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Using Computer Stores to Spread Open Source?
DigitalRaptor asks: "I live in a small city with about 4 or 5 computer stores, most of whom I know personally. None of these stores offer Open Source software on the computers they sell (Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, etc), and none of them have anything in place to educate their customers about spyware and viruses. I'd like to approach them with all of the relevant information in a presentable format. I think this would be a great way to spread OSS and to help the average consumer at the same time. Is there a project out there for this purpose that local advocates could use to approach computer stores in their town?"
First of all the Mozilla project (for example) should produce a boxed version of their product suite. Store customers want somthing tangible. Microsoft could offer everything as downloads only, but instead they package it into a fancy box. I would suggest the cost of the open-source software should cover the packaging and that's it.
I work for a computer repair shop, and yes we do make a lot of our money by cleaning viruses and spyware off of systems. However, we also never let a system leave our shop without it having an AV program, Ad-Aware, Spybot and MS Anti-Spyware on it. We also explain to the customers how to use them.
The open source idea is good and whenever I work on a system I'll try to present customers with open source options.
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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
I had thought a while ago that as a public service, it might be nice to donate time to various goodwill/salvation army stores around my area and offer to load usable software on them - an OSS package that would be set up to most efficiently use the P-166 computers that are generally found in such places. Does anyone know of a good distro for such a use? Something that could easily set up for dial-up access would be good I think...
I have in fact a P-166 sitting right here that was donated to an org I work for that I was thinking to try out the plan upon, since I wanted to wipe the HD anyway before passing it along. Possibly the org might even use it as an office computer.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Charge extra for it!
Offer to preload your own Linux distribution. It could be a cut and paste from Ubuntu for example.
Include plenty of advertising for your support services and wait for the phone calls to start.
Most likely you will have to cut the stores in on the deal, perhaps they will take the hardware work and you get the software work.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I take offense to that. I work at a Canadian computer retailer, and yes, it's true that there's large profit margins in service work. However, that's not what's preventing us from spreading "the light" of OSS. The issue is that our managers have been explicitly instructed not to GIVE anything away, due to support concerns. It's their opinion that Canadian law forces them to warranty free software.
The irony, of course, is that when I suggested that we sell OpenOffice.org for $0.01, my manager called me "daft" and suggested that I didn't understand copyright law. I told him about the GNU license and he started talking about City of Heroes.
There was a (somewhat) similar discussion previously, which might give some pointers.
Open Source CD Lending For Public Libraries?
IIRC one important conclusion was that the libraries feared getting in a position where users started to expect support from them regarding the products. I could imagine that computer stores would have similar reservations.
It is much easier to give librarians the choice and ability to lend them out in libraries, says this article:
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http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/12/14/
The best chance that this can work is to find a way that both the consumer and the computer shop can save money.
For example, the store can offer a computer and a choice of two software packages.
package a) commercial software with Norton and Microsoft works or Office and so on.
package b) the free software alternative but the store can tack on $50 on the computer price.
Well, you say, they can't charge for free software. While that is true, they can "fiddle" with the numbers. They can raise the base computer price $25, and offer a $25 rebate if you buy the commercial software package.
They can also sell a 1 year support contract for package b for $50 (and then they buy the service from Geeks on wheels or something for $25).
There, they make $50 ($25 + $50 - $25) for selling a system with free software. And the customer saved even more.
Win-win.
What is good is that the store builds a relationship with geeks on wheels and that can also be translated into money. For instance, whenever Geeks on wheels services that computer they would buy the part or software from the store.
The remaining problem is that the computer shop buys their computers from HP (for instance) and they may refuse to sell a system without at least MS Works on it because of some contract that they in turn have with Microsoft.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
Not a bad idea. In fact, you could sell tangible packages of open source software for 5 bucks, and suggest the retail markup be another 5 bucks. Granted, that might seem ridiculous to people like you and I, but whatever works. You'd think there'd be some non-profit out there taking advantage of this right now with big retailers like Walmart and etc. Some people just don't have the time or willpower to download open source, but wouldn't mind spending ten bucks to get it.
