The evolution of the Ubuntu phones in the market has been a slow one, but that’s by choice. Finally, after months of waiting, the first Ubuntu phones can now be bought from actual stores (not digital ones), and they’re really cheap with a contract.

Users have been able to buy Ubuntu phones from online stores for a while now, and they are available in a number of regions, like China, Russia, Europe, and the United States, in a more limited fashion. It took a while, but now the phones are also available in the stores with contracts to drive the price even lower.

When the first Ubuntu phones were announced back in February 2015, Canonical said that a number of operators will pick up the phones, and they will sell them through the stores. That didn’t happen until now, but that’s changing. It’s not done by a big company, but it falls in line with the company policy.

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, said a number of times that they don’t really need a too big exposure because they want the operating system in the hands of the fans, not the general public. This will help them refine the experience so that new users won’t have anything to complain about, such as the lack of a certain feature, for example.

Ubuntu phones spotted in Germany

An Ubuntu fan posted a picture taken in a shop in Germany named Saturn with the Bq Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition discounted from €169,90 ($185) to €1 ($1). The discount is provided by a mobile operator named Debitel.

It’s not a big step for the Ubuntu phones, but it’s an important one because it signals the fact that adventurous users might get their hands on phones with a new and innovative operating system based on Linux.

This is likely just the first operator from Europe to take this step, and it’s possible that more will follow soon.

Jetzt neu bei Saturn die Ubuntu Edition von bq. pic.twitter.com/3PLkxdkedQ — Torsten Franz (@toddyfranz) December 3, 2015