Re: Woohooo! Dell + Linux
- From: Kevin Mark <kevin.mark@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 22:12:59 -0400
On Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 01:14:44PM -0500, Seth Goodman wrote:
Paul Walsh wrote on Friday, March 30, 2007 2:23 AM -0600:your comment has just given me an epiphany as to why pc's must come
Seth Goodman wrote:
Most people could not complete a Linux install without a phone call
to tech support. I suspect that's one part of the reason there are
so few no-OS boxes. When the install doesn't turn out right, their
first call is to the people who sold them the hardware, even though
that's the least likely place to have a problem. Technically
sophisticated users do not tend to do this, but that's a pretty
small market.
But surely the people most likely to buy no-OS boxes are also most
likely to be clued up when it comes to installation? Someone new to
Linux (or computing in general) isn't likely to buy a box without an
OS on it, just as a newly qualified driver isn't likely to buy a car
without an engine in it (unless they happen to be an auto-mechanic,
of course).
That's true as long as the price is the same. Other posters in this
thread have given credible arguments why mainstream PC vendors have a
similar cost whether they install Windows or not. If PC vendors
nonetheless did offer a no-OS box at a lower price, people who are not
capable of Linux installation would buy them and immediately call when
they can't install their personal choice of Linux distro.
pre-installed. It has to do with the inability of average folks not
being able to install windows. It also has to do with the installation
discs that require custom modification. If a user got a Dell pc without
an os, they supposedly need to get an windows install Cd. This cd would
not be customized with perhaps vendor drivers for network cards, video
cards, sata hard drives and similar. So the comsumer would need the
windows os cd and then would need a dell pc 'driver disk'. But it might
be possible that a generic windows os cd would not work. So the consumer
would get a pc, pop in the cd and not know what the hell they are doing
and call tech support. This would mean that Dell would have to hire
double the amount of tech support for 'new installs'. Then the user
would have to do the 25 reboots and spend 6 hours on the phone after
getting his/her new pc. And if everything worked, they he/she would
still be frustrated and if it didn't work, they send back the pc and say
'fix it'. So this saves Dell lots of tech support costs, lots of
workers, and saves the reputation of Dell and Microsoft too boot. So by
hiding all this 'work', it makes windows 'cheap' and 'easy to install'.
While if the sitution was reversed, then windows would look expensive
and 'hard to install'.
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- Re: Woohooo! Dell + Linux
- From: Paul Walsh
- RE: Woohooo! Dell + Linux
- From: Seth Goodman
- Re: Woohooo! Dell + Linux
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