Alternatively #
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 23:28 GMT
Download Ubuntu live CD for free.
Steal colleagues USB key, or pick up a government one from the pub car park.
Select install to usb stick
Spend $80 on beer
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 22:16 GMT
Excellent. Now, will the Reg hardware people be using this on laptops as part of their test suite?
Not being snarky here, I would genuinely like to see this as it will be a criteria for my own purchasing plans.
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 22:16 GMT
I've bought these before and they are really handy. The problem is that the cost of shipping makes the deal unafforable in the USA. Thankfully, they sometimes have sales.
Today cost of item in USD 59.90
cost of shipping 29.09
Twenty nine dollars to ship a USB key?
No thanks.
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 22:16 GMT
.....beats the paps of XP and Vista, no doubt.
I've been using Mandriva for around 18months on my home laptop. Works like a treat.
Would recommend it without a shadow of a doubt.
AS for the usb stick, well, if you already have Mandriva there is a 'save as a bootable....' option, but you still have to buy the 8gb stick to put it on ; £15 for the usb and 25 for the 'ease of having it done correctly...', is perhaps not a bad return.
P.
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 23:28 GMT
Download Ubuntu live CD for free.
Steal colleagues USB key, or pick up a government one from the pub car park.
Select install to usb stick
Spend $80 on beer
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 23:50 GMT
Nice 8gb pendrives only 8 quid these days.
+ http://www.pendrivelinux.com
It's hardly rocket science.
Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 23:50 GMT
I'll stick with Ubuntu. Free download direct from their website. Burn a boot disc, boot, install, end of story. Still haven't spent any money and I have a full working system with office suite, games, music recording software, the works.
Posted Friday 17th July 2009 08:46 GMT
"I'll stick with Ubuntu. Free download direct from their website."
Guess what - if you bother to check their website (www.mandriva.com) you'll find that Mandriva is also a free download. Not having an entrepreneur and his millions behind them Mandriva tries to make a bit of cash from their desktop distro by selling merchandisey things like this (they've also got an 'enterprise' version on a similar pay-for model as RHEL).
The entire distro and all the extended repositories are still availble for free online though if you just want to download it.
Posted Friday 17th July 2009 08:46 GMT
They want me to PAY FOR it? For a free, open-source operating system which I could download for free and stick on a USB disk I already ahve? That's ridiculous. I'd rather stick with Ubuntu.
Posted Friday 17th July 2009 09:54 GMT
Yes, they ask that you pay for some merchandise thereby supporting development. You are more than free to download for free. To compile it for free. To take a free USB stick and put it on there for free. To ram said USB forceably wherever you want for free.
But if you feel like giving something back to a community and have the coding skills of a cock-fingered rabbit you are also free to give some money to the foundation and recieve a fancy little USB stick in return.
Incidentally... Ubuntu also sells a USB stick preloaded with 9.04. Yes, they want you to PAY FOR it. For a free open source etc, etc, etc...
Posted Friday 17th July 2009 12:43 GMT
Come on, that's a little harsh. But be honest here, who will take Mandriva (or Ubuntu, yes, well done) up on that offer? For every "cock-fingered rabbit" willing to get squeezed to the tune of forty quid, there will be many who are happy to forego the USB stick and pay zero quid. Luckily my coding skills exceed those of a "cock-fingered rabbit" thus I can avoid the penance I should apparently be paying.
I could understand, perhaps, if the whole thing was about £20, max. The price they're charging is disproportionate.
Posted Saturday 18th July 2009 07:16 GMT
Remember free as in freedom, not free as in beer. This is precisely the sort of added value product that free software companies are supposed to make their living with, innit? If you think it's too expensive, don't buy it - the price will come down or the product will disappear if it really is too expensive. In an environment where people will pay top-dollar for a mediocre mobile phone packaged as an alien tampon-applicator, I'd say anything goes.
Posted Sunday 19th July 2009 12:00 GMT
> But if you feel like giving something back to a community
Not really, no.