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I've been saying that Ubuntu should do this for a long time, and now they have: You can get Ubuntu — the biggest desktop GNU/Linux system going — for $19.99 in a boxed edition at Best Buy stores.

I found out from the excellent Linux Loop, at which writer Thomas Teisberg actually saw the box in the operating-system section of the store.

He, in turn, found out about it at the Best Buy site — from which you can actually order the Ubuntu box for the same $19.95.

If you're not particularly geeky and can't or don't want to figure out how to download a huge ISO file and turn it into a bootable CD with Nero, my free favorite ISO Recorder or any other applicable program (no, Microsoft does not include this capability in Windows for obvious reasons, those being that they don't want you to ever even contemplate using another OS), then spending a mere $19.99 on this Ubuntu box is a very good deal.

Upon closer inspection of the photos at Linux Loop, this box contains a CD-ROM, so even if you don't have a DVD-ROM drive, you can use this disc to load up Ubuntu.

I'm not sure whether or not there's a There is a smallish book in the box or not, but if you want a bigger-book/disc combo, you can always opt for "The Official Ubuntu Book," which just came out in a new edition and which also includes a DVD of Ubuntu (as well as Kubuntu and Edubuntu).

For the more advanced user, "Ubuntu Unleashed 2008 Edition" will be out in a few weeks and will also include a DVD.

Another very good book that also includes a DVD is "Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Third Edition."

So you don't need to get a blank CD-R, download a huge Ubuntu image and figure out how to burn it if you don't want to. Once you install Ubuntu, burning ISO images onto bootable CDs is easy to do, and any one of the abovementioned books will walk you through it.

Of course, you can always request a free Ubuntu CD, which will be delivered to you free of charge (but not quickly).

However you get it (if you do "get it"), Ubuntu at retail is a huge thing, and I hope it continues.

Update:

• This person bought the Ubuntu software box, opened it up and took pictures.
• Computerworld reports on Ubuntu at Best Buy
• The Canonical Blog explains the whole thing
• Desktop Linux on the Ubuntu box
• InternetNews.com on the Ubuntu box

Linux Loop has been running these geek comics. Does the fact that I can draw better mean I should be doing my own comics?

Click here for the main Linux Loop cartoon, which provides a link to a readable version of the cartoon. I'd put the huge version here, but I want to give Linux Loop the traffic.

Despite the stick-figure artwork, they're kind of funny.

As always, Linux Loop is well worth a read.