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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 used to live in Houston, TX (back when the world was young), and Micro Center was easily the best computer store in the city. They supported Windows and Mac equally, both with hardware, software, and classes. I am not surprised that they are doing so for Linux as well. In my opinion, this is exactly what Linux needs: Public exposure through a local store that can provide technical support to your average home user when it is needed.
I think it's time to give my local Micro Center store a visit.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Mostly I'm going to watch this thread to see how lively the 'boxen' discussion gets. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Merchants are wary of selling a computing product that is all-but-unknown to the public at large? You don't say!
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Wal-mart has been selling Linux boxes for years though, so why is this news?
Pay girls to strip!
Linux-Knowledgeable Clerks
When is the last time you met a Knowledgeable Clerk in any retail store?
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Volume!
I miss Michael...
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
...I would be timid to sell an OS for Losers too.
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.
I can't think calling them "boxen" helps.
Hey Mister! You wanna buy some Linux boxen?
Get away from me you freak!
I live in Columbus, Ohio and it is essentially used as a test market for a lot of different products. Many times when companies want to test out new products, well see it here first. New Soda's, resturaunts, fast foods, etc... I think it has to do with the demographic running parellel with the rest of the country. Anyways, theres a micro center here, and its pretty good. The staff is usually pretty intelliget. Most employees are typically comp sci students or generally tech smart people wanting to get into the industry. Sounds like a good idea, if it can succeed in Columbus, its got a pretty good shot nationally.
Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
10.
> 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
Agreed.
Microcenter also has about the best return policy in the business. On most things they don't charge a restock fee. If you give them enough personal info (address + phone) they can re-create your reciept if you lose it. They have good prices on parts. They always have the cable I'm looking for, usually in the length I need, including weirdo SCSI and fibre cables.
Their Apple people generally have more product knowledge than the Apple employees at CompUSA, and just slightly less than the ones at the Apple store.
No commercial interest in them, just want to give a good company a little rep bonus.
/. 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?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Retailers are leary of selling something that most of their employees do not understand.
I wish.
In German, the slang term term for a mobile phone is a "Handy". Funny thing, everyone thinks this is a real English word ...
Maybe they think "boxen" is a stupid, stupid word.
Back in 1999, I actually bought a boxed set of Wordperfect for Linux at MicroCenter--they've been selling at least some Linux software in-store for years.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
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
The main reason I want Linux pre-installed (regardless of distro) is that I want to know that the hardware will work with Linux (and I don't want to have to pay the Microsoft Tax.
That'd be essentially what it's like with Windows now. And yes, I'd be happy with that.--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
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
...that the machines in question will be, how should I say it... 'more robust' than offerings in the past. The walmart laptops and desktops they've hawked have been cheap-ass pieces of shit, for the most part. Inexpensive doesn't have to mean cheap. Inexpensive and cheap are 2 different things entirely.
What's need is an HP/Dell (sic) quality _consumer_ machine with a top of the line distro, including support, pre-installed on it, at a decent price. I don't mean to sound condescending, but I'm not talking about Linspre or Xandros or Lycoris, I'm talking about the BIG distros -- Redhat or Novell/SuSE or even Mandriva... companies that are actively developing things.
Anything less is third-rate, and it shows.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
I've played with Lindows/Linspire since 4.0 and you are right about the older versions, but the newest one, 5.0, doesn't automatically run as root. The install creates a user account that is the default when you boot. Yes, you can still get to password protected root if you need to, but not automatically any more.
I installed it on an old P-III machine for one of my grown kids who had a spyware choked P-4 XP machine. It took 2 minutes of instruction as to what to click on to get the dialup going and the browser. I didn't hear any more about it from them, as in no tech-support calls, until I took the Windows box back to them and he and his wife didn't want to let go the older machine with Linspire.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
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.
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.
Sounds like they're nixen the whole ball of waxen. What're they smokin, craxen?
** duxen **
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Linspire seems pretty solid, although I haven't played with it that much. It is definetely one of the most "out of the box" friendly system for non linux familiar people to use. So you can sell it to anyone not just those familiar with linux. I think thats the point of it.
Also, and importantly they also offer support http://support.linspire.com/ , which has bulliten boards and phone numbers. The phone is slow. But when you want to retail a linux box, that support becomes critical to your sales, so linspire shares the support of the OS.
Michael Robertson the ceo is alos very agressive, giving it marketshare with prominent partners Compusa/Bestbuy etc....