I suppose it depends on your point of view. If you're a total mercenary, you wouldn't show a customer jack-squat. You might even deactivate their built-in SP2 firewall. After all, the more infected their PC gets, the more you get to charge (by the hour, 'natch) to fix it. It's a neverending revenue stream...
If you're a smirking misanthrope, you probably get a kick out of delivering the same condescending lecture to all your spyware/virus-infested "luser" customers. Why would you ever push some free tools their way? It would cut down on your fun... because there's nothing more satisfying than pointing out the shortcomings of others.
On the other hand, How many times do you want to see the same PCs coming through your door? The only thing worse than death is boredom.
If you're a benevolent sort, you probably would show them a few things... such little freebies sometimes make a world of difference, not to mention they generate a little goodwill and customer loyalty.
If you're an intellectual individual who likes stretching your abilities with a challenging technical problem, you'd probably at least show them the basics. After all, you'd get bored removing the same Gator/Hotbar/Netsky every day. Where's the challenge? Let them bring you a PC that somebody had to use a little ingenuity to infect...
I'm a benevolent sort, so I fix all kinds of computers for my employees and coworkers... for free. The goodwill it generates more than compensates me for the minimal time and effort it takes to clean out some spyware.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Actually I own two computer stores and yes we do only make about 20 bucks Canadian off of selling a complete office package.
We also preload open source software for people and I end up supporting it quite a bit. Depending on where your store is located. My one store is located in a dank area of town and my customers are pretty well government supported *wellfair* so this works great for us. We do not charge for the open source. We do charge for the reinstall and cleanings but we educate and leave the open source software on the customers system.
I would be very interested in understanding the legality of charge customers 5 bucks for a convenience fee of dressing up a cd and a case to sell to my customers.
I work on the sales floor of a computer store, and I must say... the demand isn't there.
:)
Our store has it's share of regulars who know thier way in and out of Windows, OSx and Linux, and love free software. Great. But do you know who makes up our biggest set of shoppers? The average user who simply doesn't care.
They're used to clicking on a blue "E", and accessing the start menu. They have friends using Word, Excel, Publisher and other and don't want to seem like the odd one out. They're happy with the stuff they've always gotten, and so be it. We've had Ubuntu running on a demo box for a while, and had OO.org on there too. We showed people, they thought it was "different" but always seemed to not like the missing start button, and the fact that it "wasn't Word".
In the sense of AV or anti-spyware, myself and the other sales guys do inform them of things. We tell them about Firefox, and about Spybot S&D, or Adaware, or MS Anti-Spyware. We show them TrenMicro's housecall, and we tell them about AVG Anti-virus. We talk to them about Windows Firewall, as well as other free options such as ZoneAlarm.
It does help, and we get the stories and calls thanking us for that on a near daily basis. But we cant push anything upon them. They'll still want the things they've always used and trusted.
That all said. Management does, sometimes, frown upon it. That's why this is anonymous. They don't mind us providing the information, but they don't like the length it takes. I've spent 30 minutes or more with a customer showing them things like OO.org, Firefox, and Ubuntu... and to the managers, that's just way too long.
Online, I use a nick that I've only ever seen used by me. I'd hate to see my job taken away because I wanted to provide you all with an insight from the sales floor of a small computer store, so this is anonymous. I've left the subscriber bonus on to try to get the post more noticed.
Hope you all have a great night.
I work at a computer store in Chilliwack, BC, Canada, and I am doing my best installing Firefox on all the machines I see infested with spyware.
It helps the people who care enough to educate themselves by asking if there are alternatives.
Not only that, but we are actually selling machines with Ubuntu installed, instead of Win98se. Seriously, there are pitfalls, like hardware support, printer support, etc, but people (at least here) genuinely want a Windows alternative without buying all new hardware - Like a Mac which by the way doesnt support everything -
Say anything you want about how support is difficult, but its only difficult for OSS when YOU DONT KNOW OSS, so of course Linux naysayers are going to put practices like this down. In the end, GNU/Linux, and other free software, may just give my employer an edge. Edges are what pay the rent, my friends.
