So what do you get for your twenty bucks? The retail box contains ”Ubuntu 8.04 CD, a Quick Start Guide and 60 days of support from the ValuSoft team, trained and backed by the Canonical support guys. The support covers installation and getting started using Ubuntu and is priced at $19.99.”

This is good news from a marketing standpoint; pushing Linux even more main stream.  Will they sell a lot of boxes?  Probably not.  But this is still a good move. Or at least it can be.  I’d like to see what they wrote on the box.  There is still a lot of misunderstanding about Linux and how something free can be as good (or arguably better) than a 200-300 dollar operating system.  There’s also a great deal of misconception about what software will work and won’t work on it.

Back to the article:  I agree 2 month’s of support is not worth the 20 bucks.  Download the ISO and burn a disk. Don’t know how or what I even just said?  Click here.

I do disagree with ZDNet’s question, “I wonder whether the audience that needs to have Ubuntu sold to them on a CD is actually ready for Linux.” Sure they are. Ubuntu is extremely easy to install, not like the old Red hat days of years gone by.   Get the Live CD and try it. Once you get used to a slightly different layout, you’ll love it.  I do.  And if you need help.  Just ask me here or in the always kind and helpful Ubuntu forums.

Subject: Fw: PLEASE DO THIS, IT IS HYSTERICAL!

An old lady walked into a Grocery Store.
She wanted to buy the best dog food in the world
for her little puppy.

She went up to the cash register to buy the food.
The saleslady told her that the store did not allow
old ladies to buy animal food unless they show the
actual animal because a lot of old ladies like to
eat the animal food themselves.

So, the old lady went home, got her dog and went
back to the store to buy her dog food.

The next day she came back to buy the best cat
food around.

But the Sales lady told her the same thing, so the
old lady went back home and brought her cat to the
Grocery Store to buy the cat food.

The next day the old lady went to the Grocery Store
again carrying a big container.

She went up to the the sales lady and said, “Put
your hand inside here “..

The Saleslady shook her head. ” NO ” , she said,
“there is probably something in there that will
bite me!” .

“I promise you there is nothing in here that will
bite you,” the old lady said.

So the Saleslady stuck her hand inside the container
and screamed.

To find out what was inside the container you
must send it to at least 8 people.

When the computer says your mail has been sent,
hit ALT-8 and the container will pop up on your
screen.

Please do not forward these type of things.  They waste people’s time and bandwidth.