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Big Retailers Timid About Selling Linux Boxen
RollWaves75 writes "Jay Lyman reports in IT Manager's Journal that major Linux retailers like Wal-Mart, CompUSA, Fry's and Best Buy are being timid and waiting to see how a small, Midwest-based chain called Micro Center fares in selling Linux software. Turns out that Micro Center not only is out-selling Wal-Mart in Linux systems, it is taking the bold step to have Linux-knowledgeable clerks and trained sales support for customers like you and me." From the article: "[Kevin Carmony] described three levels of mainstream retail Linux: Wal-Mart, which provides no sales support, only offering its Linux machines online; Fry's, where Linux is viewed as a loss leader on the ultra low end; and Micro Center, which is only carrying Linspire Linux at this point, but is behind Linspire's in-store training for reps, Micro Center Marketing Communications Manager Ed Lukens told ITMJ in an email. He said the chain, which is selling boxed and pre-installed Linspire 5.0 desktops and notebooks, will promote the Linux systems with offers through its direct mail pieces."
I miss Michael...
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Words I don't want to read in a Slashdot-headline:
#1: Boxen
Yes, but how much support will they provide if I want to install an alternative, non-mainstream operating system such as the almost ready for prime time Microsoft Windows XP?
Seriously, though, this will certainly be a test of Linspire's slogan of being "the world's easiest desktop Linux."
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
> it is taking the bold step to have Linux-knowledgeable clerks
I can't remember the last time I was in a store where the clerks were knowlegeable about anything. In Best Buy stores the clerks have to go consult their supervisor on the simplest questions (assuming they don't just make up an answer).
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
/. discussions are usually conducted in English, and boxes is a perfectly reasonable word. Boxen is an attempt to use German pluralization on the English word Box. Box is not a word in German, so it is not like boxen is a fun foriegn word to use to mix things up, it is just stupid, and not any shorter or clearer than boxes. If you are feeling 1337 than you could say 80x35.
Now, before I get slammed by Linspire zealots, just let me say one thing:
I'm betting that, among Linux enthusiasts, that Linspire users are in the minority. How do I know? Because among Linux users, $DISTRO users are in the minority. And why is that? Because there are about six jillion distros out there.
Another poster in a previous article referred to this trend as 'the balkanization of Linux', and I believe that that is a very apt description. If Linux really wants to become a player in the regular user market, one distro (or a few, at the most) must claim ascendancy.
Just one question...which one will it be?
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Maybe they think "boxen" is a stupid, stupid word.
And how many of those are simply ways to dodge paying for Windows? I think people who believe Linux is getting anywhere at all in retail need to pull their head out of the sand.
Revised title.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
The very nature of the market means that Linux will replace nearly all of the commercial operating systems, including the desktop. What you see as the balkanisation of Linux is simply the natural evolution into niches, a bit like the evolution of small furry rodents into every mammalian life form we see today.
Deleted
Checking out the Walmart Linux laptop the other day, I found that it wasn't on the front page. There was a better laptop for the same price and XP on the front page. I had to dig to find the Linux box. My guess is that the sales haven't been astounding.
I had thought that a $500 laptop from Walmart was going to force down the price of laptops generally. That doesn't seem to have happened. Most of the laptops being sold seem to be about twice that price.
Walmart will sell anything that people will buy. I think the reason they haven't pushed the Linux laptops more is that people haven't been buying them.
Linux power users probably won't be interested unless they only want the hardware. So that just leaves the in-the-middle folks looking for a cheap computer. Heck I'll bet half of them will just install a pirated Windows copy on it.
Ok guys I realize the /. audience is not a part of the "cool" crowd, but using asinine words like "boxen" or "virii" does not make you part of the cool subset of the /. crowd, it makes you part of the script kiddie subset of the general populace. Knock it off please.
To me, "boxen" - phonetically pronounced - is how rednecks pronounce boxing.
P.S. Mark me flamebait if you want, I consider the use of "boxen" and "virii" to be flamebait and moderate accordingly.
