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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.'"
They just don't want Linux on an Acer.
Not a troll, just saying.
u-bend
Cost of extra training for sales people on the two differnt product lines if only a small portion will buy the Linux Acers then the cost of training could be more then the cost of sales.
Cost of support, you get a person wanting linux but never used it before, get it and everything seems to go wrong and talking to technical support. I am assuming that they don't use global support.
Cost of wearhousing now you need to manage 2 visual idenintal product lines the difference is the data on each system.
Cost of selling systems without Extra Junk installed, all those demo apps the company pays acer to put default on their system.
Trade Policies, sometimes by changing the OS you may need to renegoate your trade policy with other countries.
There are a lot of extra costs and little have to do with Linux but selling a product in an area where there is little demmand.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Acer said: "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"
Acer meant: "Because we're hogtied by Microsoft due to us whoring ourselves out to them earlier, We are currently not allowed to offer anything but their 'wonderful'(TM) line of products until 2045"
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
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.
I like muppets.
I'm a Linux user in the UK, but I'm not remotely surprised by this news. By and large, people in the UK are extremely conservative about IT: Firefox take-up here has been far lower than in the US or mainland Europe, for example.
Basically most people don't want to appear remotely "geek-ish", and to show the slightest interest in what software your computer is running, or to change any of the standard default settings (internetexploreroutlookexpressmicrosoftoffice...) , is to break this anti-geek taboo.
This applies in business and the public sector as well as the consumer market. The use of FOSS in the UK is far lower than in most other EU jurisdictions, in all sectors.
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.
This story didn't happen in the UK... a little bit south of that, in Spain. We bought a dozen Acer Aspire "something" preloaded with Linux. It was a pretty good deal and I thought that if they came preloaded with any flavour of Linux it should be pretty simple to either change it or upgrade it... right? WRONG!!! They came preloaded with something called Linpus Linux without X or any recognisable management software or even a note with root password (it happened to be '111111' but it was a long guess process).... so... I decided I would just install any other distro... HA! Tried Debian, OpenSuSE, Fedora and many more but the install system would fail in all of them. After long (and when I say long I mean days...) tweaking we managed to install OpenSuSE on one of them unplugging the floppy disk drive. That gave us a clue on changing some startup parameters to be able to load a full install (I recall noirqpoll and some other obscure settings...). Conclusion: Acer didn't intend that no one would ever be able to use those systems with Linux... I mean.... how much did Microsoft pay them to preload those systems with Linpus Linux in such a way????? Regards,