How Do Small GNU/Linux PC Vendors Survive?

garananda asks: "In spite of being one of the very few sources for customized PC laptops pre-installed with various flavors of GNU/Linux, Qli Linux Computers is closed as of March 15th 2004 after serving the community for six years (thanks for all of your hard work). It is becoming easier to get Linux computers from some of the big vendors, but usually this means no hardware choices and no choice of preferred GNU/Linux distribution. Is any small company providing this service and succeeding (lots of hardware options for desktops, custom laptop options, multiple GNU/Linux distributions, and no mandatory 'Microsoft tax')? How do they do it? Given the low margins in the PC market and given the variance of component quality and component vendor reliability/prices, how would _you_ do it?" When one asks "How does one sell Linux", it's only fair to point out what you don't do. Beyond that, what are other recommendations do you have for putting Linux out there for consumers, in the hopes it will sell your hardware?