If you walk into a BestBuy this week you may spot some new software peeking out from the shelves. Yes, Ubuntu is now available as a spiffy boxed set in stores and on-line.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2007-11-24
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Member since:2008-05-27
Yes, because it's not freeware with an EULA. It's GPL (which, by definition, is the "anti EULA" 
)
You can download Gimp, put it on your website and sell it. No one can sue you. It's immoral if you don't help the developers, but it's perfectly legal.
Edited 2008-07-10 15:03 UTC
Member since:2006-02-05
The reason mac sales were languishing had little to do with the lack of a store, and everything to do with Gil Amelio. Hell, the reason they are doing great now has less to do with the store then it has to do with the iPod/iTunes, iMac, and OSX that Jobs brought with him when he came back to the company.
Apple stores are just a big ad venue, people come in for an iPod and are blasted with a face full of pure apple in all its brushed glory.
Went in to best buy a few weeks ago to pick up a cheap (800$) laptop for the woman, and the sales guy was actually talking alot of smack about vista. I don't think there will be as much resistance by the sales guys as you seem to think.
Member since:2005-11-10
Apple's stores work because they researched into what sucked about stores.
A Sony shop is every bit a big Sony advert, and they are failing at retail, miserably.
Apple nailed the shopping experience, they could never have done that in the back corner of someone else's store.
Member since:2006-07-12
OI! do your homework, Gil Amelio was good for apple, he made cutbacks and helped apple back on its feet. And he got software development back on track by killing many of the fruitless branches of the appletree development. And he also paved the way for Jobs. Without Amelio the company would have been runned into the ground by Scully's and his ilk's shananigans.
Member since:2005-07-06
I agree pc world are more than a little rubbish when it comes to alternative OS
Unless the box is displayed prominently (ie pc world are pushing it) it will disappear into the racks of 'Software'
Obviously the first question people will ask is 'can it run microsoft office?' No... BUT... (they are already gone..)
Member since:2008-07-10
Member since:2005-11-05
There's a reason Mac sales were languishing before Apple had their own store, and it's because store staff at the major retailers didn't (and still don't) have a clue how to operate a Windows alternative, how to answer customer's questions to that effect or how to even sell the damn thing.
I don't expect this Ubuntu box to get far, unfortunately.
You're right. The staff in PC World must be working there because they couldn't get a job in Macdonald's.
And that's if a purchaser can even find the Ubuntu box. PC World seems geared around special offers and how much marketing the manufacturer spends on a product. It's all too likely that a boxed set of Ubuntu will be consigned to the bottom shelf of the back row. I hope not, though, but that's pretty well what PC World used to do with Mandriva, SuSE, etc.
It's not much consolation really. Getting on to the Asus Eee, the MSI Wind or any similar device would have reached far more people. I've still yet to read an account of why the Far Eastern UMPC lot decided to go with the distros they did, and especially with the unfortunately named Linpus whose website makes clear it isn't a community distro at all even though it's a re-tread of Fedora. Cheap? Local? Unlikely to upset the Chinese government? Dunno.
Apple had to move well away from PC World and all stores like it if they wanted to establish themselves as a premium, high-quality brand with properly trained staff. Not setting up their own franchises would have been like trying to sell gourmet, hand-made chocolates in a thrift store.
Member since:2005-07-06
There's a reason Mac sales were languishing before Apple had their own store, and it's because store staff at the major retailers didn't (and still don't) have a clue how to operate a Windows alternative, how to answer customer's questions to that effect or how to even sell the damn thing.
I don't expect this Ubuntu box to get far, unfortunately.
With that being said, in New Zealand, the pre-sales support for Mac's were horrible at one stage. They used to be pushed into the corner or the shops that did sell them were really out of the way (outside the main CBD).
Things have improved, and I have a feeling it is because the distributor is spending money training up staff at the shops that do sell it, and most places where they are selling the Macs, there is atleast 1-2 'Mac guys' who know their stuff.
For Ubuntu to get around this hurdle, what they need to do is offer free training sessions to the of the retail chains employees they are teaming up with. Get the sales staff familiar with it, give them a free copy they can take home and use, if they have laptops, have a 'install feast' to get them used to it. Atleast then, when a customer does come to ask questions, they know how to deal with it rather than a clueless shrug followed by, "best to purchase Windows Vista as I don't know this Ubuntu stuff".
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:
2005-11-10
Yes, and if Best Buy is anything like PCWorld here, a user will pick up the box and ask an assistant and the assistant - a Microsoftie with ignorance of everything else - will tell them they don't want that, and instead they want Vista.
There's a reason Mac sales were languishing before Apple had their own store, and it's because store staff at the major retailers didn't (and still don't) have a clue how to operate a Windows alternative, how to answer customer's questions to that effect or how to even sell the damn thing.
I don't expect this Ubuntu box to get far, unfortunately.
Edited 2008-07-10 11:59 UTC