On 17 January 2011 15:24, gazz <pmg...@gmx.co.uk> wrote: > > > On Mon, 2011-01-17 at 14:51 +0000, Simon Greenwood wrote: > > > > On 17 January 2011 14:32, Alan Pope <a...@popey.com> wrote: > > On 17 January 2011 14:23, Barry Drake <bdr...@crosswire.org> wrote: > > Just went through the process and looked at the shipping. A 10.1" > > Netbook ships to the UK at $130 something - a good percentage of the > > cost of the netbook!!! > > > > > I didn't say it was value for money :) > > I have often pondered setting up a cottage business buying naked > laptops and ubuntifying them, but can't see there's a huge margin in > it, but there's the potential to get sucked into very long protracted > support conversations, negating any profit made. > > > Likewise. I even contemplated refurbishing old computers with a lightweight > Ubuntu-based distro but the margin would have to be based on providing > support, which could be made to work for small companies and charities and > the like, but was more difficult to do for individuals as people won't pay > for computer support and the charge and value often outweighs the time spent > on problems. > > s/ > > -- > Twitter: @sfgreenwood > > My CV: http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv > "Is this your sanderling?" > > Went through much the same process myself, can't really see a way to make > this viable for individuals - it's hard enough with charities and small > businesses. > > I did run into someone in Manchester who claimed to be supplying > refurbished PCs with Ubuntu successfully (but as he also claimed to be > working a 70-hour week just to break even, it didn't seem all that > appealing). > > That's why we decided just to run a free workshop every month so people can > do it themselves (and we don't take on any responsibility to be picking up > the phone to them 24/7). > > That's the chap that I was talking to, I think. I was planning to do the same in Leeds and he was happy to help as he didn't cover my side of the Pennines. It did seem like a lot of hard work for not much return, so I'm trying another tack now.
s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood My CV: http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv "Is this your sanderling?"
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