On Fri, 2003-07-04 at 10:59, Marc Oestreicher wrote: > On Thursday 03 July 2003 10:59 am, Eric Huff wrote: > > > > now if Dell and all the other biggies would sit up and take > > > > notice. linux may well make a desktop dent. > > > > > > Part of that would entail "getting in good" with the hardware > > > manufacturers - that's where Microsoft has made the inroads. > > > > It's true that the hardware issu is big. That's what many of the > > emails on this list refer to. > > > > But if HP or Dell, etc, want to install Linux on their desktops, > > they just have to figure out in the beginning which hardware is > > compatible, or program the appropriate drivers. And that only > > has to be done once. Then they can sell that combo. The people > > getting the computers won't care: it'll be all preinstalled and > > work. > > > > I see what you are saying, though: if those same people want to > > buy add-ons, they'll have to be careful to get ones that are > > compatible. > > > > Maybe (i'm dreaming here) the big companies would help maintain > > hardware compatibility lists, and even encourage the hardware > > companies to support linux. Like i said, it's a dream, but i > > think it is a possible one... > > > > eric > > Here is a possibility, now that HP has begun to sell computers > with ML 9.1 preinstalled and if I understand correctly at a price > that is $90 less than their windows counterpart they may start to > do some advertising letting people know about this. > That would give the average user the advantage of being able to > buy a name brand machine for $90 less and may attract a lot of new > sales to HP. That could put a dent in the sales of some of the > other big name brands. Not a good thing in a allready tight > economy. That could force some of the other big brand name computer > manufactures into also offering some brand of linux preinstalled. > If that was the case HP would probably start to brag that they > have the easyest and most user friendly Linux distro on their > machines " Mandrake 9.1 " and that could eventually cause a lot of > OEM's to start preinstalling ML 9.1. That could cause a snowball > effect and Mandrake could become king of the linux distros or the > king of the OS market in a short time say 2 or 3 years. > The folks at HP must know a few things about marketing and > advertising to have become the industry giants that they are today > and in my mind it is a fact that computer users in particular and > people in general always seem to want the latest greatest and best. > I would suspect that at this point in time HP is just doing a bit > of test maketing in offering machines with ML preinstalled but if > things go well they may start some aggressive marketing and if that > is the case it could cause a snowball effect almost overnight. > I did leave a lot of if's, could's, might's and maybe's in the > above statement but the possibility is there even if it is only > wishfull thinking at this point. If any of this comes to pass we > can expect the evil empire to start cranking out FUD at warp speed > using more obserd claims than ever before if you can imagine that. > > Just my $.02 worth > > Marc > KM5KW
A few years back HP first started offering MDK in some boxes, then Walmart and Microtel, but in most cases, seems to me, the most adverstise ment still went to Lindows or RH, which were the other options. Seems to me the French are just not quite as "brand/Market aware/susceptible" as most Americans.
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