If you can do this on a very low budget and let all of us on the list
promote your shop to the non 'geek' community then I would say go ahead and
take the plunge. No one who is not a geek is going to go out and set up a
Linux box from scratch and how is linux going to grow as a desktop without
someone offering 'built' units for them to purchase??
I for one, use castoffs from where I work, and I bought a used computer and
it worked just fine. But most computer users who 'might' try Linux at home
would probably not have the expertise to do it on their own.
All business ventures are risky, BTDT
FWIW
Michael C. Rock
-----Original Message-----
From: slug@lists.nks.net [mailto:slug@lists.nks.net]On Behalf Of Ronan
Heffernan
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 3:27 AM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: Re: [SLUG] Hi....question time again...
Anita Pesola wrote:
> Hey,
>
> Hubby asked me to put this out for public consumption. He's thinking
> about starting a computer shop for sales and service that is strictly
> geared to Linux users. You know, building computers with the Linux OS
> installed (he's thinking Mandrake, but he's not sure). Two questions
> come to mind:
>
> 1) do any of you know of anyone who is already doing this?
> 2) would you frequent this type of a shop?
>
> He's thinking about doing the research and stocking all the items that
> pertain to Linux--mostly hardware that would be compatible with the OS.
> I need some input because I'm not sure of the logistics, and quite
> frankly, I'm quite nervous about dealing solely with Linux when so many
> are indoctrinated with the Windoze philosophy. He wants to get certified
> with Linux (apparantly RH and Mandrake have this available) so that he
> can do more with it.
>
> Any ideas or input? Thanks!!!
>
> Anita
>
There are at least three problems with this:
- There aren't enough of us to support a computer shop.
- We are (almost) all computer and Internet savvy enough to go to
www.streetprices.com, find the best prices, and figure-out which
hardware is already Linux-friendly. A shop would be more convenient,
but you would have to keep your prices down around those of the cheapest
sites on the Internet (ouch!).
- Most of us can do our own service and support. For those who
can't quite do everything themselves, there is a lot of help out there
(er, here).
--ronan
PS: Another problem with Linux users (from a retail perspective) is that
we aren't forced to upgrade our hardware as often. We like shiny, new,
speed-demon machines as much as the next guy, but my home server is 5
years old and going strong. My 3 year old P2-450 is still quite zippy.
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