In the world of business there are many corporations that do not follow the calendar year (i.e. year begins on January 1) but rather the fiscal year. While it’s true that a fiscal year can start anytime depending on the business, most of them will use September.

As an example, high schools in the United States traditionally use September as the beginning of the year. Car manufacturers also introduce their "new year" models in September (right now you will find 2009 models even though it’s not technically 2009).

In the world of computers and electronics, a ton of new hardware is usually put out there as well. Motherboards, televisions, you name it. Lots and lots of new stuff.

In addition to the new stuff that’s out there, it is traditional that more or less all computer and electronic manufacturers are scrambling to dump last year’s stuff to make way for the new. Whenever anything new is introduced in computers and/or electronics, it’s obviously replacing its predecessor.

And that’s where you can save a buck if you’re in the market to buy.

There’s only one word you have to look for at your preferred computer/electronics retailer, and that word is "clearance". The new stuff is here and the retailers have got to clear the shelves to make room for it.

Typically you will find the best deals of the year right now. Not for the new stuff obviously but for the "old" stuff that’s still new that needs to be sold.

How to find clearance sales

With major big-box electronics retail (i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) you will not see the drastic-price-cut items online because the inventory varies from store to store. What this means is that you have to physically go to the store to see how far they’ve slashed the price on certain items.

Typical items you will find on clearance in September:

Laptops

$900 laptops are slashed down to as low as $500 just to get rid of them. Remember, they are new and come with full warranties.

Overstocked peripherals

Premium keyboards, mice, audio gear, etc. Don’t bother looking at the cheap stuff, look at the good stuff that’s been marked down.

Media drives and media itself

Hard drives, optical drives, blank discs, etc. All this stuff is usually marked down this time of year - particularly the hard drives and flash media (USB sticks).

Digital Cameras

The more expensive digital cams are usually slow sellers, so the older models that need to get off the shelves usually have a nice fat price cut on them.

Other stuff

There may be stuff in the big-box store you spot where you say "Wow, can’t pass up that deal!" that you won’t see any other time of the year.

Stop by your local big-box electronics retailer. There’s probably some good deals waiting for you right now.

I picked up a new USB 2.0 hub at Best Buy. And, as usual, it was packaged in that really tough plastic packaging that, I swear, was designed by Nazis.

I understand that they do this to alleviate shoplifting, but come on!

In a move that’s seemingly insignificant but actually very significant, Ubuntu Linux is now available for purchase off-the-shelf from Best Buy.

Reasons why this is important:

When a software product “graduates” from the internet to being an actual in-store item, this means that non-nerds see it and will probably buy it. Why? Because it’s only $19.99 - far below the price of the cheapest version of Windows Vista.

The fact Best Buy carries it means they now have a reason to carry “Ubuntu compatible” items for not only software but hardware as well. Vendors will be very interested in producing hardware and software specific to Ubuntu now that they know it’s actually on the shelf.

Linux purists will obviously see this as absolute heresy. Charge? For a Linux distribution! BAH! WRONG! BAD!

No, not bad. Good. You *nix guys want to see Microsoft go down the drain so bad you can almost taste it. If there’s a boxed item directly next to those shiny copies of Vista with a much lower price tag, this is a step in the correct direction. You’re going to have to deal with some corporate junk in order to put a dent in Microsoft’s stranglehold on PCs.

Want to know what’s even better? The sale comes with 60-day support. Yep, this means someone who buys Ubuntu actually has a real live phone number they can call to speak with a real live human for help. That’s just plain awesome.

This is a very strong move forward into making Linux more mainstream.