No distro I'm aware of still provides official box sets and CDs. Debian still provides materials for third parties to make them, though. Most of the vendors of pre-burned Linux media have also shut down, but one that seems to still exist (and offers Debian box sets) is https://www.shoplinuxonline.com/ .
this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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Thank you. I see the DVDs and the USB sticks, but how can you tell which ones actually come as a box set? It's really the box I'm interested in.
I was speaking of the Debian "full archive" 21-DVD sets: https://www.shoplinuxonline.com/debian-full.html
But I don't know about how they package it, so it might not be a "box set" as you describe.
Debian has a list of vendors who sell it in a media (USB, DVD...), some of them also sell other distros.
Thanks. I was hoping for an actual set in like a cardboard box.
I remember getting a Ubuntu CD box set many years ago when I ordered free disks in the mail as a teenager. The box was well constructed, prints of high quality and the CD labels were especially sharp.
Crazy how physical media was king back then.
You can from some of those vendors
Here's a Ubuntu USB-stick sold on German amazon: https://www.amazon.de/Linux-Ubuntu-mit-Bit-Stick/dp/B0C3RH74Z9/
I’m not sure if I would trust a third-party selling an operating system on a disk nowadays
Wie komisch! I actually know German, but they don't deliver to the USA. Thank you, though.
Tee hee. Maybe you could go to Circuit City?
Sorry.
Doing no research, you might find a third party book that has a cd dvd ?
Circuit City
Warning: trigger activated, loading and playing long lost childhood memory:
🎵 "WELCOME TO CIRCUIT CITY, WHERE SERVICE IS STATE OF THE ART" 🎵
They never sold Linux afaik, and I spent a lot of time there. The only place I saw Red Hat being sold was Babbage’s
OpenSUSE is. Maybe SUSE also but not sure.
Do you want the box to display or a hard copy of the installer?
If the latter I'm sure I've seen them for sale in the past couple of years on distro websites. Click "get [distro]" and its some secondary item to downloading which is what most people went. Might be a USB key or disc.
If you want an actual box idk how they are shipped.
Actual box for display.
How curious. Are you doing a play?
You might have to DIY one if you don't want an old one. Certainly there are websites you could upload a PDF to that would print for you.
I think the boxes made sense when they were for sale in a brick n mortar store because they are harder to steal and make the person feel like they are buying something when digital goods weren't such an instinctive idea. I doubt they would be shipped because they are big for no reason and would require a lot of packaging to keep from getting wrecked in transit vs a USB key in a bubble envelope.
To buy linux in a box, you would have to find somewhere near you that is selling it in person. A computer store, a book store. Maybe a campus bookstore? They have a captive audience so sometimes can get away with stuff that doesn't otherwise make business sense.
A play? No, I just saw an old Linux box and wondered if anybody still made them.
Slackware does, I think.
Sackware Store seems to be down right now. Unfortunate.
Can you make your own?
Can I make my own Linux install media? Yes. I do it all the time. Can I make my own software box with cool artwork and booklets and various other goodies? No.
Well you could always get creative and turn this into an art project.
I could, but I have no aptitude for visual art. I'd sooner buy one of the vintage Linux boxes. And I may very well do that.
I'm not aware of anything. Why are you looking, maybe there is something similar out there.
Mostly just purely nostalgic reasons, computer software in boxes.