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?"

Comments

Killing the revenue stream...

[Anonymous Coward]

They make money cleaning spyware and viruses off computers. Why would they educate their users about them?

Re:Killing the revenue stream...

[miketang16]

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.

Re:Killing the revenue stream...

[BlogPope]

A computer shop however has different motivations.

They are motivated by a need to profit, not because they are greedy corporations, but because they need to pay the rent, by the sales and service staff a fair wage, etc. These things require an income stream.

However, there is nothing inherent in open source that prevents making aprofit from it. They can't charge for the code, but as I recall they can charge a reasonable fee for the media its distributed on. They can give classes on its use. They can charge for support.

All of which requires outside the box thinking and skilled personnel on the part of the shop, so don't expect them to be buying it in a big way; but you could plant a seed.

make it tangible

[icepick72]

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.

Re:make it tangible

[NineNine]

And how exactly are stores supposed to make money from this? This whole article is ridiculous. Indepdent computer stores are already pinching pennies to compete with the big box stores, and the online merchants. Why would a store replace one of their last remaining revenue streams with a non-revenue stream? Computer stores aren't going to stay alive selling beige boxes with $10 markus. It ain't gonna happen, and I think that most know, which is my no store (that will be in business in the near future) would consider touching Free Software.

Re:make it tangible

[NitsujTPU]

If you charge consumers the price of packaging, then that is what they will feel it is worth.

Toss in a manual or something, make the box a little heavier, charge the printing cost, and you get a bit of free advertisement as well (and heck, you know that people might buy the box just to get the manual).

Now, toss in a bit on top for the Mozilla project, the FSF, the Apache Foundation, or whoever is selling the software, and you have something that is eye catching and benefits us all.

It's funny how people reject a cheap or free product as crap, but you know that they do.

Re:make it tangible

[Spoing]

First of all the Mozilla project (for example) should produce a boxed version of their product suite.

Normally, they do.

The store is closed at the moment, though when it is open they do sell manuals, manuals with CDs, CDs, or a whole kit from the Mozilla store. I think I remember them giving discounts for bulk purchases, starting at 10 units. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

TheOpenCD

[slavemowgli]

Have you checked out TheOpenCD? That one contains a number of well-known and useful open-source applications for Windows; it should be easy to make (possibly customized) copies of that one to include with new computers, for example.

Re:TheOpenCD

[XpirateX]

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?

[NineNine]

Why would the stores listen to you or care? Honestly, Slashdotters (admittedly, like most people) have no clue what it takes to run a successful business. Independent computer stores have been hit very hard by the fact that geeks have no loyalty, and shop mainly at big box stores, and generic online merchants (tiger direct, etc). The *only* way that the few remaining independent computer stores, which are already probably struggling, will even begin to listen is if you have a way for them to improve their bottom line. Bottom line.

Ideals about "Freedom" don't really matter to people if you can't pay rent. You'd do well to remember that before you started preaching to them about how they should run their business.

Re:Why?

[schnarff]

geeks have no loyalty, and shop mainly at big box stores, and generic online merchants (tiger direct, etc).

There's a good reason for this: independent computer stores, for the most part, offer no added value, while charging a ton more than the aforementioned. Don't get me wrong, I like the little guys, and I got out of my way to buy from them whenever I find a good independent shop. The problem I have is that there's less and less places like the one I frequented in Centreville, VA (now defunct) where they did honest service and got good parts when things died, and more and more places like my now-local one in Arlington, VA where they don't even carry Ethernet cords and know less about hardware than your average A+ certified luser. Create some value for me, and I'll shop with the little guy every time.

Do I smell a business model?

[Txiasaeia]

"Is there a project out there for this purpose that local advocates could use to approach computer stores in their town?"

No. Please post a sourceforge link when you're done ;)

I've wanted to do this too

[LoTonah]

I work in a computer store, but the position of management (and it's been similar at a lot of stores I've visited or worked for) is that they don't want to push/give OpenOffice because they don't make money on it. In the retail market, it seems like value-added services don't matter anymore...if there isn't a profit to be made, it won't be touched.

