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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
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
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.
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.
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.