LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Alan Kennington <akenning@dog.topology.org>
  To  : kevin@oceania.net
  Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:53:18 +1030

Re: Need hardware supplyer sugestion + some info

Kevin,

According to the oceania web page, you're in 
Port Macquarie, NSW. 

This just emphasizes the lack of linux
stores in Adelaide.
I think that for decades, Adelaide and Perth
have been regarded as country towns by the
eastern states.
No matter what the reality is, it is still the
way that people think.
This is only a broadbrush view, of course.

I have often stated that if a PC store in
Adelaide renamed itself to "Linux Adelaide"
or "Linux PC Adelaide" or something like that,
then they would have excellent prospects
for the next 10 years.
Of course, dual boot PCs could be a speciality.

I don't know if PC stores actually make a
good profit. I imagine that it's a dog eat dog
business with lots of marginal operations.
But by dominating a single niche like linux
within our little country town, maybe a real
success could be made of it.

More than anything, I _wanted_ to find a
linux PC store in Adelaide for the last 12 months.
I wasted huge amounts of valuable time doing
all of my own research into what works with linux
and what doesn't.
Unlike the (legacy) MS OS situation, hardware
suppliers are not yet providing a little
floppy disk or CD with drivers for their hardware.

I still assert that adopting linux for one's home
PC requires courage and stamina.
A PC shop that it is going to specialize in
linux in Adelaide should do well.

Q1:	What is the experience interstate?
	Are there shops in the eastern states
	(or Perth) which make linux a primary
	aspect of their publicity and advertising,
	or part of their business name?
	If so, do they get lots of linux customers,
	and do they get good business from that?

Q2:	Are there any stores in our sleepy country
	town of Adelaide which do this? I.e. are
	there any which state in advertising etc.
	that they provide linux-friendly hardware?


I think a problem with this, and which has been
expressed to me often, is that there's no money in
it, basically because linux users want everything for
nothing, and time is money. If someone needs a problem
dealt with in a legacy OS, you sell them more stuff
(hardware and/or software). If your customer has a linux
PC problem, you spend hours advising them, and then they
go out and get the solution free on the net.

The only hope for a "linux PC shop" would be that
a linux specialist could, at least initially, get
good business out of selling hardware to a niche
that no one else can service.

I think that over the next 10 years, linux should
grow very quickly. Everyone on this list probably
believes this. But no one in Adelaide believes in it
enough to bet their house on it.

Maybe in the next 12 months, someone _will_ bet their 
house on it, and open "Linux Adelaide", a PC shop
with staff wearing penguin suits, etc. etc. etc.

Hmmm. Thinks: "Must develop terser literary style."

Cheerio,
Alan Kennington.

PS.  I almost certainly need to buy a laptop
in the next week or two, and I want to put linux
on it, and it has to be set up as a business computer,
which means that it must be able to create
and use MS-format documents and presentation slides.
Where on earth do I go to get this?
I can't afford to spend another 6 months researching
this. Time is money. Where is the "linux laptop shop"
in Adelaide where I can get this?
Maybe I have to look interstate??!

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