Same goes with programs like AVG, Spybot, etc...we use the utilities in the service department as part of our spyware/virus cleaning services, but that's as far as it goes.

Trust me, I'd love to load our systems with Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, etc., but the retail culture here doesn't allow it!

the Windows Toolbox

[thegoldenear]

the Windows Toolbox - http://thegoldenear.org/ - all the software on one CD

Users

[shawkin]

Most people coming into a retail store are not ubergeeks. To a basic user, packaging sells stuff. Once they buy something, it has to be easy to use and install.

To expand Linux into this market, everything needs to pass the grandmother test. If she doesn't read a manual, san she install it and make it work with less than 15 minutes of phone support?

As experienced users, we often forget that most people have much better things to do with their time than learn how to make a user hostile computer work.

Tried and True method

[killproc]

I think that there is a more enlightened way to spread the word about OSS.

1. First, travel to a strange town with a buddy.
2. Dress in a white shirt (button down collar), black pants, and a black tie.
3. Ride bikes.
4. Go door to door asking if you can "Share the good word" about OSS.
5. Profit!!! (Oops, wrong list...)

Knoppix and Best Buy

[returnoftheyeti]

I went to Best Buy with 50 Knoppix CDs and rebooted all the display computers.

Re:Eh, and who is going to support the oss...?

[hankaholic]

To my knowledge, no one actually sells a (support) license or a retail box for any of these products. (Maybe OO.org... but definitely not FF or T-bird.) (emphasis mine)

You should really ask someone to update mozilla.org then -- they seem to think that "[t]elephone support at 1-888-586-4539 is available for Firefox 0.9 and above, Thunderbird 0.8 and above, and final Mozilla release versions 1.5, 1.6, and above. $39.95 per incident." When you mention this to the webmaster, mention that you saw the text above at http://www.mozilla.org/support/.

So, who is going to support these additional software packages? Who is going to be responsible for the software if/when it breaks, or if/when Firefox leads to a virus infecting the computer?

Who is responsible if/when Internet Explorer breaks, or if/when it leads to a virus infecting the computer? Last I checked, Microsoft won't "be responsible" either, in terms of cleaning up messes they allow to be created through bugs in their software.

Geeks often forget that a major part of the computer industry is support. [...] At least, when you have a licensed copy of MS office, and it goes whacko, you can call up MS and demand that they fix it. Can the same be said of the OSS that you listed?

Support is often a consideration with enterprise-level deployments. For such cases, there are third parties that are more than happy to offer support for OSS software. Sun themselves offers support contracts for OpenOffice.

For home users of Office, Microsoft offers two free phone support incidents, but only if your copy came from them. If it came preinstalled, you'll have to call your PC vendor (who will likely do very little to help) or pay Microsoft $35 per incident ($245 for "advanced issues"). I'd imagine that most people didn't buy a retail copy of Office, which means that there's no free support for the average user.

and there is no 1-800 number to call for help, either.

Microsoft offers an 800 number only for the fee-based support. If you bought a retail copy of Office (which is the example you gave), and are taking advantage of one of your two free incidents, you'll be calling (425) 635-7056.

Maybe before citing the myriad of support options available from OEMs at reasonable costs to home users, you might consider the real-world availability to those users. Bundled software is up to the PC manufacturer to support, and generally their support ends by suggesting use of the system restore CD. This means that bundled software is virtually unsupported, and the average user isn't likely to pay tons of money for a retail box -- they'll borrow from a friend long before, and anyways are so used to being pushed aside by ineffectual support departments that they expect very little in terms of vendor support anyways.

Re:Eh, and who is going to support the oss...?

[cbiltcliffe]

At least, when you have a licensed copy of MS office, and it goes whacko, you can call up MS and demand that they fix it. Can the same be said of the OSS that you listed?

No, you can't. At least, not if it's an OEM copy, which is what you're likely to get on any computer you buy. The manufacturer of the computer is supposed to support OEM stuff, which puts them in the exact same place as they would be with F/LOSS.
Would you rather support something that you can see the code and actually fix, or something monolithic and obscure that may or may not have a patch forthcoming? I know which I'd pick....