No, what desktop Linux needs...
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| caitlyn Nov 04, 2009 8:31 PM EDT |
What desktop Linux needs is to be offered side by side with Windows in retail stores. Until that happens consumers won't buy it. The only other way in the door is major adoption in the corporate world and that is only happening very slowly, at least here in the U.S. |
| tracyanne Nov 04, 2009 8:41 PM EDT |
In order to get that, Linux needs people who can sell Linux. |
| gus3 Nov 04, 2009 8:46 PM EDT |
"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't." That even includes Beastie. Really, putting Linux, Windows, and whatever else side-by-side in a store won't accomplish anything. People will still buy what (they think) they're comfortable with. Someone needs to point out the selling points for each. Like Windows: 1. Everyone else is using it. 2. Botnets need slaves, and viruses need hosts. 3. Gamer kiddiez. 4. Ummmmm......... Joking aside, tracyanne is right. I just had this mostly typed-up when her reply appeared. |
| dinotrac Nov 05, 2009 8:56 AM EDT |
To have people who can sell Linux, you need a product that can be sold. I think of my friend and his (now my) Linux netbook. Loved it, til he realized that he couldn't easily hook his phone to it to surf the internet. Switched to a Windows version of the same machine. |
| jacog Nov 05, 2009 9:02 AM EDT |
"3. Gamer kiddiez." That be me. Pew pew pew! |
| jdixon Nov 05, 2009 9:31 AM EDT |
> ...til he realized that he couldn't easily hook his phone to it to surf the internet. Well, to be fair, the people responsible for fixing that are the phone manufacturers, but I can understand his frustration. |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 05, 2009 10:16 AM EDT |
Old story I've told before time. I was working in an office-supply chain store around 2003, and would wander over into the computer section occasionally because stocking paper is really dull. I saw a man staring at the software "wall", and seeing that no one was helping him I sauntered over and asked if I could help him. "I was given a computer, and it doesn't have Windows with it. Can you tell me what the difference between the $99 "upgrade" version and the $199 regular version? Why such a difference in price?" Ok. To use the "upgrade" version, you have to already have Windows installed. If your computer doesn't have Windows, or if what it has is too old, like Win95 or 98, the "upgrade" won't work. It won't install at all on a blank machine. "But it's all Windows XP, right? I don't want to pay $199." I couldn't agree more. Everything in that box (XP-Pro), that box (Office), that box (Semantec something or other) totalling some $600, is in this box. I picked up the $40 RedHat retail shelf box and held it out to him. He was speechless. He stared at me like I'd grown a third ear, his mouth opened and closed several times with nothing come out of it, and his blood pressure did something that caused his face, starting at the neck and going to his hairline in about 3 seconds, to turn nearly as red as the RedHat box. When his mouth finally closed, it was in fury. He violently reached up and grabbed the $199 XP-full box, and literally STORMED away to the cash register. I never saw him again. So personal experience time: No, having Linux sold side-by-side is not "the" answer, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. But it will require people to sell it, and while preinstallation and free liveCDs can take the place of retail boxes, nothing can take the place of people. |
| caitlyn Nov 05, 2009 3:41 PM EDT |
While I accept and understand what everyone is saying it still comes down to the fact that if Linux isn't conveniently in the stores the best salesperson in the world can't sell it. It's a Catch-22. Did anyone else read the article in CW posted on LXer today about netbook sales numbers? It seems ABI did some real research and Linux is still at 32%. So much for Linux being dead on the desktop or the inflated numbers from Microsoft. OTOH, HP has pulled their Linux consumer offerings in the U.S. and Dell has cleverly hidden and buried them on their website. Linux has to be out in front with Windows before real progress can be made. |
| tracyanne Nov 05, 2009 5:36 PM EDT |
@Catitlyn. You need people who can sell it to the Stores first. Then you need people in the store who can sell it. But before that you probably need someone who can sell it to the HW manufacturers, so that it on at least some hardware in the shops. On top of that you really need public awareness. If people are asking stores for Linux, Store owners will see a business opportunity and insist on it on at least some computers... ah the web of life. |
| Sander_Marechal Nov 05, 2009 5:51 PM EDT |
Wasn't Dell contemplating opening up some brck & mortar stores? Or at lest get their machines in existing brick & mortar stores? Perhaps they can display sone Linux machines next to the Windows machines. |
| Bob_Robertson Nov 05, 2009 7:03 PM EDT |
> Wasn't Dell contemplating opening up some brck & mortar stores? Yes. It's called a malinvestment, commonly entered into during the "boom" part of a classic boom-bust cycle. Luckily for Dell and Dell shareholders, that malinvestment did not come out of planning before the "bust" part. |
| flufferbeer Nov 05, 2009 9:07 PM EDT |
@tracyanne,
> need someone who can sell it to the HW manufacturers,
> so that it on at least some hardware in the shops.
> On top of that you really need public awareness. I think that the public awareness has to come 1st so that afterwards the HW manufacturers can look forward to sales coming from pre-installations to the newly-aware public. I see how much Micro$uck$ blows away all other companies in its OS advertising to the public, so I think that desktop Linux adoption is just much too severely pre-handicapped to go this route. 2c |
| hkwint Nov 06, 2009 5:43 AM EDT |
Quoting:OTOH, HP has pulled their Linux consumer offerings in the U.S. and Dell has cleverly hidden and buried them on their website. As said in the same article that's the US (and the rest of the Western world nowadays including China), but the world is bigger. AFAIK Dell isn't shipping it's mobile phone in the US, but they do in Asia. Same for NTT/Docomo with their 30 different types of Linux phones which they have been selling in Japan (even before Android was released): Only Asia. When it comes to ARM/MIPS, as far as I know there _are_ salespeople selling it with Linux to the HW manufacturers, shops and customers. |
| tracyanne Nov 06, 2009 5:51 AM EDT |
Neither Dell nor HP make Linux easily available in Australia either. They ceratinly can't be found on the "consumer" pages. |
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