Slashdot Mirror
More on Toronto's Linux-only Computer Store
bluethundr writes "The Register today is running a story about what we first thought (but thought incorrectly as it turns out) to be the world's first Linux-only computer store. Who knew that they were also running a Linux-powered car wash in the back? Heh."
I had several seizures during the slashdot blackout.... I actually went outside....there was all of this green stuff on the ground, first I thought they were sprites, but they were to photorealistic....It was scary......I am NEVER going back to that tepid land again!
Don't they have to give everyone free car washes under the terms of GPL?
Ohhhh, I so wanted to see pictures of the rotating penguin. Also, the idea of selling a hard drive with linux preinstalled is really cool. I like it. They should have one of these in my town! Especially if they had random linux gear ala thinkgeek. Oooh, and a wifi-enabled cafe-type-place.... mmmmmmmm. (Hey.. they have a linux-run carwash already)
the sign for the car and van wash is more than twice the size of the sign for the linux computer store
I can't believe how many times I've been getting my car washed and thought "boy, I sure wish I could buy a computer while I wait"!
:P
If this business model becomes successful, I'm going to start my own. Look for a 'Pats Donuts and Computer Repair Shop' coming soon
-Pat
Wonder why the cost is higher....Can't be too hard to load up Linspire. Even states in TFA that it loads in only 10 mins. If anything, the costs should slightly lower (although TFA does not take into account for rebates, discounts, etc, so we can't be sure, eh?)
:) ) I think they might be better off offering better/more distro options...
The store remains focused on the Linspire (formerly Lindows) OS and office suite, says Silverman, with no immediate plans to start selling other distros from the store.
For the regular user, Linspire is the most simple to work with," says Silverman. "It installs in less than ten minutes."
I've been to their site before...They state on both Canadian and American sites the following -
"Do you prefer a different Linux distro? We can accommodate most requests."
Which does seem contradictory to TFA...Linspire seems hokey to me to be the primary distro. One would think that they would use a popular distro (ie-Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc) While Linspire is easy to use, I threw my younger sister into SuSE and Yast and she had a decent handle on things (Mind you, she's no geek but quite trendy, so a shock indeed
Ditto on the hard disks preloaded with Linspire. A neat idea, although I bet it takes a bit for the distro to auto-detect the hardware, etc. For the non-Linux, this might troublesome.But a good idea nonetheless...Like Knoppix on steriods or something....
Gotta love the rotating pengiun though....
-thewldisntenough
My MythTV HowTo
Those MegaTouch games in many bars run Linux. Check out the credits, they thank the Linux community, and say sources available on request. Toggle the power to see lilo on boot.
http://www.moneymachines.com/touch.html
You mean these people have somehow found a way of not having to use electricity to operate electrical-mechanical devices? Is there some hidden potential energy in a disk of Red Hat? Should AnandTech be doing a review to see which distro has the best energy loss ratio?
Ironic that www.sub300.com and www.sub500.com, the Linux desktop resellers associated with this new store, Run Microsoft Windows 2000 webservers.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
http://www.everythinglinux.com.au/
check it out, its great.
Also, one of my other fav sites
http://linuxjewellery.com/
not realted
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
Who knew that they were also running a Linux-powered car wash in the back?
Anyone who read about this last time it was on slashdot
Can it only be a dupe if the "editor" doesn't know its a dupe?
Does anyone else suspect michael may have some kind of financial interest in this store, because he posted the last story on it (and even included a link to it!) yet this new story includes no new information.
... a store where assistants KNOW what they are talking about, KNOW what they are selling and actually give a shit about getting your computer to work more efficiently and without a glitch....
Hmmmm sounds like bloody heaven to me....
... y Dios vio que Linux era bueno... Genesis 99.666
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Currently assigned universal joke IDs are as follows:
SLDT02004070900001 - "no yuo"
SLDT02004071000001 - "vlad farted"
SLDT02004071000002(x) - "YOU FAIL IT (it is x)"
SLDT02004071000003 - "omg ror"
SLDT02004071000004(x, y) - "In Soviet Russia, x y YOU!"
SLDT02004071000005 - "Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these!"
SLDT02004071000006(x) - "x is dying."
