It's almost free to relatively inexpensive. . Linux can be downloaded off the internet, which makes it free or close to it. Unfortunately, these include no manuals or support.
Source code is included .
While this may not seem like an advantage if you aren't a programmer, the fact that the source code is available to anyone means that it would be very difficult for someone to charge you hundreds or thousands of dollars for a copy of Linux. If everyone has the source code, then you can go get the same thing somewhere else for less. In addition, if Linux didn't support some operation or piece of equipment you needed, you or someone else could always change the source code to do what you wanted. Bugs are fixed quickly . Development in Linux is worldwide.