Where's a good online shop to buy linux distros?

[miniMUNCH]

I looking for the retail package of Suse Linux 7.2 pro specifically. I know there are several places online to buy just the CD's...I want the retail pack, though. I dunno...call me stupid.

Amazon has it for 59.99 - 10 coupon + shipping and tax for CA... any of you guys know of a cheaper buy??

I would think there is but PW and pricegrabber don't show sh!t.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Louie1961a]

Two things:

First, I wouldn't buy 7.2 Suse is on the 5th beta release for 7.3, so you may want to hold off and pay for the latest and greatest. I applaude your effort to support suse however.

Second, This distro costs all distributors the same amount, so you are not likely to find it at a better price. If you do then one of two things is likely going on...either it is pirated software (likely) or someone is selling at a loss (not so likely)

I am sorry that I am not familiar with the changes pending in suse 7.3, so I have no idea if it is worth waiting for. At the very least it will likely have the latest KDE release and latest kernel release, and probably gcc 3.0. Any other changes are likely to be bug fixes, which may be worth the wait.

 

[BreakApart]

Here is a good place to try: Linuxcentral.com

They sell both the Retail packages and iso disc burns.

It appears amazon has a better deal on the SuSe package you want.

Good Luck

 

[miniMUNCH]

THank you both very much...I was not aware that 7.3 was so close...I'll wait.

I know of linuxcentral.com...have it bookmarked.

I was concerned that I might be missing a sight that sells linux packages in volume, something like linuxcentral but cheaper...guess that really isn't an issue.

I have red hat 7.1 right now...got it free with my Power Edge 1400SC a month ago.

 

[Louie1961a]

In keeping with my being the bearer of news (I will leave you to decide if it is good or not), red hat is on release candidate 2 of version 7.2, which will include KDE2.2 (or whatever the latest is..I don't follow KDE to closely), Gnome 1.4, ext3 file system, GRUB boot loader instead of LILO, and whole host of other changes, including some sweping changes to their proprietary tools (i.e., new tools added, Linuxconfig deprecated). So if you are into Red Hat, you can have an all new version of that to play with soon too.

 

[gershel]

http://cheapbytes.com/

 

[miniMUNCH]

Maybe I'll grab both...

 

[viguru]

Remember: Linux is open-source. There is no such thing as pirated Linux software because most of it is under the GPL. Go over and register at www.linuxjunior.org and post in the Flea Market forum and most people will just mail you a distro and provide all the free technical support you want.

If you do want to buy a distro to help the cause. Buy Debian, they are the only non-profit Linux distribution that I know of.

 

[DAM]

i highly recommend everyone buy atleast one copy of their fav linux flavor, just for support, its usually around 20-30 bucks. i bought my suse 6.x a while back (1 year? maybe more) now i want to buy me a mandrake, but im waiting for the latest release (and to have money) but for the mean time, i love the drake.





dam()

 

[miniMUNCH]

Wow DAM,

An even 5000 posts when I read....I just hit 1000 today.

I know linux is opensource...but the suse distro pro bundle is very nice, has tons of very good printed docs and comes on DVD.

Hope Debian suceeds...

At this point, Linux is running so strong that it won't die for a long time. And major tools developers are just now putting out the good stuff for Linux. IBM has thrown full support for Linux development with a full line of VisualAge products...Borland has ported...Sybase, Oracle and DB2 (IBM) ported a while back, but now have really good DB suites for Linux...

Sure windows tools are still quite a bit ahead but Linux tolls are gaining fast.

I'm not really thrilled with what I've seen of GNU stuff, of course I've only peeked at the freebies... I think the future success of Linux lies in the availability of really solid, legacy supported programming tools and component libraries (by legacy I mean supported by company who's been around and will stay around: ibm, borland, sun, sybase, oracle, etc.).

I think that Linux, although I realy don't know enough to call this an educated opinion, will eventual move away from pure open source..albeit remain dirt cheap...but someone has to have control in order for the masses to follow. What mean is...it is not easy to develop and/or even port a app to Linux...it's very resource intensive...moreso than windows. What I mentioned before about tools will help cure that malady. But developers are reticent to develop for a platform that may appear unstable (or even changing too quickly) for both engineering and market reasons: maintenance costs may be high and unpredictable and many large companies don't want to run an "unstable" platform for same reasons. So there is not enoung money in developing for Linux and then companies don't want implement Linux cause their are no legacy apps...it kinda snow balls.

But I think this is all changing...in the tools aspect and the kernel/shell development strategy/planning aspect. I doubt it would ever happen this way but if, for some reason, a company like ibm or hp or sun ( or a smaller well-known company even) controlled the Linux OS...Linux would take off like a rocket, especially were it ibm. The fact that ibm supports Linux so heavily is one of the bastions of it strength in the market right now, not mention suport from hp and sun ( all IMO).

 

[viguru]

Your not a programmer are you? Linux is GNU, GNU is the operating system that you use when you run Linux. Linux is just a kernel that came along at the right time. OpenSource software is the greatest software you can use. It is software that is written beautifully because the programmer cares. I myself have written some software for work that I am not proud of because I was rushed. OpenSource software isnt like that, you can take all the time you need and you can have some of the brightest and monst talented programmers help you. In short, OpenSource software is here to stay and it is the future. I cannot even begin to name all of the software that is OpenSource and is has no equal on the proprietary market. You cannot beat collaborative efforts! I am not trying to flame you or anything. But, I think a lot of windows professionals and non-programmers dont always see the beauty that is OpenSource.