On 17/01/11 14:32, Alan Pope wrote:
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.
I talked at some length (about Ubuntu etc) to a Day Manager at Currys Digital locally a while back, and the harsh and brutal climate existing in a typical retail environment became pretty apparent.
To those who are still finding Linux Emporium prices indigestible, I point out that LE give a retail experience, with expert support. And they are part of our community, family, if you like. Compare that with buying a naked unit and doing a diy install, hopefully first veriying full compatibility, or with effort and risk if not. Or buying a low competitive priced Windows item and cleaning it out. No Ubuntu support, often quite poor warranty support, probably with a lot of hassle and grief if warranty was invoked I would think, after all, a low price means low markup, and then no resources to take to your warranty seriously?
Viewed in this light I thought that LE prices were not at all bad, particularly when they really did perform!
Personally, I would be ok with a naked units and diy Ubuntu, as long as I had information about compatibility.
A cottage industry would face the two markets - the existing LE 'full retail required' market, and such as me, who wants a naked unit *with known compatibility*.
Now that Broadcom are finding love for GNU/Linux, I remain hopeful..... -- alan cocks Ubuntu user -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
