Will Ubuntu be always free of charge?

[BrokeBody]

Once there was the most popular Linux distribution called SuSe (http://www.novell.com/linux/). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing and everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

Once there was the most Linux distribution called Mandriva (http://www.mandriva.com/) (Mandrake). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing. Everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

There is the most popular Linux distribution called Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). It's free of charge. Its base of satisfying users is just growing. Everything is so good - almost perfect... for now...


On the main page on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, once there was this message saying:


The Ubuntu Promise

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.

Now, on that same spot on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, there is this message saying:


The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

I'm realy scared. What if they start charging it? Will Ubuntu always be free? Have you ever thought about it?

[BrokeBody]

lol Oops, as you can see, I meesed up something with my poll (with quetions, one of them ain't to logical:lol: ). Just ingore it if you can.:D

[IYY]

I'm sure it will always be free, but I don't particularly care. Worst case, it will become non-free, and another distro will rise that will be better. That's the magic of the GPL.

[bastiegast]

Once there was the most popular Linux distribution called SuSe (http://www.novell.com/linux/). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing and everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

Once there was the most Linux distribution called Mandriva (http://www.mandriva.com/) (Mandrake). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing. Everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

There is the most popular Linux distribution called Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). It's free of charge. Its base of satisfying users is just growing. Everything is so good - almost perfect... for now...


On the main page on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, once there was this message saying:



Now, on that same spot on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, there is this message saying:



I'm realy scared. What if they start charging it? Will Ubuntu always be free? Have you ever thought about it?

Open suse = suse free of charche isnt it?

[BrokeBody]

Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

[Frak]

Once there was the most popular Linux distribution called SuSe (http://www.novell.com/linux/). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing and everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

Once there was the most Linux distribution called Mandriva (http://www.mandriva.com/) (Mandrake). It was free of charge. Its base of satisfying users was just growing. Everything was so good, almost perfect... until they started to charge for it... Now, there are some free of charge versions, but that's not it. It will never be the same again.

There is the most popular Linux distribution called Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). It's free of charge. Its base of satisfying users is just growing. Everything is so good - almost perfect... for now...


On the main page on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, once there was this message saying:



Now, on that same spot on Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) web site, there is this message saying:



I'm realy scared. What if they start charging it? Will Ubuntu always be free? Have you ever thought about it?
Mark Suttleworth said (me in his presence)(swear) he had a dream to use the money he got from Thawte to make people happy. He wanted Linux.
No.
He wanted MORE.
He wanted...
Debian.
And from then on Ubuntu will ALWAYS be FREE for as long as it can be supported with his money, and then we'll find a way to support this from then on.
That was about 2-3 years ago.
And I'll believe him forever.

[Frak]

Oh and that should is because you can't make everybody give their software free. Impossible.

[JnEverett]

I think that Ubuntu in its current form will remain free. I feel this is the case because of the founding principles and the organizational vision.
The free CD distribution may go by the wayside at somepoint though the image will likely be available as a free download.

[darkhatter]

I think its going to do a Red Hat, and Novell. Have a paid version and a free version, cause to much money is getting wasted (by wasted I mean its not coming back).

[Dinerty]

In one way I wish they did charge so it could help out with their expenses, e.g. staff, servers, software

If they charged a reasonable rate of £30 for each distro, or a one off charge of £50 and you get all releases there after free, by either logging in and downloading it from their private servers or by requesting a free CD/DVD which gets dispatched next day.

I would be more than happy to pay for it

[Linux_Noobie]

Oh i think ubuntu has to stay free because its the only way to get people to use linux. otherwise people will use *******

[skymt]

Oh i think ubuntu has to stay free because its the only way to get people to use linux. otherwise people will use *******

I have both, and prefer Linux. Most people get Windows for effectively free, it comes with almost all computers. The competition is one of merit, not price.

[tenshi-no-shi]

I hope it stays free for one reason, because not all people can afford to pay for an os.

In fact I have heard that linux in general has been making great progress in areas of the world that do not have the money to afford to buy software.

what I wouldn't mind is if they opened up a way to donate money to helping the development of ubuntu, that way if you want to give them money for their work, then great, but if you can't afford to that that's fine to.

[xmastree]

what I wouldn't mind is if they opened up a way to donate money to helping the development of ubuntu,

You mean something like this (http://www.ubuntu.com/donations)?

