[Linux-aus] A little bit of knowledge is dangerous

[Kanchana Wickremasinghe]

Hi Marco,

>Now that the Eee PC is hitting retail in a big way (Betta Electrical, David 
>Jones, Good Guys, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Retravision, Wow Sight & Sound 
>and Officeworks) 

Which is really great news.

>I was thinking of visiting some of these retailers and 
>asking for the 'software' on the Eee PC on an Acer, Toshiba or other 
>Laptop, instead of Vista, to get them thinking...

Problem here as I see is that retailers don't have the control on what Acer, Toshiba and others ship to them.
Therefore I believe the best way is to get manufacturers to provide the retailers with choice. 

Ideally retailers should be in a position to provide consumers with competitive product offerings to customers. Unfortunately when it comes to PCs the only thing they can offer is a competitive pricing of the similar configuration from a different brand. They too are stuck with the Microsoft OEM offering. This is really a monopoly. Microsoft get around the monopoly issue by allowing the user accept or decline the agreement and getting a refund (which doesn't seem to work very well).

How can we win this battle:

few ideas

1. We need to work with the manufacturers and get them to offer customer the choice (so that retailers will work on improving their skills etc)

2. Push retailers to show the manufactures that there is enough demand for an alternative to Microsoft

3. Push the consumer affairs people to sort-out the bottleneck of getting the refunds from Microsoft OEMs



> Greetings all,
>
> Almost LCA time!
>
> This message caused me to gag, It's one of the best examples of invincible 
> ignorance I've see for a very long time.
>
> http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12355-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=31199&messageID=579806&start=43
>
> On a more serious side, for Linux on the desktop to grow, people (including 
> this chap) need to get their hands on it - and USE it. Installfests are 
> vitally important!
>
> In a tactile way it needs to sink in as they use it: This is ok. I can 
> trust this. It's doing what I want.
>
> It takes time for the 'retail store' class user to find that Linux actually 
> does what they want. I guess the Eee PC will help also.
>
> Now that the Eee PC is hitting retail in a big way (Betta Electrical, David 
> Jones, Good Guys, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Retravision, Wow Sight & Sound 
> and Officeworks) I was thinking of visiting some of these retailers and 
> asking for the 'software' on the Eee PC on an Acer, Toshiba or other 
> Laptop, instead of Vista, to get them thinking...
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Travel safe to the LCA.
>
> Cheers,
> Marco
>   


-- 
best regards,

Kanchana Wickremasinghe
Chief Architect

Fossmart Pty Limited
P.O. Box 5204
188 Algester Road
Algester
QLD 4115
Australia

w: http://www.fossmart.net
P: +61-430-145751
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