>
> The average computer user has no idea which video card he has or
> how to do anything to his hard drive. He buys a computer
> complete and runs
> what is loaded.
>
> The average Linux user built his/her own computer from parts,
> understands both hard drives and video cards and monitors and
> also buys a
> quality motherboard with a fast Intel chip.
>
> There are a lot more of the previous and just a very few of the
> last.
>
Although this is probably true, the times are changing. According to
recent (last year?) stats for the UK retail market, "self-build" was
number 2 in the ranks! Although the percentage is small (maybe 7 or 8),
this still represents a lot of computers - especially if the same is
true for many other countries. Just about everyone I know who has a
computer has the ability to swap out hardware or even build complete
machines.
A big strength of Linux is because it's scaleable (like its unix
heritage). Therefore all those "obsolete" bits which would otherwise go
on the scrap heap can be built into perfectly good Linux boxes - maybe
not powerful workstations but certainly stable and reliable machines for
the "donkey" work like small workgroup servers, print servers etc.
Martin
