No Demand for Linux in the UK?

eldavojohn writes "If you're a Linux user in the UK looking for a Linux box, you're not going to get it from Acer. The computer maker has started releasing Linux installed machines in Singapore but cited 'no demand' as a reason for not releasing the same computer with Linux installed in the UK. From the ZDNet article: 'Before the launch of the Acer Aspire in Singapore, there had been no suggestion that any major manufacturer other than Dell was even considering releasing Ubuntu-based products. However, Acer president Gianfranco Lanci did tell Financial Times Deutschland that "the whole [PC] industry is disappointed with Windows Vista". Lanci claimed that Microsoft's new operating system had not boosted PC sales, due to concerns over its stability and overall maturity.'"

Comments

might also be $$$ from MS preinstall

[conspirator57]

hardware vendors are squeezed for profit margin. selling windows preinstalled adds a bit of margin. Perhaps the studies they may or may not have conducted to determine market demand indicated that people who wanted linux also wanted a lower price tag for the hardware. Perhaps this expectation was inflexible, meaning that unit margin on a given PC would go down if they were to sell without MS. Or if they didn't conduct that study, maybe this is one of their fears that keeps them from offering linux product.

Linux in the UK

[Turn-X Alphonse]

I run Linux and I'm in the UK. The problem isn't that there is no market (Windows is hated here as much as it is in the US), it's just that there's no marketing for it. If there was an active attempt at marketing Linux as an OS that will allow you to do projects and not have shit crash and such it would "sell" like hotcakes.

A tech show at 5am on a Sunday morning mentioning Linux in passing every few weeks does not make a market but no one else even seems to know of Linux.

Re:Linux in the UK

[Threni]

> So Brits, please get your act together!

You've got it all backwards - a typical techie thing to do. People don't look for solutions to problems unless the problems are hurting them. Most people have never suffered a loss of data/identity theft due to Windows, nor do they have any trouble locating games, driver, support etc. They buy a camera/graphics card/printer/etc and plug it in and it "just works". They either got Windows "free" with their PC or are using a pirate copy, so that Linux is free is not remotely advantageous. You'll have to do better than rely on abstract notions like `free` or `open source` software (only developers give a fuck about that) or that Linux is technically better (more efficient with a given processor or whatever metric you wish to choose). Good enough beats best every time, and Windows is manifestly good enough for most users.

Pushing Linux is a marketing problem, not a technical one.

Re:Friends don't let Friends buy Acer

[flynt]

Can you find a brand of laptop where the same Google searches don't turn up the same results of customers that feel ripped off because theirs happened to be one of the ones that failed?

All laptop brands have a (hopefully) small percentage that fail. Searching google will turn up people complaining about this. In my opinion, it's more important how the company responds to the issue.

Re:Maybe...

[teh kurisu]

Much as I would like to believe that it's a lack of demand for Acer computers rather than Linux, I suspect it has more to do with the fact that buying it with Windows pre-installed basically amounts to getting a virtually free copy of Windows, which as a monopoly OS is always nice to have. Linux, on the other hand, is almost universally a free-as-in-beer download.

Better to buy a computer with Windows and then decide you want Linux, than buy a computer with Linux and decide that you need Windows.