Dave A. Chakrabarti wrote:
Not sure whether she's going to be paying for a Windows license or
not...I believe she already has the software she uses on a day to day
basis.
Danger! Danger, Dave Chakrabarti, Danger! :-)
The license she has may not be legal for installation on a device that
it did not come with. Famous problem with Dells.'You can run this OS on
this machine, but no others!'.
And yes, I'd assume the machine would become much more usable even in
Linspire with some extra RAM and a few tweaks, but if I'd had my way
we would have wiped Linspire from day one and installed Ubuntu + RAM
upgrade. At this point, she's not willing to try anymore, and just
wants to go back to Windows without any further investment.
She might have to pay anyway to have a legitimate copy of Windows for
that system.
I'm disappointed, because this configuration amounts to a very bad
configuration from a marketing perspective. Linspire is bloated, and
the makers of Linspire must surely be aware that their software takes
up a certain amount of resources to run. Why release a machine that's
configured to draw attacks and criticism for abysmal performance?
I've wondered the same myself. I've come to realize it's either
incompetence or ambivalence. Of course, the same could be said of
Windows, but people buy Corvettes still for $50,000 U.S. when they could
buy a Camaro for $30,000 and change a manifold for less than $2,000 and
get the same performance.
The same machine with 256 Mb ram would have cost maybe $10 more, from
the distributer's point of view. The last mile to get products on the
shelf is crucial...products have to be configured to perform and put
on a convincing display for consumers who aren't tech savvy, since
this is the market Linspire is courting. I have to be able to walk in
to a store (like Fry's) and see a machine that's impressive before
I'll even consider replacing my tried and tested Windows machine with
it...and seeing notes on how no internet connections will ever work
with it, etc, certainly doesn't do much for its credibility as an
innovative product.
Pet rocks were less functional and sold very well.
I'm surprised Linspire isn't taking steps to correct this attitude,
when so much of their existence is purely a marketing exercise for
freely available, open source products in shiny packaging.
Splitting a hair here... Linspire is a hybrid of Open Source and
Proprietary software... reminds me of the short lived Apricot in the 80s
which ran both IBM and Apple stuff.
--
Taran Rampersad
Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Looking for contracts/work!
http://www.knowprose.com/node/9786
New!: http://www.OpenDepth.com
http://www.knowprose.com
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran
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"Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo
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