Should an OS be free?

orangecat · June 14, 2013

First off I know many Linux distros are free but that's not the point.

Anyways... I was thinking of a day when Linux will be the only OS people use. Personally the only thing keeping me stuck to Windows is because I know how to use it and I like to play games. If a Linux distro came along that i could figure out i would use it and if game developers would make games for Linux they I would make the switch right now. But would they make you pay for it? Think about it Windows costs money but everyone uses it. Ubuntu is free and yea there is a large community that use it but almost everyone I know either doesn't know what Linux is or doesn't use it. if a Linux distro became so popular that almost every PC was running it I'm sure the developers would want you to pay for it so they can make a ton of cash. But a OS is a critical part of any PC yea sure you can have fast hardware but your computer is useless without an OS. I feel as if a piece of software like an OS should be free its just a bunch of letters and numbers arranged in a cretin order.

What is your opinion?

sonarctica · June 14, 2013

Someone worked really hard to make it easy for people, I wouldn't have done it for free. There is no monthly subscription either and yet the updates keep coming and upgrading to the latest OS (Windows 7 --> Windows 8) is around $40 which isn't a lot.

I'm kinda worried about Windows though, all the kids are learning to use the iPad in school and they'll grow up around Apple products which will make it harder for them to transition to PC if they ever even consider doing so. Microsoft needs to do something about that. Also, I've used ubuntu before for about 2 weeks, it wasn't very user friendly until you knew what to do but there is a learning curve which many people don't want so they stick with Windows or Mac because they can click on something and stuff happens.

Anyway, Linux is used a lot in servers as it is a very lightweight OS and I wonder how long that will be the case. Also I completely went on my own ramble here and to answer your question, yes I think an OS should have some kind of price.

Godlygamer23 · June 14, 2013

Well if an OS that's free is just a bunch of letters and numbers arranged in a certain order...A payed OS is just a bunch of letters and numbers arranged in a certain order that costs money.