would be prepared to pay for it to make it viable.

Given the fact that Ubuntu is free and has a tiny market share I think the answer would have to be not very much if it Canonical were to start charging now, this could of course change in the future.
My question was fictional . In my country Ubuntu has almost 30% market share as most of the people dont afford to buy MS windows or Mac OS . Almost 70% of schools and govt organizations are using Ubuntu . 90% of servers are running on Linux most of them ubuntu .

So share is not tiny

Zzl1xndd
December 9th, 2010, 07:12 PM
I would be will to pay approx 50 dollars for an LTS version. maybe 15 for non LTS versions.

ctrlmd
December 9th, 2010, 07:24 PM
My question was fictional . In my country Ubuntu has almost 30% market share as most of the people dont afford to buy MS windows or Mac OS . Almost 70% of schools and govt organizations are using Ubuntu . 90% of servers are running on Linux most of them ubuntu .

So share is not tiny:-k what country is that

asifnaz
December 9th, 2010, 07:34 PM
:-k what country is that
1 Million question . Guess it

ctrlmd
December 9th, 2010, 07:39 PM
1 Million question . Guess it
:lolflag:
if i want to guess it why would i ask you then ? #-o[-(

nlsthzn
December 9th, 2010, 07:49 PM
1 Million question . Guess it

Pakistan?

oldos2er
December 9th, 2010, 08:33 PM
$0. Because it's open source.

Does not compute.

undecim
December 9th, 2010, 09:21 PM
Here's the plan: We get the warhead, and we hold Ubuntu ransom for

*dun* *dun*

One million dollars

* * * * * * *

On a serious note, I would pay as much as I would for a Windows license if that were the only way to get a Linux OS, provided it was still FOSS.

Though if it were FOSS, I could get a free copy from a friend... So I guess there is no way I would pay money for Ubuntu. I'm happy to offer my time to help Ubuntu though, and will donate money when I have some to spare

earthpigg
December 9th, 2010, 09:28 PM
I think $40 for a nice shiny shrink-wrapped box that includes an install cd with DVD support and restricted formats included, in addition to a modest user's manual.

One appeal would be for the sector of people that are still stuck on the "you get what you pay for" paradigm. My girlfriends father refused to watch a home-burned copy of Sita Sings the Blues (http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/) because he assumed it was pirated...

At my local community college, there is a poster hanging on a wall advising "best practices" for "being safe on the internet". According to it, all software, movie, and music downloads on the internet that are unpaid are dangerous and potentially illegal.

Some folks pretty much demand that they be allowed to pay for things. It's worth fulfilling that demand.

koenn
December 9th, 2010, 09:39 PM
$0.05
source: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

(also an interesting read if you want to know how (software) pricing works)

nerdopolis
December 10th, 2010, 01:08 AM
Everyone always seems to think of the CD when they talk about how much Ubuntu would cost if it was redeveloped in a proprietary environment. Seems that no one thinks about the repositories. In this case I would imagine things to be VERY expensive.

First there is the core software. The costs of developing the Linux kernel alone is probably very high. Some guesses are over 1 billion dollars. This is only for the lines of code. they can't really consider the research that went into it... And there is also the GNU suite.

There are 3 desktop environments. KDE Gnome and XFCE. These all are big collections of software. There is also the associated artwork with these environments, like icons, wallpapers, and sound files.

There is also the server stuff, like Samba and Apache, and many mail servers.

There's games, and multiple video studios, and music players, and graphics editors and office suites, IDEs.

and not to mention the cost of research that would have into Wine.

uRock
December 10th, 2010, 03:37 AM
I'd pay for it, oops, I already am paying with my time.

Fixed the thread title for you.;)

Dr. C
December 10th, 2010, 05:35 AM
Here is a question. If one wanted to reproduce all the functionality that Ubuntu and all the FLOSS software available at no cost from the Ubuntu repositories with propriety software what would that cost?

asifnaz
December 10th, 2010, 05:55 AM
Pakistan?
You are the winner

nlsthzn
December 10th, 2010, 06:01 AM
You are the winner

1 million please ;)

shadowfax1
December 10th, 2010, 06:48 AM
It would cost to much to make it marketable and then try to arrive at a competitive value...Why?...Consider the cost to nurse maid all those *******rs out there to understand a new os..hell look at how many people still use xp

Rodney9
December 10th, 2010, 08:01 AM
I paid for Libranet,The last version (as of April 25, 2005) released was Libranet 3.0, which cost about $90 in US dollars for new users, or $65 for us existing Libranet users.

So Ubuntu would be about ???

if4124l
December 10th, 2010, 08:06 AM
I'd pay $40

nolag
December 10th, 2010, 03:23 PM
*sigh*

Open Source is free like in freedom of speech, nothing says it has to be free like in free beer... this is something that the majority of users of open source software tend to forget...

