Best Buy selling Ubuntu linux for $20

[kender42]

I called BestBuy this morning to find out about Ubuntu and they told me that it has NEVER been offered for free and they are offering a deal from the regularly priced $200 price tag. They tried to convince me that they bought a license from Ubuntu for $200 a cd. Now that is laughable since I gave them the ubuntu web site and told them that according to the website you can download it or receive a cd in the mail for free.

WOW, best buy is really stretching things a bit

[bruce89]

I wonder how much money goes to the people who did most of the work (upstream).

[fatality_uk]

I called BestBuy this morning to find out about Ubuntu and they told me that it has NEVER been offered for free and they are offering a deal from the regularly priced $200 price tag. They tried to convince me that they bought a license from Ubuntu for $200 a cd. Now that is laughable since I gave them the ubuntu web site and told them that according to the website you can download it or receive a cd in the mail for free.

WOW, best buy is really stretching things a bit

And I assume you spoke to someone like a marketing director or public relations director for an "On the record" quote?

Or, did you phone your local BestBuy and speak to cashier Dave/Phil or Geoff?

[FyreBrand]

Legal?
Yes

Right?
Not IMO...

Why isn't it right? Is RedHat immoral for selling it's OS software package? I don't think so. The wider the adoption the more people we are going to find who would rather pay to have someone do some of the work for them. It takes time and money to do it all yourself. In this case people are paying $20 for someone to create an install CD for them and for a retail business to shelve and make it available. This sounds like a great deal to me. Hopefully soon we will see people that like the OS and are willing to pay for it to be pre-installed and sold in retail outlets.

[LaRoza]

I wonder how much money goes to the people who did most of the work (upstream).

Probably none. Best Buy likely gets all but the production (burning) money.

[Vadi]

And I assume you spoke to someone like a marketing director or public relations director for an "On the record" quote?

Or, did you phone your local BestBuy and speak to cashier Dave/Phil or Geoff?

Package, short manual & support cost $20, and I think on-site installation $140 (wow, those technicians must be getting paid well).

[jsmidt]

Guys, the best way to get Upstream supported, financially, is if Linux were to go mainstream.

Seriously, everyone, not just Ubuntu will financially benefit from Linux going mainstream.

It's that simple.

[fatality_uk]

Package, short manual & support cost $20, and I think on-site installation $140 (wow, those technicians must be getting paid well).

Doubt it!!

[Frak]

And some Ubuntu community members are more likely to say "Why are you complaining about something that's free?" if people complain and haven't paid for Ubuntu. Do you have a source for this? It seems it would make economic sense for a cost-free publication with a 4,000,000-person readership to have more bargaining power over advertising prices than a pay-for publication with a 40,000-person readership.

craigslist much?

[Vadi]

He's the local smart pessimist.