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Linux: What You Want To Know
How much does Linux cost?
Microsoft lists five features that Windows XP Professional Edition
has that Windows XP Home Edition does not have. Because Linux has
all five features, let's compare Linux with the Professional Edition.
Windows XP
| Edition | Upgrade Price | List Price |
|---|---|---|
| Home | $99.00 | $199.00 |
| Professional | $199.00 | $299.00 |
Many home users with more than one computer have purchased one copy of Windows and installed it on every machine, a practice that Microsoft considers piracy and has tried to make impossible with Windows XP. At a presentation that Microsoft put on in Columbus, Ohio, the speaker said that additional licenses for XP could be had at a discount, but were priced by their local computer stores. Mr. Lake asked two computer chain stores about this discount and was told that site licenses for Windows had been cancelled. The full price must be paid for each computer!
Red Hat Linux 8.0
The pricing of Red Hat Linux is typical of other distributions. One copy of Linux may be legally installed on as many computers as the user wishes, so if you have two computers, there is no need to multiply the price.
From Red Hat
The three options are all the same Linux. The packaging and support are different.
| Package | List Price |
|---|---|
| Download | Free |
| Boxed set (6 CDs and a book) | $39.95 |
| Boxed set (8 CDs and 4 books) with professional level support |
$149.95 |
From other vendors
Some companies distribute Linux CDs without any packaging or support. Their customers are charged for just the media, so the customer is likely to pay more for the shipping than for the software. CheapBytes provides us with a good example:
| Linux executables on 3 CDs | $6.99 | |
| Linux executables and source code on 5 CDs (Most users don't need the source code.) |
$10.99 |
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