Using Computer Stores to Spread Open Source?

Posted by Cliff on Saturday May 28, 2005 @11:30AM from the ninja-marketing dept.

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?"

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Re:There is no reason not to be commercial by NineNine · 2005-05-28 11:57 · Score: 0, Redundant

So then, how do these computer stores pay rent and employees, if they give a 3rd party all of their softtware support? They don't make money on hardware. On top of that, their business would drop like a rock since the market has proven time and time again that not even Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in history can sell Linux-based machines.