Question everything
I agree to some extent with what you're saying but as an articulate, intelligent, knowledgeable individual I would like to point out that there are *some* of us who do work in retail for many reasons.
I worked in PC Sales for a year to help fund my degree. I've also been a butcher, a fishmonger, a carpenter and many other jobs where the general public has taken the attitude that because I work in a shop/building site I must be stupid.
If everyone was a little more open minded and a little less prejudiced the world would be a much better place.
If ignorance is bliss, knock the smile off my face.
And Henry Ford said you could have any color car you want as long as it is black. The last time I looked, there were several different models of cars in different colors. All of them basically do the same thing, operate in a similar manner, and obey the same basic rules but nobody says we should use the same model & make of car.
I've tried several different distributions (RedHat, Fedora, SuSE, TurboLinux, Debian and several other minor distros). The biggest difference I've ever seen is in the install and upgrade process and both of these have become a thousand times easier than they were 10 years ago.
Once Linux is actually running there isn't much of a difference between the distros. RPM vs APT is probably the biggest difference in installing software and with automatic download & install utilities (yum, apt-get...) the average user doesn't need to know how things are packaged.
Some distros seem to package different software by default and some use KDE while others use Gnome but all of them operate pretty much the same. Some seem to be better suited to servers and others do better on the desktop but the actual look and feel is not very different.
The biggest difference (IMHO) is in support. Some have none and others do. If you need it depends on your preferences. I've never used a Linux support service for i386, but I did on z-Series Linux.
I understand what you are saying, but I hope it never happens. I think it is a strength that so many distros exist.
My experience is based upon a particularly
knowledgable friend of mine who had A+ and CCNA training plus years of Linux use and network administrating (on linux boxes) under his belt and was turned down there.
If his resume was that good he wasn't turned down because he wasn't knowledgeable enough. Chances are more likely that they were afraid to hire someone with too much experience / knowledge because they don't pay well enough to keep them any significant length of time.
Having a high employee turn over ratio doesn't increase the bottom line especially if you provide training to new employees.
Recently I had to buy a new x86 compatible machine to help out a friend who was doing some Visual Basic work. He said he'd load up the OS and software I needed on the coattails of his developer subscription, but I neeeded to buy the hardware.
I went to the Frys and Microcenter in Atlanta to buy the cheapest/fastest thing they had. For around $600 Microcenter had an Athlon 64 3ghz with XP Home but I'd fallen through the cracks and couldn't find anyone to help me buy it. I went to Frys and they had a refurbished 3ghz Intel PC with Linspire on it, but unlike Microcenter the woman sales rep was actively trying to talk me out of the purchase. She was telling me why Linspire was a bad choice and that it was much cheaper to buy Windows when I bought the PC than later. So while Fry's had Linspire PC's for sale, I'd be very suprised if they actually sold any of them. They seemed very hostile to actually allowing one of them actually go out the door. In the end I went back to MicroCenter and got the Manager himself to help me get the PowerSpec.
That's the first time I had a salesrep actually try to talk me out of a purchase I'd decided on, and use the lack of Windows as the justification. Oh well, I've learned my lesson there.
If Linux really wants to become a player
Linux doesn't want anything. It isn't a person, it isn't a corporate person, it isn't a country.
If you want linux to become a player, go ahead and do whatever you feel is necessary.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It's also an adjective. "Linux resembling the box" or "Linux made of wood" is not a product that will ever be sold.
Unfortunately, there are tradeoffs.
How many times do I hear criticism of Apple as a boutique brand that charges too much for their stuff? In part, they charge too much because they provide better help and support, at least in their retail stores. That costs the big bucks.
When you buy at Fry's, you're buying in part because they have good prices. They're cheaper than the Apple stores because they offer worse service.
I'd say most people make this kind of knowing tradeoff, or we'd still have old-style computer stores that had good service and people who know what they're talking about.
Instead, we have Frys, because most of us are, bluntly, cheap people who care much more about price than service.
D