Clearly linked from www.ubuntu.com , how did you miss it? :rolleyes:

[emontalv]

You are right, it they charge for Ubuntu (huge mistake) another Linux version will arrive :)

[chajuram]

I hope it is. i really like it. but in case it is no longer free, I will have to move, may be to debian, that should always be free, right? my experience with ubuntu should help in migrating to debian.

[qamelian]

Although it is made clear on the Ubuntu site that the distro is and always will be free, I would still support it if it became necessary to have version with a reasonable fee attached. Ubuntu has been a pleasure to use compared to the others distros that I have actually purchased, such as Mandriva, Red Hat, and SuSE.

[ChadMMc]

I have both, and prefer Linux. Most people get Windows for effectively free, it comes with almost all computers. The competition is one of merit, not price.


Actually, ******* is NOT effectively free. When you buy it with a computer, The computer price is effectively higher because the people who put the ******* on the computer, still have to pay M$ for it and that is passed down to the consumer. As far as merit? To me Linux beats ******* hands down. (******* is second hand everything).

I do believe Ubuntu will stay free. There may be (already is) paid support though.

[maniacmusician]

If they ever charge money for ubuntu...let's see...I would probably go try some other distros. but i have no doubt that I wouldn't be as satisfied, and would probably come crawling back to ubuntu. i don't mind paying for a product. I'll avoid it if i can, of course, but I don't really mind it. Especially a product like this.

In a way, Ubuntu is already being sold. Mark shuttleworth invests in projects like Impi Linux, and part of his investment is the Ubuntu legacy that he has built. Impi Linux is based off of Ubuntu, and anyone using it can get customer support from canonical. without the existence of ubuntu, this wouldn't really be possible...

[justin whitaker]

Shuttleworth has always said that he plans on keeping Ubuntu Free, but charging for commercial support. That seems like a very fair way of doing it.

I disagree with the assessment that other distros have declined because they are not free.

SuSE, for example, has only gained strength under Novell-and the core difference between OpenSUSE and the SLED is support (and some proprietary goodies). OpenSUSE is GPL'd-you can go and modify it if you like, you just won't get any support from Novell.

Mandriva was never truly free: Gael Duval set it up as a business from the start. You could always get the core distribution for free (as you can now), but it was the updates and the official boxed sets you had to pay for. I guess they see updates as a service...I do not. You do get support, though.

Red Hat seems to be overlooked, which is fascinating, since it is both open (Fedora) and proprietary (RHEE), and does quite well financially-again, it's services.

Yes, there are free alternatives, hundreds of them, in fact. So what? If you really get down to it, each of these distributions, and Ubuntu, offer something that hobby distros cannot: a stable, usable base of code, that in many ways makes the desktop user, developers, or server admin's life easier through their own tools and distribution decisions.

Would I pay for Ubuntu? For ease of use? Speed? 6 Month Releases? To keep the lights on?

Sure. I'm just glad I do not have to.

[dca]

I'm sure Canonical/Shuttleworth's attitude is having the end result similar to Novell SuSE/openSuSE - RedHat/Fedora - Linspire/Freespire.....

[Josh1]

How do they make money? Easy - the support is $250 a year for basic, thats quite good IMHO. :D.

[hkgonra]

I don't mind the free version and paid version model as long as they keep them the same. I think for the paid version you should get support. Several other distros have a paid/free version model where you either don't get features at all or they are a purposely harder to setup in the free version.

[mithras86]

How do they make money? Easy - the support is $250 a year for basic, thats quite good IMHO. :D.And that is exactly the philosophy of Ubuntu: everyone is capable to download the software free of charge.
But a company never wants to buy only a license. They need support. Most Linux distro's have separated versions: one for personal use, one for companies. Ubuntu has only one version, and is asking money for the support. In that way, Ubuntu can still distribute a free version (and that is the only version), and they make money with offering support.

[LookTJ]

They get money from their shop (http://www.cafepress.com/ubuntushop)

[Malakia]

Debian has been around for a while basically because its all developers that choose to help and their bandwith and servers are donated to them. If push comes to shove and Ubuntu stops being free I will start using Debian since Ubuntu is forked off of Debian anyway.

[kintsa]

Definitely for the next 5 years. Who knows what the computing capabilities of systems will be like after that. I personally doubt if the present heavily divided open source community can meet the needs of those times. We may see a paid for version then..

[TLE]

Call me naive if you will, but I actually believe this guy Mark S. Even though Ubuntu's popularity has been increasing almost exponentially that has not led to, that they have started to comprimize their principles to try and get as much from this popularity wave as possible. Ubuntu's popularity has been increasing in spite of their view's on propriatary codecs and drivers, and the trouble that come from that for the users. So no! I don't think they are going to back down on their principles.

