On September 17, 2003 10:24 am, James Sparenberg wrote: >Compusa > now has a Linux "aisle" dominated by RH and SuSE box sets Fry's has put > RH both in the aisle and on an endcap (which by the way was the way they > sold MDK up through 7.2) The key seems to be the 3 disk sets as far as > a sales leader goes. Why? Getting people to do an impulse buy of a 30 > dollar (roughly) set is a lot easier than the 100 dollar version. But > still the problem in the US is that when you mention open source people > thing Red Hat (and as a FreeBSD user this is a real sore spot, FreeBSD > isn't Linux. *grin*) Doing things like LinuxWorld or Comdex in the US > isn't that important for a distro. But visibility in the market place > is. >
I tend to agree, James. But remember that this doesn't just apply to the US. It also applies to Canada where Linux isn't involved in quite the same the same M$hite vs the world arguments. Visibilty is key to any of this. And that does mean visibility in places like Future Shop, University bookstores and the like. I know a retailer who follows the "most popular" distro polls and is frustrated as all get out that he can't get Mandrake on the shelves. It all comes down to a chicken and egg argument. People who try Linux will opt for RedHat or SuSE because it's on the shelves. Mandrake barely even comes into it until some poor soul who bought RedHat suddenly realizes what a pain in the ass it is to configure. Then they either give up or they'll listen and download the ISO and try Mandrake. SuSE users don't have quite the same problems getting going but they have their problems too. Meanwhile, I don't think this will get resolved here, sadly. But perhaps Mandrake is listening. :-) ttfn John
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