As for how much, I am pretty sure that is something that will differ from user to user... some people use Ubuntu because it costs $0, others because it is open source, others because they feel it is better... most I would say is a mixture of the 3 and maybe some other factors...

As for myself I don't know how much I am willing to pay as I don't have too :)

I partly agree. I don't care that it is open source (my opinion). I think it is nice, but I don't consider it nessasary. I do care that it is free. I would NEVER have tried ubuntu if I needed to pay anything for it. I don't even buy windows (ok it comes with the computer so I guess I do but if the same comp came cheaper without it I would not).

ki4jgt
December 10th, 2010, 03:50 PM
Given the fact that Ubuntu is Open sourced I think that makes it just a faulty as Windows or any other OS for that matter. (Sorry guys if I'm stepping on toes) The reason I use Ubuntu though is the added local security, experimentation, and all around coolness factor of the OS. and the fact that millions of people around the globe have pulled together and put their best efforts into it. I would pay only a little bit more for it than I would pay for Windows say 10/20 dollars b/c it doesn't get viruses, but it still gets trojans, and worms or whatever you call them.

3Miro
December 10th, 2010, 03:54 PM
If Ubuntu were developed commercially, the development cost would be at least as much as Windows, although it is hard to put a real number on it. Thus Ubuntu should cost at least as much as Windows or Mac.

If commercial Ubuntu comes with the same freedom as now, I would pay even more.

Spice Weasel
December 10th, 2010, 04:11 PM
I'd fork it and remove Ubuntu trademarks, just to whizz off Canonical.

owiknowi
December 10th, 2010, 04:18 PM
I use both Ubuntu and Mac . But the price fector is huge . Ubuntu 10.04 runs neck on neck with Mac OS X snow leoperd . Ubuntu has some adventages on Mac OS and vice versa .

But price factor is huge ...My 400$ ubuntu laptop (with 0$ OS & software cost ) gives tough compitition to 2000$ Macbook pro (+about 2000$ OS & software cost )

Now I wonder if Ubuntu was not free . What price tag it had ...

Here - Holland that is - you can buy some notebooks with Ubuntu pre-installed for 50,-- euro extra.
And: all applications included + support!

3Miro
December 10th, 2010, 05:15 PM
Here - Holland that is - you can buy some notebooks with Ubuntu pre-installed for 50,-- euro extra.
And: all applications included + support!

In USA, I have seen people offer to pre-install Ubuntu for 10-20 dollars, but they don't give support. Only places like System76 give support, but for them Ubuntu is the only option, so you don't have it broken down that says 50 dollars for Ubuntu.

WinterMadness
December 10th, 2010, 09:15 PM
ive done the math, and it comes to exactly $12.38

its pretty much irrefutable, as well.

Old_Grey_Wolf
December 10th, 2010, 09:57 PM
If I had paid money for the first Ubuntu OS I installed, that being 6.06 Dapper Drake, I would have demanded my money back. It took me a week or more to get it running and I don't think I ever got wireless working on my WPA IES encrypted network. It did work on WEP; however, I refused to use WEP on my network.

In the corporate environment people know about Linux; however, the home desktop users where I live don't know very much about it.

Home desktop users will pay for Microsoft or Apple products because they can see it working at the store, at friends homes, at school, at their place of employment, and so forth. People don't see Ubuntu or any other flavor of Linux running very often. If they are using it, it is most likely hidden behind something like the Apache web interface that is presented to them. They very rarely get to use the OS itself.

You would in effect be asking them to pay for some software they have not seem working nor do they know what it does. People do that all the time; however, it is the software that came pre-installed on the computer when they bought it.

NightwishFan
December 11th, 2010, 02:02 AM
$29.99 US Dollars is what I would charge if I worked for Canonical and my boss said "pick a price".

owiknowi
December 11th, 2010, 06:39 AM
Two things keep nagging me, in this thread that is.

1. The biggest OS only can do their trick because they are "working" closely with hardware manufacturers and vice versa.
If all drivers were also available as open source you could make a fair comparison.

2. Also a differentiation between commercial and home or non profit use should be taken in consideration.

In my opinion you should have a free choice what OS and witch applications you buy/get/want with your computer.

So at least all hardware should be supported by manufacturers for different OS.

Manufacturers of hard- and software also benefit in a big way from Internet fora where people share knowledge for free.
That's my way of "paying" for the free use of a OS.

It's at least strange that only one OS dominates the whole PC market.
Or did they perhaps invent the whole computer (PC) architecture ; )

Note: This is just a personal opinion and no rights whatsoever can be derived from it.

earthpigg
December 12th, 2010, 08:25 PM
my roomate, a college student and not a nerd at all, says:

-if he got his hands on a computer with no OS on it, he would chose ubuntu over windows if they happened to be the same price.

-if he got his hands on a computer with windows already installed, he would pay much less.