Was Ubuntu cost-free for you?

[aysiu]

Some people (like me) were lucky and just happened to have Linux-compatible hardware when they started using Ubuntu.

Others have had to stop using or replace incompatible hardware.

What did you have to do? Was Ubuntu truly cost-free, or did you have to spend money getting replacement compatible hardware?

[jrusso2]

I have been staying away from Non linux friendly hardware for a long time so no problems.

[mellowd]

I installed Ubuntu on an old PC I got from work. I then wanted to stick my bigger SATA hard drives in there and found the BIOS was not compatible with a pci sata card. I already had an older AMD cpu lying around so I bought a new motherboard, ram and cpu fan. Not too much spent yet.

[NliteN]

No ... it's cost was approximately $1.

[p_quarles]

Everything worked when I initially switched to Linux. I tend to go for medium-spec computers, which usually means an integrated Intel video accelerator.

When I bought a laptop earlier this year, I made sure to get a wireless card that would work with Linux. That meant an upgrade that cost me $20 extra. So, not much money spent specifically for Ubuntu compatibility.

[23meg]

I've always had compatible hardware; the only cost has been blank CDs.

[hvac3901]

I only used a CD, ok two, one of my co-workers wants to give it a go too.

I am still learning what softwares will run some of my stuff, but so far everything has worked or has had a functional driver available to use whatever i have, if i needed t do anything.

[Lostincyberspace]

first month of my computer itwasnt but since the new version of ubuntu every thing has worked except for the nvidia drivers.

[a12ctic]

Mmm, I've never had major compatibility issues in Linux on any hardware, except some exotic stuff like wireless cards and MTP devices. I've been using it for several years too.

[smartboyathome]

Everything worked for me, but I was lucky I bought a linux-compatible computer from HP (it was stated it was compatible after switching when doing a search on their site so I could get one for my friend, but unfortunately they don't carry it anymore :().

[BDNiner]

I had to build a second computer from some old parts, since dual booting ruined my windows installation. I only spent money on memory and a new motherboard, and a new DVD drive since i only had CDRWs lying around.

And most of my midi equipment is incompatible.

[x0as]

Just the cost of cd's, I've always bought linux compatible hardware.

[Tenken]

The only cost was a burned CD, all my hardware worked because I switched from another distro.

[bobbocanfly]

I burned the CDs so got it for essentially nothing. Though im sure its cost me a fair bit in electricity over the last year, staying up for so long.

[koleoptero]

I burned the CDs so got it for essentially nothing. Though im sure its cost me a fair bit in electricity over the last year, staying up for so long.

I can understand what you mean... :lolflag:

I have a laptop so either it would have cost me nothing or I wouldn't be using it, since there's not much you can change in laptops, but it even recognized my adsl modem (after some mild work) just fine.

[cmargolin]

Free except for that Dell computer that came in the box with it.

[-grubby]

almost nothing, I burnt the CDs myself. Though it took a little tinkering to get my NVIDIA card to work, but it turns out that it's pretty easy to fix

[lostcause64]

Other than 2 crashed XP installs while trying to dual-boot, recovering 150gb of lost data from the crashes and repartitioning, several cds for the various versions, never mind the amount of time spent trying to get it working... oh yeah, I never have gotten it to work if I keep insisting on using my Sapphire built ATI X850XT.

Would have been no problem at all except for this graphics card...

[Fonon]

Yeah, it was almost completely free for me. I burned my CD,and imagine my surprise that all my hardware except my sound card was compatible! But now, I just use integrated sound, so no biggy.

[Dennis Hogan]

Let's see, the box was a gift from my mother-in-law.
The bandwidth to download the net-install iso and the CD itself were office supplies from work.
In other words, Ubuntu cost me a weekend visit from my mother-in-law, plus my time trying to figure out which options I needed to get it to play nice with a Compaq.

[eljoeb]

Aside from the time it took to install it and get my stuff working (A LOT of time) it didn't cost me anything.

[venator260]

For my desktop it was the cost of a few burnt CD's over the year or so that i've been using for various installs. I had no hardware troubles on a Dell Dimension 3000; everything has 'just worked' from 6.10 up

For my laptop that has no CD drive, I did a net install. Again, absolutely no hardware troubles on a Toshiba Portege M200 with 7.10. And to get the pen working on this notebook, just a bit of fiddling to the xorg.conf file

[init1]

Some people (like me) were lucky and just happened to have Linux-compatible hardware when they started using Ubuntu.

Others have had to stop using or replace incompatible hardware.

What did you have to do? Was Ubuntu truly cost-free, or did you have to spend money getting replacement compatible hardware?

My wireless card didn't work, but I still used Ubuntu.

[acl123]

In terms of cash spent its been completely free.

I'm in a time=money situation though and I'm not one of those people who considers fixing Ubuntu an enjoyable hobby... so if I consider the time involved messing around with Ubuntu to get to a point where I can do most things that I could do on Windows then I would be looking at about:

5 months I've owned Ubuntu
* 20-30 minutes a day on average
* money I could be making
= around 3.5 Australian grand

[hellmet]

Well, I had to buy a sub10$ LAN card to get my internet working on my desktop. I've bought 3-4 computers after that, and now, I ensure Linux runs on it before actually investing in them.

