Ubuntu being sold retail by Best Buy. But will it stay?

The news is out that Best Buy is selling Ubuntu Linux retail for $19.95. It's a nice step forward for Ubuntu, but not for Linux. It used to be possible to buy Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux retail. That's actually where I bought my first copy of SUSE Linux while working at Novell.

So, the real news isn't that it's being sold retail. The real news will be if it stays. Red Hat didn't see the value in keeping a retail distribution of Linux. Will Ubuntu?

[Penguinisto]

Funny enough, Canonical will ship you the same CDs for free if you go to their website and ask them to. IMHO, What they should have done is to ship Ubuntu in a box w/ a decent manual (not big, just precise and sueful), and sell it for the cost of the materials, the book, and 1 year of free phone tech support - call it $89.99 or so. The price range shows otherwise blind consumers that the thing is worth something (I know, strange, but ordinary consumers don't consider software valuable unless it has a somewhat good-sized pricetag on it - a perception thing), and it would provide the things that ordinary users would need the most - a helping hand towards transition.

[Vegaman_Dan]

The problem with that is that when you go into a box store and buy the OS, you would then want to buy applications and games that are also sold at that store... which won't run on the OS. Now geeks all know this and know of emulators, workarounds, and so on. The average consumer who is going to Best Buy isn't your geek though, and won't know this. They will buy the box and several games, go home install it, and then get very PO'd that the games and other apps they bought can't be used- worse yet, now that they are opened, they can't return them to the store either. That's the problem Walmart an into a lot until they finally dropped Linux entirely. It's simply not ready for the mass consumer market which is under educated about the product. If you could display it on the shelf with all the other apps that are native to it that do not require a geek to figure out emulation and such, then you have a chance. Right now though... it's been tried. I just don't see it happening.

[daftkey]

Penguinisto: That's exactly what we saw with Red Hat (most notable at the store I worked at). I think $65CDN gave you the CD, a small manual, and some installation support. What was really a hoot was the different versions we had - Intel, SPARC, and ALPHA versions were all on the shelf.

You make another good point though - not only are people competing with "free", but they are most likely getting an out-of-date version of the software (that's exactly what keeps stopping me from buying a linux book with a linux CD - it's always out of date).

Vegaman_Dan: This was also done in the late 90's with Red Hat, Corel Linux, and a couple of other shrinkwrapped distros. We had Corel WordPerfect office and a few other titles available on the shelf with Linux (we actually had Linux section that was close to the size of the Mac section at one point).

The other problem with the off-the-shelf OS for $100 or so is that people (even geeks, as we'd found) expect it to work out of the box with minimal fuss.. The new Ubuntu may be better at this than Red Hat of ten years ago for ease of installation, but will it be as easy as the users expect? (on another note, how many AOLers do you think will forget to read the part about reformatting the hard drive toasting all their data as part of the installation?)

[Penguinisto]

Dan: In Ubuntu, you merely go to "Add/Remove Programs", and all the apps you want are there. Ubuntu also comes with thousands of apps right there during install, which you can pick and choose from. Getting that fact onto the box would do wonders for them. .
daftkey: a boxed set is only out-of-date until you hook it up and get online. After that, it all updates, right down to the kernel. Also, Ubuntu doesn't "reformat the hard drive toasting all the data" - it goes out of its way (like most distros) to allow for repartitioning, and warns you plain and clear if you select a formatting option that can wipe out the hard disk.

[The_Decider]

Holy crap Dan, every time I read a post I think "He finally hit the rock bottom of stupid" Then you prove me wrong. Good work.

As Penguin said all the software anyone needs is 1 click away.

[ArtInvent]

Well, the real real news would be if Best Buy is gonna do a lot of business selling for $20 something you can download for free in about 20 minutes and burn on a 5 cent CD.

[inachu]

But to have a small manual and maybe someday a free t-shirt that comes with every linux box sold at retail would be nice.

[russkeller]

Ya know what I find funny. If it was sold for 100 bucks instead of 20 the public would probably take it more seriously. They can't wrap their heads around the idea that it's both free and quality. In normal life that just doesn't compute.

[feranick]

It's called visibility. It's true that you can download it for free, but honestly how many people actually know that? The casual shopper will find it in the store and might give it a try. I think this is a good thing. (As a side note, you get a manual together with the CD).

[amarkj]

How many "casual" shoppers will want to install Ubuntu on a computer?

[feranick]

Not many. But some might. XP won't last forever, and considering that boxed version of XP are outselling Vista by a good margin (check Amazon...) once XP finally dies, other alternatives might turn out to be appealing. If nothing else, branding given by shelf-presence will help spreading the word. So if the "casual shopper" sees the box, he might just say to someone that might suggest or simply talk about Ubuntu: " Oh yes, I saw that on Best Buy".

Of course it won't change any market share, but it will help widening the product visibility.

[Penguinisto]

If they included a Live CD in the box, they won;t have to install anything - simply boot off of the CD and give it a spin without touching the hard disk. If you like it, you can install it, or boot off of the live CD as often as you want, no strings attached.

