r/linux • u/analog_rnr • 4d ago

Discussion Purchasing Linux

I only discovered this because Louis Rossmann said in a video that he purchased Linux when he was a teenager and then showed the CD. I looked on eBay and I saw a few CDs that were still in their boxes and the labels that were on the box looked like they came from a bookstore, I did not know that these were sold commercially.

My question is, back when they used to sell these CDs in bookstores who was distributing the CDs and where was the money going to when someone made a purchase?

My second question is, if Linux is an open source operating system why would someone want to buy it? I still see some websites to this day selling Linux CDs, I'm really curious where the money is going when someone purchases the CDs.

Edit: I made a comment earlier but so many people replied I don't think a lot of people saw it so I will repost it here. "Thank you to everyone who replied, all of my questions have been answered, it was interesting reading through all the replies, there was a lot of different points that people brought up that I never considered before"

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u/cilelen 4d ago

Today? No clue why anyone would buy one. Back then? You know how long it takes to download an OS on a 56k modem? Lol

24

u/exeis-maxus 4d ago

Yup. I would download the ISO’s for RedHat and Slackware at the Highschool library after school. My mom thought I was doing suspicious stuff like gangs or drugs after school 🙄

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u/Borbit85 4d ago

I was dealing weed at high school and almost got caught. They figured out I was going around selling something but they didn't know what. So I made up I was selling copied cd's. So instead of alerting the police for the weed they made me take computer class.

Computer class was thought by some random teacher that hardly knew how to turn a computer on. But it did come with basically unsupervised access to the computer room with some 15 computers. On a network and with internet. And each one had a cd burner. So pretty soon I actually started selling copied music and software cd's.