Comp USA selling Linux Again

[mobrien_12]

Guess what I saw in my local Comp USA, which had been noticably absent for I think almost a year?

Yup, they started selling shrink wrapped, boxed, Linux distros again, and more than one.  They had SUSE 10.0, three different versions of Xandros (you know, basic, advanced, and more expensive professionial with StarOffice and other stuff in it), and two versions of Linspire.  

No FreeBSD though.

This, overall, I think is good.  There's a lot of advantages to buying a distro over downloading one.  You get Multiple versions (x86 and X86-64), multiple media (CDROM and DVD-ROM),  and support, a printed manual (a real book), support from the company, and you usually get a bunch more software on media than you would by downloading...

For example, when I downloaded FC5, a great deal of the software that I wanted wasn't included in the download.  I learned later that I could get it through YUM, but that took time.   When I had bought RH9, most of the software was on RPMS on an extra CD, saving download time.

[WMD]

Hmm...I know somebody who works at a CompUSA.  I'll ask him about this.

Neato.

[GenuineAdvantage]

Just the books is what I care about anyways. Having actual physical stuff you can consult outside the computer can be useful when configuring. In fact that's how I see it when buying the book about a distribution. The disks are just extra stuff.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Linspire ... yuck ... why ?

[inane]

Linspire ... yuck ... why ?

I've actually seen a couple good points about Linspire... their installer is an example for all other distros, no doubt.

[TuxLinux]

I had gentoo, however recently switched to ubuntu. That is because these days do not want to compile and settle a little. Linspire  is  likely the first steps to linux. It probably could be debated if / why not linspire is a good / bad choice.


Personally I have tried linspire  when they were offering free codes. That way (if correct) in 2004 with 4.x version.It is still in the briefcase on mylinspire server if ever wanted to redownload it.  Could not get used to it because it gave me a feeling as it was trying to  spoon feed me. By nature, I am type of person that likes to rip things apart and explore. Linspire was very restrictive in my view. It is not meant to be modified  extensively and  works best with defaults and CNR.  Although what I said may be questioned that it is indeed linux and possible to change things. It is, but it will not be a piece of  pie to do so. I had lots of trouble  with GCC and also  changing to use other sources was a hassle ex dependency from mixing environments to open respos. Of course they need a way to make money! So they are trying to make it a bit tougher so people use CNR. They are soon to release freespire too not sure when. This is based on my experience so milage may vary.

 Ubuntu  is between worlds, it is easier to  make it more  custom. Of course for true horsepower one would likely  go with "pure" bare. Like I said  because of  constraints these days I settled  for ubuntu and find it good for my needs. Although sometimes it  wants to try to do its own way we compromise in the end. It is more standard unlike linspire.

Today on this slack day I am sitting here at home booted in ubuntu and typing in  firefox. Heh for the specs here It is not  dread slow in fact it is very stable.

Linspire ... yuck ... why ?

[worker201]

Agree on the concept of books.  The book that came with Suse8 was fantastic, I still refer to it every now and then for general Linux information.

Barnes&Noble has been known to sell Fedora books that contain Fedora dvds, for anyone who wants books and RedHat all at the same time.

[davidnix71]

Years ago I got Fedora Core 2 at Barnes and Noble. They had lots of Linux distros with manuals. The 1000 page book by Mark Sobell it came with was what made it worth the 50 bucks. I've given away the cds, but the book is great reference.

CompUSA's prices are too high for me but they sells macs here.

Office Depot here was still trying to sell Red Hat 5.2 while 7.x was out. Wanted 50 or 60 dollars for it too.

Ubuntu allows easy installation of the full version of VLC. Thats one reason I prefer it. Otherwise you have to manually compile the decss stuff to play commercial dvds.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I've actually seen a couple good points about Linspire... their installer is an example for all other distros, no doubt.

The Red Hat anaconda installer is even better ... but yeah the installer is about the only "good" thing about it ... but it's still damn slow (the installer and the OS).

[7031]

Pretty cool to see any shop selling Linux really. I wouldn't mind paying for SuSE Linux.

[Aloone_Jonez]

To be honest I've never seen any shop here in the UK sell anything but Windows or MS/DR-DOS, well the latter was over 10 years ago.

[piratePenguin]

To be honest I've never seen any shop here in the UK sell anything but Windows

Same.