How to get some Bitcoins

The exhaustive guide on getting free Bitcoins, earning Bitcoins, and buying Bitcoins

Once you figure out what bitcoin is and you install the program, then you'll have this urge to get a few bitcoins. You basically have four options— (1) get some free bitcoins, (2) earn some bitcoins by selling a product or service, (3) buy some bitcoins by trading a fiat currency like USD or GBP for them, or (4) get into mining bitcoins, which is not really for the faint of heart.

1. Getting free Bitcoins

This is the easiest and funnest (is that a word?) way to get bitcoins. It will also net you the fewest bitcoins, and to be more precise it will only net you a small fraction of a bitcoin. But it's still worth your trouble and you'll see a few micro bitcoins in your client after you're done.

Completely free

Bitcoin Faucet — Gavin Andresen, current lead developer for the "official" bitcoin client, purchased 10,000 bitcoins for $50 USD a while back and set up the bitcoin faucet to give out free bitcoins for the kicks. At one time he gave out 5 BTC to each visitor, but that has been reduced to 0.005 BTC currently. You're only allowed use the faucet once to get bitcoins, but it's worth it. All you'll need is a Google account and a bitcoin address to get your bitcents.
Daily Bitcoins — This site is supported by advertising and gives out 0.001 BTC per person every 24 hours. The idea is to use the promise of free bitcoins to get users to come, who will then visit their sponsors and advertisers. Supposedly, if you visit often and visit the sponsors as well, you'll have a chance at a larger Bitcoin reward, but I've never seen that. This site can be counted on to give you a tiny fraction of a bitcoin every twenty-four hours though. Never fails.
Currently offline ~~Bitcoin Flower — The flower opens for a random user once every 24 hours and gives them a full bitcoin, 1 BTC. Everyone else gets nothing. :)~~
Currently offline ~~Bit by Bit — Hands out free bitcoins every day.~~

Some strings attached

Feed Ze Birds — If you have a twitter account, you can earn a few bitcents by retweeting certain tweets. The more twitter followers you have, the more you earn. I recommend you only retweet the tweets that you really agree with, if you want to do this.
Free Digital Money — (Untested) This site allows you to "earn" bitcoins by filling out surveys, installing and trying new apps, viewing advertisements, and signing up for trial subscriptions. I have not tried this site, nor do I much like the looks of it. But if you do decide to try it, use a VM such as VirtualBox to install the trial programs and such to avoid getting malware/adware/junk on your computer. The site has several hundred offers, some of which are free and some of which require a purchase.
Free Bitcoins — (Untested) This site is similar to "Free Digital Money", allowing you to earn bitcoins by participating in sponsored offers. There are only about 10 offers, but all are free. Same warning as above about using a VM to install trial programs.
I want free Bitcoins — (Untested) Same as the above. Several hundred offers available, some of which are free.
Bitcoin Bonus — (Untested) Purchase required. With this site you earn bitcoins by using their links and offers to purchase items on other sites.

2. Earning Bitcoins

This will probably take much more effort that the free bitcoins above, but you stand to get a lot more bitcoins rolling in. If you have any sort of product or service that you already sell, you can consider starting to accept Bitcoins. If you don't want to set up your own Bitcoin-based shopping cart or payment solution, you can always consider something like Bit Pay. I have not used that site, but it seems to be reputable and apparently makes receiving Bitcoins fairly simple.

If you don't already sell a product or service, don't dispair. Think about all the things you know how to do. Would you be able to sell any of those as a service to others? If so, test the waters and see if there would be any prospects for a sale.

If you are a programmer, there are often bounties posted on bitcointalk.org for specific functionality needed. Keep and eye out and if you find something that matches your expertise, you just may earn a nice BTC bounty.

One last thing I'll mention is that in the Bitcoin community, people like to purchase Bitcoin-related stuff. So if you want to create a Bitcoin-related product/souvenier/promotional item, people might also purchase that.