How can one say Linux is $-free . . . ?

[Derek Broughton]

YAGNESH N DESAI wrote:

> Friends;
>  
> I just shifted to Linux and have tried on laptop read a lot about the
> meaning of Free. But just was wondering is it really $-free . . . ?
>  
> I have invested 40hrs and still counting on getting and installing Linux
> and trying to make it work. (Though it was fun but its not yet working to
> my full satisfaction and I am at it).

I've invested a lot more time than that with Windows installs, AND had to
pay for the software.  The amount of time you put into an OS is completely
a function of what you want to do with it.  My mother, otoh, has a
completely point & click system - what does she care about extra software
and hardware.

Nobody has ever claimed that Linux has no costs - and it's an ongoing and
probably unprovable argument whether total cost of ownership with any given
Linux system is more or less than a comparable Windows system.  However,
the software is "Free" - as in speech, not as in beer.
  
> Also after all this efforts I am not able to compilemany of the softwares
> in ubuntu I tried to compile Mplayer from its official site. . . Many of
> the downloads compilations are in .rpm package which means do I need an
> RedHat based Linux too on my laptop?

1) If you want to compile everything why are you not using Gentoo?
2) If you want to install rpms for, why are you not using Fedora or CentOS? 
(I'm currently administering a CentOS system - I can't say I'm happy about
it, but it beats Windows...).

I wonder how much investigation you did before trying Ubuntu.  We generally
don't need to compile software - we just install the binaries.  What is
available in mplayer that you can't get from the Ubuntu binary?  Typically
the binary distros _are_ somewhat behind the leading edge development of
any particular app, but the trade off means our versions are also more
stable.

> I know I am putting a cat among the pigeons.

Not really.  The pigeons are afraid of the cat - complaining that Ubuntu is
too much work is just a disprovable observation.
-- 
derek