Does anyone know where to get linux for free?

krakan

mr_fishbulb wrote:

Do you know of lots of people who want to buy a machine with Linux on it? You're limiting your market quite a bit.

That's people who want to buy a machine with Linux on, installed and sold by someone who doesn't know exactly what linux *is* let alone where to even get it, no less. A small market indeed, I should imagine.

I'm not intending to sound like a git (Apologies, because I know that's how it'll come across) but it doesn't strike me that this is your area of expertise.. If you're not building good machines then you're selling cheap rubbish, and if that's the case then you're competing with the like of PC World and the crap you can get in Tesco - but they buy there rubbish in much bigger quantities than you, and they assemble them in the far east where labour is essentially free.

Basically, you either do it well, and therefore expensive, or badly and very, very cheap - but remember that Dell can always do cheap better than you, and any proper computer shop will be able to do it well better than you.

If you are set on doing it though, then the two best choices for someone who isn't overly familiar with the area are Mandrake (There's a free version) and Ubuntu. They're both pretty much idiot-proof.

The only problem is that you're clearly going to get a fair few disgruntled customers who have spent a fortune on a PC which won't run games, isn't compatible with a whole bunch of hardware (take that from someone who has lost days of their life to getting a USB printer working) and which they haven't the FAINTEST idea how to use. The simple rule is, if you can't install it, don't use it. Ubuntu and Mandrake are very user-friendly and just about anyone could, if they actually tried, install either. If that's the case though, they'll only need a bit more knowledge and they'll go to eBuyer themselves...

Meads

Linux is FREE, although there are some commercial distros.

Im currently using Simply Mepis, it is a debian based linux operating system and is quite easy to use and it runs from a CD (livecd) it can be easily installed to your HD though

http://www.mepis.org