[dasunst3r]

I had to do my homework to make sure what works and what doesn't, but other than that, I've had no trouble with my hardware whatsoever! Things could only get better from here! :D

[aysiu]

I'm in a time=money situation though and I'm not one of those people who considers fixing Ubuntu an enjoyable hobby... so if I consider the time involved messing around with Ubuntu to get to a point where I can do most things that I could do on Windows then I would be looking at about:

5 months I've owned Ubuntu
* 20-30 minutes a day on average
* money I could be making
= around 3.5 Australian grand If I were in a paid-per-hour situation (non-exempt or self-employed freelance), I probably would never have taken the time to install and configure Ubuntu.

Every job I've had has been a salaried position, though.

I blogged about this idea here (http://ubuntucat.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/my-time-has-no-value/), in case anyone's interested.

[jviscosi]

Ubuntu didn't cost me much of anything. Mandrake, on the other hand, cost me a good deal of money, but I just consider that an escape price, like paying a coyote to smuggle me out of that oppressive state known as "Microsoft Windows".

[jrharvey]

I spent about 6 months trying to figure out how to get my nvidia fx5200 to work but i eventually gave up and bought a new card. This was when i was still using fiesty fawn so i dont know how it would work in Gutsy.

[markp1989]

didnt cost me much, just the cost of a CD, i did decide to add a new graphics card to enable desktop effects, but that want needed

[Billy_McBong]

all it cost me was some CDs and the time getting used to Linux
but it was sooooo worth it

[Irihapeti]

I chose to purchase a driver for my winmodem, because that was quicker and cheaper than any other option available to me.

Everything else just works, and I consider the money very well spent.

[Skorzen]

It cost me nothing. I didn't even have to burn CDs, since I got free CDs.

[Vadi]

Just the few cents for a blank CD...

The only things I did to my laptop after I got Ubuntu on it were buy a wireless card (I shopped around for a ubuntu-friendly one) and a new harddrive. Those can't be attributed to Ubuntu's cost.

So, this was great ROI.

[JAPrufrock]

I couldn't get my Lexmark printer to work. However, I was pretty disgusted with the printer anyway- a $100 printer. but it costs almost $100 to buy 2 refill cartridges for it- which basically makes it a throw-away printer. So I had this old HP laserjet laying around that I never used anymore. No color, but who cares. Works like a dream with Ubuntu. So it didn't really cost me anything, and it made me get rid of something I didn't want.

[championboxes]

I still have issues with hardware on my laptop (bluetooth/webcam/wireless) but I have been using ubuntu since edgy so the only real cost was CD's... (and a couple dvd's ;-) )

[Lostincyberspace]

Just the few cents for a blank CD...

The only things I did to my laptop after I got Ubuntu on it were buy a wireless card (I shopped around for a ubuntu-friendly one) and a new harddrive. Those can't be attributed to Ubuntu's cost.

So, this was great ROI.

its getting pretty hard to find those now. Mine has been out four years and didn't have support in Linux until gutsy and now it works great.

[DirtDawg]

It actually saved me money. The only computer I had at the time was my lil' red imac. It had no OS whatsoever and had been sitting in a closet for 2 years when I decided to give Linux a try.

Actually, I guess Mandrake was the first distro, but when Warty came out it worked way better.

So yeah, saved me from the need to buy a new computer or continue going without one.

[Incense]

I have been lucky enough to always just happen to have linux compatible hardware.

[fadumpt]

it hasn't stopped costing me...i keep having to get cool systems because so much is compatible.

and I am getting the hang of this Whole "tablet mode" text writing

[grossaffe]

technically I got the CD for free, but it was a 6.04(?) CD. When I finally tried it on my laptop it was outdated and didn't have the driver to run my graphics card so I could only run it in low-graphics mode. I finally decided to download gutsy and give it a try on my desktop and loved it

edit: after getting 7.10 I had zero hardware problems. Ironically, not long after installing Ubuntu, my graphics card stopped working under WinXP (which I was multi-booting to) because of some random device conflict, so technically ubuntu SAVED me functionality. yay linux.

[RiceMonster]

With intel graphics, sound and wireless, I have no compatibility problems at all :D. I just had to pay for a blank CD.

[lisati]

As well as the disk for burning an alternate CD (my laptop didn't like the Live CD at first, took too long to do anything), it cost me time to research a couple of minor tweaks to deal with some relatively minor annoyances.

[EdThaSlayer]

It was cost-free for me. The only things I had to pay for was a couple of cds and then for the internet to download the 700 or more megabytes.

[dross_kuh]

cost a pittance for the cd to burn it onto...

what i gained tho was far more impressive ;) no more BSOD's

[BigSilly]

Never had any bother with Linux on this PC at all. It's been fantastic. I did have to replace my old Lexmark printer for a HP 8050. It's the only piece of hardware I had to change.