I made my own "Open CD" just for giving out to friends / family / whatever that has an assortment of my preferred OSS. It's not terribly difficult to start from scratch, and with the OpenCD, you can just go through and pick it apart to make something customized for each shop (give it branding).
Pop in the "Store X" cd with software (and free updated cds, of course). Have a problem with one of the programs? You know who to contact.
Earlier post with all the software from my disk.
Why not press up a few hundred copies of The OpenCD, screen 'em with a catchy logo...something like "Free Software! Fully functional Microsoft Word clone!"...and put stacks of 'em wherever you see AOL discs. People will find their own support, as they have and always will. Some choose to call Microsoft, some choose to call their nerdy cousin, and many simply cope. Wouldn't it be much easier to cope with the software on The OpenCD?
I run a computer sales / repair shop and i do bundle mostly open source offerings, mainly firefox for browsing, dev c++ for C programming (a good number of my customers are CS majors) and other apps. Usually I offer open source software where ever possible, in the case of firefox, the number of complaints i've had of viruses and spyware has been greatly reduced. As a result my clients are more than happy to refer my shop to their friends because of their overall positive experiences. Furthermore using open source apps in my experience have been alot more stable and have helped to reduce the overall cost of the system being sold.
If you start them off with copies of Ubuntu, etc.
I walked into my local mom-pop shop recently, suprised to have one of the guys hand me a copy of Ubuntu!
I doubt Ubuntu has the resources to just give these to computer stores. So I'm assuming either some geek in the company or other local nerd (like you & me) is evangelizing quietly but surely :)
I didn't get a chance to look at the cd cover of the Ubuntu disk.. so I don't know who was behind that part of it.
As far as helping people with their viruses, etc, well, if people dont' relize by now with all the publicity and problems associated with m$ products these days, then they just don't wanna know.
But since the customer is always right, and if their application needs are not tied to m$ specifically), the answer for the virus/spyware should again be as simple to offer Linux products.
And finally for all of the remarks in this thread about 'the bottom line' etc..., well the real bottom line to most people (customers) is being happy with what they got, for the money they spent... not if the people who sold them the product/services are making money.
There is no special, inherint, magical, sure-fire-way to make money in business.. just the opposite in fact.
People go into business to 'try and make money', but if they go into for just that reason, their chances are no better than the rest of the 9-10 or so that fail the first 4 years.
I try to make sure that I will enjoy whatever venture (business) that I get into, with only the money I can *afford* to loose, this way I don't start talking like others in this thread who think the whole world revolves around whether they can figure out how to survive in a business.
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
When i need a 4 year old video card or something that doesnt have to be top notch.
just something to show a console or even 20 gigs of drive space for some box im making for something.
Those small stores are happy to sell me the used stuff they have laying around.
Try getting a 4 meg video card from best buy for 5 bucks or so.
Or a 16x cdrom burner for 5 bucks.
Stuff they can never sell or use anymore but for what i need it for its great.
OpenOffice has made some inroads but as soon as one glitch comes up where it doesn't render a MS format properly everyone starts bitching.
I work in a professional environment. Sometimes I have to produce Word documents, sometimes I have to accept them, and sometimes the ones I accept I have to edit and redistribute.
If Word screws up the formatting, it's embarassing, but at least I used Word - my arse is covered. If I choose to use OOo and it screws up the formatting, it's my fault for using a non-standard app.
Bottom line is that unless and until OOo is approved by corporate IT (and it'll be a cold day in hell), if I want to use it then fine - but I'll have to check any document very carefully in Word before sending it out. It's not like I have enough time to produce the documents as it is most of the time...
That's one reason why people bitch. "Good enough" isn't good enough when you're dealing with clients and (upper) management.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I didn't like 7-zip personally. From memory it didn't drag-and-drop with explorer properly. ZipGenius (http://www.zipgenius.it/) is a fantastic free compression utility that (strangely) nobody seems to know about. It has a lovely interface and works quite well.