SLDT02004071000007(x) - "Have you ever seen x? That's the kind of martial arts I practice, and you're about to get one free lesson!"
SLDT02004071000008(x) - "x. What's it all about? Is it good, or is it whack?"
SLDT02004071000009[x] - "wtf is this some kinda x talk?"; default x="nigger"
SLDT02004071300001(x) - "I, for one, welcome our new x overlords."
SLDT02004071300002(x, y) - "1. x. 2. y. 3. ??? 4. Profit!"
SLDT02004071300003(x, y) - "All your x are belong to y!"
SLDT02004071600001(x, y) - "damnit, x, if i find you fucking my y again, i'm gonna remove your dick with a buckshot pattern you sick fuck!
If you wish to tell these jokes in the future, you can simple refer to it by these UJID numbers and we'll all know what joke you're referring to.
The number system can be broken down like this:
AAAABBBBBCCDDEEEEE(x, y, ...)[z, ...]
Where AAAA is four character string assigned by me to uniquely identify a joke's source. For example "no yuo" was first cataloged into this joke library when it was spotted on slashdot, so its UJID begins with SLDT If you'd like to apply for a unique identifier string for your web site, please contact me.
BBBBB is a 5 digit value which specifies the year that the joke was originally cataloged. This joke cataloging system is designed to be y10k compatible.
CC is the 2 digit value which specifies the month that the joke was originally cataloged.
DD is the 2 digit value which specifies the day that the joke was originally cataloged.
EEEEE is the 5 digit value which is assigned sequentially per day. So the first funny thing that's said on any given day will be assigned 00001. etc. You may ask why this is only 5 digits. Well, its my theory that human civilization can only produce a certain amount of original comedy per day. I haven't established a precise upper bounds to this value, but all simulations appear to indicate that this value is well below 99999, so 5 digits should suffice.
(x, y, ...) is a parameter list for variable punch line jokes. For example when someone posts joke "SLDT02004071000002(life)" This should be interpreted as "YOU FAIL IT (it is life)".
[z, ...] shall specify optional parameters; the default parameter shall be noted in the UJID definition. Example: SLDT02004071000009 with no parameters will resolve to "wtf is this some kinda nigger talk?"
"...also running a Linux-powered car wash..."
Fine, but they don't do windows.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? ~ Albert Einstein
That would be a damn fun store to shop at... just grab something and run out the door... if caught just tell them it's Linux!
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
The upside is that its free, but takes 18 hours of tweaking to actually clean your specific model the first time. If you have an import or a rare car, it might not clean it at all.
There's a slim chance your car wont start after the wash, leaving all your gauges at 16, 16, 16, 16, 16...
Your "Save the Whales" bumper sticker might be replaced with a "Save the Pengiuns" sticker or a photo of a fat guy in front of a computer will be appended to your original bumper sticker.
Pasty employees will snort at your aftermarket body effects and graphics, unless they are glowing then they will tell you how 'l33T they are.
Conversely, the very same pasty employees will give you the weakest high-five you have ever experienced if you have made any modifications to your onboard computer or stereo system.
After the wash your car will not be able to share a lane with any car registered in Washington state.
Your mileage will increase but for some inexplicable reason you'll have to learn how to drive stick as your automatic will cease to exist.
www.linspire.com seems to imply Linspire is not linux, it's a separate OS. It does not seem to be open source or even "free as in beer". The licensing terms appear to be far worse than bill gates has wet dreams about doing with XP. There is very invasive product activation and you have to keep paying a "mempership fee" or you lose access to all the software you've already bought, unless you paid extra for a lifetime license.
For access to their forums, you also have to pay a membership fee, and to get access to the real forums you have to pay another $100 "lifetime insider fee" so you can be an insider as long as you're suckered into paying the other membership fees.
Why would anyone be interested in these terms? Its reality is far worse than the most avid MS basher claims MS is planning.
Whats wrong with pet grooming? Seriously, have you ever owned a dog? They can get pretty filthy quickly and unless you like bathing 30-80lbs animals who don't want to take a bath, well that's you're only route.
Toss in work, kids, etc and that 30+ bucks to groom your dog doesn't seem like a big deal.