BUT all this being said it is also important to realize that nothing comes for free. There are people working full time on Ubuntu and they will need to have food, and perhaps more importantly coffee. So it is important that they can make some money on providing proffessional support for buisnesses. And that is where we the community can do something in stead of paying money to help keep Ubuntu running for ever. We can contribute with our skills, first of all to make Ubuntu better by doing programming, translations and writing documentation, but perhaps even more important we can help Cannonical provide the best damn support ever, by testing and helping to track and solve bugs.

Soooo surfacing from my coffee induced, half philosophical, half ideological, naked swim of a brainstorm, I suppose I think the question is all wrong..!

The important question is NOT:
Will THEY keep the Ubuntu project free of charge and running for ever?
The important question is:

Will YOU keep the Ubuntu project free of charge and running for ever?

[SunnyRabbiera]

If Ubuntu wants money I would give it as long as they still offered a free version that I can try out and later go buy the nonfree.
The thing is that the nonfree distros are not that good, Mandriva sucks, Suse sucks...
But I would be proud to buy a copy of Ubuntu as it works.

[jd65pl]

I think that ubuntu has a strong "free" ethic, e.g. the firefox issue.

[tuxcantfly]

I think that ubuntu has a strong "free" ethic, e.g. the firefox issue.

No, I'd call it a strong "practicality" ethic; they compromised with mozilla for the benefit of users, instead of going iceweasel like debian. So yes, ubuntu is willing to bend some principles; it already includes non-free logos (firefox), nvidia's non-free kernel modules, and even has proprietary software in the dapper-commercial repos like opera and realplayer, but I doubt they'll go so far as to make their distribution commercial, especially if they wrote that ubuntu will always be free of charge onto their own website. If they do, I doubt people will use it anymore.

[tuxcantfly]

And as for these "sure I'll pay for ubuntu to support it" people, if you are willing to support it, why don't you just donate? Supporting ubuntu financially should be optional, not mandatory. There are two major points in free software: choice and freeness. By charging money for any distro, both these principles are being violated. Ubuntu should, and will, remain free forever like they promised it would.

[steven8]

Here is a link to Mark Shuttleworth's Ubuntu Wiki, which answers many questions about Ubuntu:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarkShuttleworth

Here is an extract specifically about the future free-osity of Ubuntu:


Will Ubuntu ever demand licence fees or royalties?

No. Never. I have no interest in taking Ubuntu to join the proprietary software industry, it's a horrible business that is boring and difficult, and dying out rapidly anyway. My motivation and goal is to find a way to create a global desktop OS that is *free*, in every sense, as well as sustainable and of a quality comparable to anything you could pay for. That's what I'm trying to do, and if we fail, well then I will go and find some other project to pursue rather than get into the proprietary software business. I don't think any of the core Ubuntu developers, or much of the community, would stick around if I went loony and decided to try the latter, anyhow.

If that isn't enough for you, then you will be happy to know that Canonical has signed public undertakings with government offices to the extent that it will never introduce a "commercial" version of Ubuntu. There will never be a difference between the "commercial" product and the "free" product, as there is with Red Hat (RHEL and Fedora). Ubuntu releases will always be free.

That said if you want to pay for Ubuntu, or something that includes Ubuntu code, you probably can. There are proprietary apps that are certified for Ubuntu. Some Ubuntu-derivatives, like Impi (in which I am an investor) are targeted toward vertical markets that demand specific software, currently proprietary, which they bundle. There is already Ubuntu code in Linspire, which you can pay for (w00t!). Though Linspire is not (yet) based directly on Ubuntu, it's not infeasible that the Linspire guys figure out what a good option that would be for them sooner rather than later. There are likely to be many specialised versions of Ubuntu, under other brand names, that have commercial or proprietary features. They might have proprietary fonts or software like Impi, or add-ons or integration with services, etc. There is also likely to be quite a lot of proprietary software available for Ubuntu (there is already a fair bit - Opera for Ubuntu was announced recently, for example). But Canonical, and I myself, and the Ubuntu Community Council and Technical Board, will not produce an "Ubuntu Professional Edition ($XX.00)". There will certainly be no "Ubuntu Vista".

[mediax]

You were missing an option that I'm sure applies to a lot of people - if not, I won't use it.

[steven8]

You were missing an option that I'm sure applies to a lot of people - if not, I won't use it.

What option?

