Really?
At the Electronics Boutiques around here the large sign for Mandrake
7.0 was at the very front, where they usually advertise the latest
video games.
At Best Buy they had dozens and dozens of copies of Mandrake 7.0
(Macmillan) on one of those big aisle-end displays, along with a
somewhat smallter number of Corell distributions. (The RedHat and
Caldera distributions were in the usual place on the shelves.)
In fact it's hard for me to go into any computery store (Best Buy,
CompUSA, even Barnes & Nobles computer area) without tripping over
Linux distributions. There's multiple shelves of *games* for Linux at
the local Electronics Boutique.
Of course I'm in the Triangle are of NC, USA, which might be a little
more Linuxy than most places, but since these are big national chains I
figured it wasn't all that localized . . .
Also, you can order laptops from Dell, among other places, with Linux
pre-loaded. I don't know about local stores--I haven't bought a
computer from a local store since . . . well, since I got my TRS-80
Color Computer in 1981. I always order 'em.
Heck, I could have orderd a laptop with Linux preloaded in 1997
(Hyperbook sold 'em, though ironically they don't anymore); I chose to
get Windows, though; it seemed to make more sense to get the paid
system preloaded and the free system myself, since they charge the same
price either way.
My experience is that Mandrake 7.0 supports my LaserJet Series II quite
well, FWIW. Of course it only has one tray . . . RedHat did *not*
support it well at all, though!
PS: I know I sound like a broken record on this, but I think that
Caldera OpenLinux is really good for newbies, too.
On Sat, 08 Apr 2000, you wrote:
| On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Brian T. Schellenberger wrote:
|
| >
| >
| > Besides, Mandrake can only make money from CDs and they *do* need to
| > stay in business. So, yes, make free downloads available; be true to
| > the spirit of open source. But they ought to optimize for what will
| > keep them in business, not what will put them out of it!
|
| Actually i thought the money was in the support and service contracts, NOT
| the cd's. A company of a few hundred couldn't possibly live off the sales
| of a lowcost cd/book set. Especially with cd's being burned for 1.00 at
| most places.
|
| I personally would like to see someone make a KDE distro. KDE 2.0 would be
| great, especially with ORB, Kparts and an Office Application. The
| Kdevelop offers ease of programming and well, i could go on.. my point
| though is build a distro that is easy for the user, straight into a
| powerfull gui, and work out a sales deal with E-Machines or something.
|
| Everyone keeps on saying linux is making it into the desktop market, yet i
| can't get a PC at the store with it loaded.. hell, its hard to find
| Mandrake at the store. I know staples has a few copies of the older
| versions, but its hard to get any recent version at the store.
|
| I would also recommend that Mandrake work with Corel and get the libsmb
| and other additions they have. Corel linux, while a bit buggy, is the
| *only* version i could possibly recommend to the naive.
|
| Until we have unified print services that are easily configurable, even
| for laser printers, specifying trays, and sending off to NT and especially
| Laserjet print servers is necessary. I dont see linux getting in.
|
| BUT, its not that far off.
|
| Keep up the cooking mandrake! looking good.
|
| -byron
--
"Brian, the man from babbleon-on" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brian T. Schellenberger http://www.babbleon.org
Support http://www.eff.org. Support decss defendents.
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