[Wolves] Re: Selling Linux on Desktop PCs

[Andy Wootton]

Howard Berry wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> Here's a link to an article from yesterday's Gruaniad about pressure on
> Dell to sell Linux supported PC's. It makes interesting reading and issues
> a challenge to the "community" to put their money where their mouth is!
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2028343,00.html
I interpreted the last section to be sarcasm.

The profit margin on PC sales is so low that a single call to the help 
desk can wipe it out. Dell and HP want to supply Linux PCs to large 
companies who they believe can handle their own problems. It would only 
make sense to supply Linux to the general public if they are willing to 
either learn with the help of the community or pay for support. There is 
little evidence that most people are willing to do either yet.

Linspire was criticised quite strongly here for charging 50 Dollars a 
year for their download service which tried to take the process below 
the pain threshold of normal people by putting back in all the 
proprietary bits that we are willing to do without.