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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)
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/
... 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
"...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
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.
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 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.
That's usually what most of the Linux fans say about Linspire (formerly Lindows). However, it does run on the Linux kernel, so it does qualify as being "Linux". It isn't free (as in beer). That's part of why I'm so hostile to it. That, and it does recommend that you log in as root, which is a disaster waiting to happen.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
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.