__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Tuesday 30 May 2006 19:55 \__
> begin oe_protect.scr
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> OpenSUSE costs you $0 and delivers more software, better stability,
>> hardware support, and security.
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| There's no word better than "ultimate" to convey the impression that
>>| you're getting nothing but the best. However, when it comes to
>>| Microsoft's new software, whatever you end up getting is going to cost
>>| you heaps.
>>|
>>| And all those bits and bytes can be yours for just US$679, the price of
>>| a fairly handy desktop computer.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4463/53/
>>
>> SUSE Smackdown hit the front page of Digg, by the way:
>>
>> http://digg.com/linux_unix/The_Vista_SUSE_smackdown_
>>
>> That's tens/hundreds of thousands of readers. Free publicity for Linux.
>
> At £350 for an operating system, I think a lot of people would be willing
> to consider an alternative pre-install. Here's a thought - if a major
> retailer like Dixons/PCWorld were to offer machines pre-installed with
> Linux & Freedos, but offer a bundled price for Windows which could be
> held available for, say, 2 months, then I wonder how many people would
> be willing to pay the extra £350 for something which they'd probably
> find didn't offer them any advantage?
Well, if they present them as 'naked boxes', neither Microsoft nor the
prospective customers will be overly enthusiastic. Vis-a-vis large vendors,
Tesco announced that they will start selling desktops and laptops. This was
yesterday, or the day before. If it were Asda (which could soon follow
suit), I would go about making Linux inferences, due to their connection
with Wal-Mart.
> The retailer's perspective is going to come from margin. If their
> margin is consistent across hardware and software generally, then
> they'll prefer to sell to a given budget, irrespective of whether that's
> in hardware or software. They won't be all that keen on /giving away/
> linux, but they'd surely be prepared to sell it. Imagine they make 10%
> on Windows at £350, that's £35. If they could sell Linux at £40
> instead, then they'd be better off... of course they sell virus guards
> too, and probably make a margin of eg., £5 on that, but if they could
> sell support for £5/month for x mins instead... and so on.
>
> I'm sure that there's money to be made here.
It's only a matter of eduction and FUD suppression at the moment. Just return
to that point of the "naked PC" controversy[1] and see what I'm talking
about. The (commercial) software industry is going out of its way to mask
the truth. Inevitably, truth will happen (Red Hat's phrase).
Best wishes,
Roy
[1] http://www.bellevuelinux.org/naked_pc.html
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: A dragonfly only lives for one day
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
3:20am up 33 days 9:52, 8 users, load average: 1.05, 1.08, 1.16
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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