[lyceum]

Call me naive if you will, but I actually believe this guy Mark S. Even though Ubuntu's popularity has been increasing almost exponentially that has not led to, that they have started to comprimize their principles to try and get as much from this popularity wave as possible. Ubuntu's popularity has been increasing in spite of their view's on propriatary codecs and drivers, and the trouble that come from that for the users. So no! I don't think they are going to back down on their principles.

BUT all this being said it is also important to realize that nothing comes for free. There are people working full time on Ubuntu and they will need to have food, and perhaps more importantly coffee. So it is important that they can make some money on providing proffessional support for buisnesses. And that is where we the community can do something in stead of paying money to help keep Ubuntu running for ever. We can contribute with our skills, first of all to make Ubuntu better by doing programming, translations and writing documentation, but perhaps even more important we can help Cannonical provide the best damn support ever, by testing and helping to track and solve bugs.

Soooo surfacing from my coffee induced, half philosophical, half ideological, naked swim of a brainstorm, I suppose I think the question is all wrong..!

The important question is NOT:
Will THEY keep the Ubuntu project free of charge and running for ever?
The important question is:

Will YOU keep the Ubuntu project free of charge and running for ever?

I think that is the key right there, will WE keep it free. If they have to pay people to write code, etc... and they make no money to pay them and they want to keep it going, well they only have $10 million in the bank for emergancies...

[saxonjf]

Isn't the point of the Canonical Foundation to cover the costs and allow the software to remain free in every sense?

I mean, I realize that it could run out of money, but that would be clearly against the vision of Mr. Shuttleworth. I think Shuttleworth has a vision, and to go against that vision would ruin the very purpose of what he's out to do.

Now, if for some reason Ubuntu suddenly became "proprietary," I would pay for it under two circumstances. First, it would need to be compatible with a lot more software, because I can teach myself well enough to make stuff work with Ubuntu, but if I have to pay for it, it better make life easier for me (and ironically, the free Ubuntu does that better than liscenced Windows!), and I will never pay hundreds for Ubuntu (though I would consider buying a computer bundled with licsenced Ubuntu).

I agree that the community aspect would just die, which also runs counter to even the name of the software. Ubuntu, the spirit of humanity, which you have to buy a license for and can't give to your friends under pain of imprisonment (it just doesn't work).

[lyceum]

Isn't the point of the Canonical Foundation to cover the costs and allow the software to remain free in every sense?

I mean, I realize that it could run out of money, but that would be clearly against the vision of Mr. Shuttleworth. I think Shuttleworth has a vision, and to go against that vision would ruin the very purpose of what he's out to do.

Now, if for some reason Ubuntu suddenly became "proprietary," I would pay for it under two circumstances. First, it would need to be compatible with a lot more software, because I can teach myself well enough to make stuff work with Ubuntu, but if I have to pay for it, it better make life easier for me (and ironically, the free Ubuntu does that better than liscenced Windows!), and I will never pay hundreds for Ubuntu (though I would consider buying a computer bundled with licsenced Ubuntu).

I agree that the community aspect would just die, which also runs counter to even the name of the software. Ubuntu, the spirit of humanity, which you have to buy a license for and can't give to your friends under pain of imprisonment (it just doesn't work).

To a point yes, but Canonical does not own Ubuntu. They are just the people paid to help keep it going. If they left today and the community counsel took over and no one tried to make money off of it and we kept it going, it would keep going. Someone does own the name, but I can't remember if it is Canonical or Mark.

[Zestypanda]

I am suspicious now. In 2013 I think they start to pay for it, or add a trial version.

[ManamiVixen]

No, I actually believe ther will come a time where Canonical will charge for Ubuntu and I would be willing to buy it. In a way, they already have a sticker price on the download page, but they do give the option to download anyways for free. But I suspect they may try to do what Elive did. A mandatory "donation" of sorts.

[overdrank]

From the Ubuntu Forums Code of Conduct (http://ubuntuforums.org/misc.php?do=showrules).

If a post is older than a year or so and hasn't had a new reply in that time, instead of replying to it, create a new thread. In the software world, a lot can change in a very short time, and doing things this way makes it more likely that you will find the best information. You may link to the original discussion in the new thread if you think it may be helpful.
Thread closed.

[varunendra]

Wow!! How did you guys find this thread ?? :shock:

Let it rest in peace.. Closed!

Edit : Lol! Ninja'd :P

[haqking]

2 mods and it still isnt closed yet ;-)

[CharlesA]

close + close = open?

Closed now... maybe...