[infoseeker]

Bandwidth costs an arm and a leg (and more) here in South Africa (R100.00 per GB ie. $12.00). Downloading the iso cost me, updates costs me, etc, etc. My Core2Duo, SB Audigy, Nvidia 8600GT are all 100% compatible.

[barbedsaber]

I really don't care that by webcam doesn't work (no friends, sigh), and I don't even OWN an SD card, so I don't care that the ready doesn't work.

[chris4585]

Everything just worked on my HP media center with my nvidia card =)

Now that I realize how lucky I am I'm happy I picked the glossy-shiny one at staples 8-)

[jimi_hendrix]

one thing that the poll forgot was that you have to pay your ISP to download ubuntu

other then that it was just the CD

[super breadfish]

I burn my own discs, but how much of a cost is a blank CD now? With the bulk deals available now the cost of a single disc is insignificant.

[nick09]

Seeing that this PC is 4 years old it was easily supported. The only cost is the DVD I burned it to but I had the DVD laying around and no cds.

[starcannon]

It cost me the time to learn how to do things the Linux way. Of course Windows and Mac cost the same.

Now that I've been using Linux for 10+ years, Ubuntu exclusively for 5+ years, and repairing windows for other people, I'd have to say that I owe Ubuntu hours. The meager amount relatively speaking that I put into learning Ubuntu, has more than quadrupled itself in time gained by not spending my weekends debugging a registry, or removing the latest virus.

I now build my desktops with linux compatibility as my first thought, I buy laptops with Linux compatibility as my first thought, and I don't have any problems what so ever (cloudbooks don't count, they were not honest).

Anyway, I've spent a few cents here and there on burning my own CD's for this distro or that, I received some free Ubuntu CD's a very long time ago, and have burnt my own ever since, but considering how much I have saved, and indeed gained from Ubuntu, I'd have to say I've made money, not spent it.

Thanks to the entire Canonical/Ubuntu Team.

[ugm6hr]

Cost of a CD for me too... Essentially unlimited broadband - so no issues with the download.

While I haven't replaced any hardware (I'd probably have stuck with Windows if it was necessary), a Linux-compatible DVB TV card was about £5 more than a generic Windows one when I bought it last year.

My brother ditched a Broadcom wifi for a new Atheros in his laptop - only £12.

In the grand scheme of things, not much in terms of cost by my standards, but not strictly free either.

[billgoldberg]

All my hardware was/is linux compatible.

So I got lucky there.

My usb wifi drive doesn't work, but I prefer using an ethernet cable anyway for my desktop.

And I got that usb wifi drive for free.

[Zeotronic]

All of my hardware was Linux compatible... at the time I still used my modem, and I had a hell of a time getting that working (thanks to Dell for how I ever got it working), but it all worked out.

[mikjp]

a) I needed a broadband connection
b) I had to buy a new graphics card because of the buggy driver in Ubuntu 8.04

mikko

[Inane_Asylum]

Not yet, but it probably will, as it's looking like I'll never get the WiFi or sound working on my Satellite A205-S5809. Mebbe I'll just swap out WiFi cards with my junked Alienware laptop...

[3rdalbum]

Nice question!

It cost me one blank CD initially. My hardware was supported. When I switched computers I bought an MP3 player that was always incompatible (I didn't mind at that stage, I still had Windows). Eventually I did upgrade my MP3 player to a new Linux-compatible model, but I was always going to upgrade to something different anyway.

So I guess it sorta cost me $250 for a new MP3 player, but not really because I would have upgraded even if the first player was Linux-compatible.

[Naiki Muliaina]

Well, when i first got Ubuntu, twas about 3 years ago of a linux magazine. I had gotten Mandriva on a previous issue and liked it so was buying the magazine anyways. Ive gotten a new laptop and desktop scince which ive had to burn the CD's for. So i guess its cost me 2 CD's and the magazine doesnt realy count ^^

[lukjad]

My first machine was an old Win98 box with a 6 Gig Hard Dive. I didn't have sound but since I had never used sound before, not have in to have 14 anti-spyware/virus/adware programs increased my functionality and also gave me more programs to use than I had before. Also, I could finally use my USB card. So I lost one sound card and gained two USB ports. Good trade off. The PC I have now is a step up and I have sound. I still have the old PC, it is holding my monitor up. ;)

[emshains]

I buy a nvidia graphics card, because SiS integrated graphics accelerator wasnt quite as compatible as I would have wanted it to be. But then again, I would buy a new card, just because the SiS accelerator wouldnt do even if I had windows, because of its low performance.

[aysiu]

one thing that the poll forgot was that you have to pay your ISP to download ubuntu

other then that it was just the CD
Maybe it was a bit self-centered of me. My ISP doesn't charge by the download. I pay a flat fee per month and can download or upload as much as I want.

[dje]

just a cd which i already had :D

[nick09]

Maybe it was a bit self-centered of me. My ISP doesn't charge by the download. I pay a flat fee per month and can download or upload as much as I want.

I'm on the same boat here with you aysiu except my parents pay for the internet. 10MB download and 1MB upload here.