[daftkey]

Penguinisto: the Live CD included idea amounts to asking users to pay $20 for a demo CD.

I think you've been missing the issue here - you know, I know, Vegaman_Dan knows, and Matt knows what you can and can't do with the Ubuntu Linux DVD that will likely come in the box. The question is whether the people who might look at it on a store shelf will know this. My take is that they won't. They will see a box touting the next big thing in operating systems, promising to do everything under the sun, for only $20.

I think Canonical will learn very quickly what Red Hat already knows about shrinkwrapped Linux in a big-box store. With inept customers, and really inept salespeople, and "bastard child" merchandising that befalls "lower margin" items, there will be some very full discount bins this boxing day.

[rcardona2k]

What games come with Ubuntu, again? Are there FOSS versions of Solitare, FreeCell and minesweeper? That's worth $20 ;)

[feranick]

Freecell, mines and many others (including sudoku!) are available by default in any modern Linux system. No need to spend 20$ on it. And even if you have, it's still cheaper than Windows, which out of the box gives you basically only a few games and a calculator.

[The_Decider]

Literally thousands of games come free. From card to arcade to board to stuff like quake 3(old but still fun and it is in the opensuse repositories, probably others). My favs are missile command, reversi, poker, blackjack, risk, and breakout.

[brass2themax]

This is a good way to get the word out about Ubuntu, but it also means BestBuy makes money on the deal, and it goes against everything the open source community stands for. It's a double-edged sword.

[rossstock]

Redhat makes money with Linux. Novell makes money with Linux. IBM makes money with Linux. No one said there is no money to made, or that no money should be made, with Linux ... it's just that you have to make money adding value, not hoarding the code and halting innovation for the sake of propping up prices on old, inflexible technology.

[The_Decider]

Why do you think that making money and OSS are disjoint?

[carltonleesg]

As long as Canonical puts a flier in the box explaining that you can get newer versions for free by downloading from the internet or by requesting a mailer I think its a good thing.

("BestBuy makes money on the deal, and it goes against everything the open source community stands for.")

Nothing quite like being wrong!
I don't believe Best Buy is changing any code. The full source is available on the Internet. Minimal charges for distribution is happening.
All within community standards.

[slickuser]

LINUX SUCKS BIG TIME. Once everyone said its going to kill Microsoft and crap like that.

It didn't do a s&*#!!

Linux is for geeks!

[Vegaman_Dan]

Linux, like all OS' have its place in the market. They all have pros and cons for their particular offerings. If you need a headless server, then Linux is ideal. If you are a technically apt person, ie 'geek', then Linux is a neat experience that offers a lot of control and customization by the end user. If you are going to give a machine to a new or first time computer user, then Linux is *not* suited for that- they should consider a Windows or Macintosh system.

Your comments only degrade the conversation, I'm afraid.

[rossstock]

Reading and commenting on a story like this is for geeks.

[anon8mizer]

It's just a way to lure consumers to pay Best Buy's GeekSquad to install Ubuntu for them.

[bobsligh]

It's good to see it available in a retail location! I think it is just the correct time for it to be on the shelve for the general population. MS Vista dont have the best name for itself and this will be a welcome choice for consumers who don't want to hassle with all the MS registering and big business attitude. It's cheap it works and it will allow the public to go on line and do what ever is needed to do . I use it :o) I like it . Anyone who dont have it should get it and see for them selves!. down load it free or dont hassle with down load go to store and buy it . Cheers

[inachu]

If all flavors of Linux were on retail shelves I would buy them all just to get the experience of each. I bought Suse when it was on retail shelves and would love to see it back in retail again.

I would like to see a gaming version of linux made just for hardcore gamers.

[Penguinisto]

I still have the Quake 3 for Linux collectable metal box, come to think of it...

[Seaspray0]

Ubuntu can be downloaded for free. But the funny thing... it's worth more than the $20. I'll even tell you how you can try it without "wiping out" your current operating system. Download software to create a virtual machine (even microsoft makes one you can use for free). It's not hard to use. Create a virtual machine and put ubuntu (or any other operating system of your choice) on it.

[Penguinisto]

Or, you can just use the LiveCD - stick it in the drive, reboot the box so that it boots from the CD, and no need to install anything just to try it out. ;)

[bluemist9999]

It's definitely promising to see Ubuntu at Best Buy. But, as other posters observed, it can be very confusing for non-technical users. The most frequent question will be "Why won't XYZ run on Ubuntu?"

I would put a blunt warning on the box "You CANNOT use this with any PC programs --- only with the thousands of free programs available with Ubuntu"

While I know that, technically, that's a lie, it is less confusing to Joe Sixpack than trying to explain "Well, you can run these programs but not these other programs."

[rossstock]

If people walk into Best Buy and pay someone to install Ubuntu, then we're seeing real progress ... Vista is $4 gas -- it's hit a point where you're ready to do something different.

[gnomerules]

Most smart people won't buy Ubuntu at Best Buy. They'll shop at book stores instead. There are many books for Ubuntu or any other Linux distro, and most have a free install CD of the OS inside the book.