Pictures And Details Of Ubuntu Being Sold At Best Buy

Microcenter has carried SuSE, Mandrake(now Mandriva), Corel, Xandros(formerly Corel), and Linspire on its shelves at various times since as early as 1999.

They usually have a section of discount CD's and DVD's that has a few Linux and BSD disks spread throughout the Windows FreeWare/ShareWare.

The big box places don't really grok Linux. If the software distributor they by from sells it, it might get shelf space. I don't think they really know what it is.

Heck, they probably don't know what Windows or OS/X is. They just know sku movement and profit margins.

When I worked at Best Buy (Geek Squad...three months...pure hell...), we sold SuSE Pro 9.x and Linspire 4.x, but I was specifically told that I could not recommend those to any of the customers, and that I was to push Windows, Windows and only Windows...and Norton Internet Suckurity. Until they worked out a deal with Trend Microt, in which case I was told to push Trend Microt.

@rijelkentaurus:

Quoting:Norton Internet Suckurity.

Amen...

Of course...after all, they don't want you to actually FIX the customer's computer...

> I was to push Windows, Windows and only Windows...and Norton Internet Suckurity

I know a guy that works at one of the big retail outlets. A while back I asked how they could afford to sell their computers at the prices they did. He said they'd gladly lose $50, even $75 or $100 if they had to, in order to make the sale. A very large percentage of those customers also buy the many security products, MS Office, Windows upgrades, and Adobe products. And now with Vista, they can sell the machine, then sell hardware upgrades plus charge for installing those upgrades when it's too slow.

Now imagine some poor honest salesman getting caught by a manager telling a customer about Linux. They don't care about Windows, but they sure do like taking the money out of the pockets of uninformed consumers.

rijelkentaurus,

Your post highlights a point Helios has been making for some time. Business is driven by the flow of $$ which they control through special deals and contracts. The biggest thing standing in the way of FOSS is that big business has no interest in its success. That is, there's no profit in it for them.

Big business will ignore the opportunities presented by FOSS because they don't see them as profitable. When FOSS threatens one of their cash cows (i.e. Windows) they will work actively and aggressively to destroy it. So, as FOSS momentum accelerates, FOSS attacks will become more aggressive.

The "Windows, Windows and only Windows" phenomena will move from the back offices of Best Buy to the courts, then to the police, then into your living room.

The main point here is that none of us seemed to know Ubuntu even had a boxed product to sell at retail.

I've been saying for a long time that Ubuntu has to get a boxed edition out there, over and above "The Official Ubuntu Handbook." They needed a boxed software product that could sit in the software aisle at stores just like Best Buy.

Since the only place this product seems to exist at present is Best Buy, and I can't find any mention of it at the Ubuntu or Canonical Web sites, we all have to wonder what they're smoking over at Canonical.

Hopefully they'll ramp up the marketing on this product and catch quite a few people in the process.

As an aside, on the OS aisle at Fry's over the past six months, I've seen:

Xandros, Slackware 12 (!), FreeBSD 5.x (old enough for you?) and PC-BSD 1.3.

They sold everything but the FreeBSD and never restocked.

If you want to write a "customer review" at the Best Buy site, do it here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8888563&type=p...

I always liked the "book with CD" style, except they don't sell cheap enough.

Or how about a stack of free Knoppix or PCLinuxOS CDs to go?

Quoting:I always liked the "book with CD" style, except they don't sell cheap enough.

Or how about a stack of free Knoppix or PCLinuxOS CDs to go?

Or how about Shuttleworth's Freedom Toaster, http://www.freedomtoaster.org/ ? Too bad that this idea of a Linux-CD vending machine has not caught on very well outside of South Africa........(yet!)

Quoting:Shuttleworth's Freedom Toaster

Those are cool, I often go grab my isos there (and updated Proj Gutenberg CDs for me wife). And they are actually very good about keeping up to date versions of non-buntu distributions on it.

But then you can also just mail order your Ubuntu CDs for free.

By thinking inside this box, we are able to think outside the box and attract people to Linux who aren't savvy geek types.

All too often (OK, all the time, let's be real), we're doing nothing more than preaching to the choir.

What we need to do is educate the other 99.9 percent of the world about there being an alternative to Windows/Mac and what it can do for them.

Expecting them to download large ISOs and burn CDs before they even begin with Linux is putting the cart way before the proverbial horse.

And having a boxed software package right next to the Windows boxes sends a powerful message that Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is ready for them.

ValuSoft, which is distributing the Ubuntu box, has very good placement of their products at a number of stores. I see their stuff at Target all the time. Among their products are $20 office suites for Windows. Whether they're better or worse than the free OpenOffice, I don't know.

But like others have said in this forum and elsewhere, OpenOffice is another product that would benefit greatly by being available in a $20 boxed version at Best Buy, Target and "wherever computer software products are sold."

Quoting:But like others have said in this forum and elsewhere, OpenOffice is another product that would benefit greatly by being available in a $20 boxed version at Best Buy, Target and "wherever computer software products are sold."

Then make it so. Set up a Company that packages and sells OpenOffice.org pre packaged on CDs.

Quoting:Set up a Company that packages and sells OpenOffice.org pre packaged on CDs.

A waste of work. A company like ValueSoft can do that much better and get it into may more stores. Instead, set up a company that can support end-users with OOo and strike a deal with ValueSoft. They package and distribute, while you do the support. Much like Canonical does for the $20 Ubuntu package (it includes 60 days support).

With OOo, I think 30 days support would be plenty. Most people are gonna get the hang of it quickly, particularly if you include video tutorials on how to do the basic items, sort of an "In Pictures" except "In Videos".

http://inpics.net/writer.html

Quoting:A company like ValueSoft can do that much better and get it into may more stores.

But will they? And if they don't then your

Quoting:Instead, set up a company that can support end-users with OOo and strike a deal with ValueSoft

deal won't get struck.

So the best thing is to make it so. Waiting for a big corporate to save you is plain silly, but that seems to be the mentality of the Linux Community(s).

You could negotiate with ValueSoft while setting up your company. If they're not interested you could always seek another partner, do the shipping yourself after all or simply stick to delivering paid support. It's still a valid business model without ValueSoft.

Heck, you could just ride the wave of ValueSoft and offer 30-60 days of support for $20 and keep the whole $20 instead of sharing it.

Being imensely lazy, does OpenOffice.org have a "book"?

Yup. There are two developer's guide PDF's (one from OOo and one from Sun), and at least one print book that I last saw two years ago, before I moved out of state.

"OpenOffice.org 2.0 Developer's Guide"

"StarOffice™ 7 Office Suite Basic Programmer's Guide"

And if you live in Silicon Valley, go to the used bookstore on Castro St. in Mountain View to find the print book...