Simply put, the economics of the situation tend to work out.
I would be pretty skeptical about investing in Linux retail. What are they making money off of? Pure hardware sales? The margins on hardware aren't too hot. I'm sure labor is pretty good, but the buyers probably already know how to do most things and paying seventy bucks an hour for someone to remount your CD-ROM or whatever is pretty excessive.
Not to mention he's not only competing with the local electronics stores full of wintel machines, but web-based businesses with much less overhead. (is he selling on the web also?)
Good luck and all, but there's more money to be made in dog grooming, if you want to be technical about it. At the end of the day the "idiot" business is the one which can't pay the bills.
This does tug at my nostalgia strings as I remember the local computer stores I dragged my parents to in the late 80s. None of which are still in business. Even then I found that it was cheaper to order stuff through the macwarehouse or the computershopper magazine than the brick and morter stores. I must have been around 10 years old, most adults already know how to scour for deals and its a lot easier with the web.
I'm assuming he doesnt have that much overhead and the carwash subsidizes the actual store. It looks like he bought a carwash and thought it would be fun to build a Linux store on the property. So that space was already going to waste and the Linux store is really just a hobby business built on top of his real business.
Another positive aspect is that people can just walk in and play with Linux to see what its like. I'm sure many people are curious, but not curious enough to partition their drive or get a second machine. Kinda how the Apple store is full of people who will never own Apples.
I figure thats because its using SOAP?
My observatory used to have its site hosted by a slick corporate-image-type company which runs Win2k/Win Server 2003. The downtime was terrible, and the management (all MCSEs, or working their way towards it...) were utterly hopeless.
s hit, nerdtoy hosting outfit running Debian, and we've never seen an outage since.
So we transferred hosting to a personal friend's two-bit, barely-break-even-if-we're-lucky-but-who-gives-a-
This may sound like just another apocryphal *nix fanboy story, but it's true.
Dogs, as your example includes, are given better care than many children in the world. They appeal to women as well, which make up a significant consumer market.
Linux however, lacks the obvious charm and commonality of a dog and doesn't necessarily appeal to women. Ironic how a geek and Linux seem perfect for one another.
That speaks volumes for XP.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
I seem to recall this article, which mentioned the fact that this was in the back of a car wash. Might just be me.
But hey, Toronto is lucky. They have a store where they can prevent having to do the maintenence that I'm doing to my dad's computer (installing Firefox, Ad-Aware, and Spybot). Can you believe that he's been running that computer for three years without running Ad-Aware or Spybot? It's just a normal Winblows box, too!
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
Yeah but common sense is often not so common.
we had the Linux general store in Atlanta which opened in the late nineties (98-99). It was opened by a great guy; but the only people that visited were the local pierced freaks from GA tech and me. And like me we'd get one Suse (redhat whatever...) CD and put it on a bunch of discarded PCs. Guess what: The store didn't make it!
In todays environment as a small business I don't think you can compete with $200 PCs at wallmart with Lindows pre-loaded or on the side of the equation with the IBMs of the world.
The one niche I do see for significant growth in the Linux marketspace is as a consulting firm for small businesses. You do NOT need to spend $30 a square foot on retail space to do that! (Or whatever you pay for retail in Canada; but I can assure you professional looking retail is more expensive than professional looking mixed warehouse/office space.
And for you entrpeneurs out there: you can start such a business really cheap!
Hajo Monogamy: Belief so strong that millions of people end perfectly good relationships in order to start a new one.
Bangalore has a Linux store (http://www.gtcdrom.com/)running from 1995. You get anything and everything related to Linux. For the past 5 years I have been doing all my Linux buying from there.
If he wanted to give an easy-to-use Linux to clients, can someone explain what are the main advantages of Linspire over Xandros?
I found Xandros to be quite simple ( although I'm sticking with Mandrake) and Lin[dows|spire] wants your first-born and bank account.
If Linspire were the only choice for desktop Linux on x86, I'd stick with Windows XP.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
in june the newthinking store startet in berlin , selling linux-stuff like home entertainment-products running on linux, t-shirts, books, software and several hardware. several events around linux and information society take place in the store rooms.