Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote:
On 6/19/06, Steven Pasternak <stevenp500@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We need advertising!!! Most people I've spoken to have never heard of
linux (or suse or fedora or debian etc.). If granny knew that linux
could bring life back into her WinME system, she would know to buy
redhat or suse or anything not windows and $400!
Well, shw would probably go to the local big chain store and buy an
overpriced name brand PC (dell, hp etc) that has windows installed,
and not even know she had paid for windows.
Mean while, the non grannies would "know" that changing to linux means
their prinder or scanner wont work, and that they can't use email etc
etc, and that know one ueses linux any way.
We aren't in the 1990's anymore. Firefox/Thunderbird are what many
people use under windows, so there isn't really much transition there.
OpenOffice works almost like M$, and even has file-format compatibility.
A lot of printers and most chipsets work out-of-the-box, only without a
million driver discs, and KDE/GNOME make for a comfortable environment.
Except for zero out-of-the-box mp3 support (which is stupid - but is an
entirely different discussion), which is simple to get (livna,rpmforge,
etc.), linux is in many ways easier that windows to use.
What we need is for the Dell's and Hp's to start actively promoting
their PC's with linux, and not to charge more for the privilage than
they do for their windows based PC's.
Don't hold your breath
They are starting. You can buy RHEL4 from dell.com if you dig deep
enough. Linux kills in the server market, but you are right. The biggies
do need to promote linux a little more that burying it in the shop
section of their websites.
-Steven
