Christopher Sawtell wrote:
>On Mon, 03 May 2004 12:26, Nick Rout wrote:
>
>
>>On Mon, 03 May 2004 12:17:39 +1200
>>
>>Christopher Sawtell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Dick Smith Electronics are trying to in a rather half-hearted way.
>>>
>>>
>>damned by faint praise ;-). I would rate them higher than that.
>>
>>
>I have yet to wander into a DSE shop to be confronted by KDE / Gnome running
>on one of the demo machines. Once I can do that I'll be very happy doing
>s/rather half-hearted/wonderfully enthusiastic/ . Unfortunately not until.
>
>
>
>>>Don: How about the notion of getting the management of Warehouse
>>>Stationery to at least know that Linux exists? What would be involved in
>>>getting that far? It would / could well be a good sell for them, as the
>>>cost of Linux is $0.00 as against approximately $500+++ for Windows.
>>>
>>>
>>I assume youare talking about the pc's they sell as oppose to use
>>themselves?
>>
>>
>Correct. Needless to say they could save themselves a lot of dough using Linux
>on the Terminals. After all they are only text screens. Linux could do that
>as easy as falling off a log.
>
>
>
>>bundling is unfortunaltely a fact of life for retailers,
>>especially if they sell brand name pc's and/or laptops.
>>
>>
>The Warehouse is the largest retailer in the country. They have the clout to
>push their suppliers around. They are into parallel importing in a big way.
>If they wanted to, they could get Linux machines into the stores no trouble.
>Just like Wal-Mart does in an other part of the world. I suspect that the real
>problem with the Warehouse is that a few years ago they were nearly put out
>of business by a terrible computer system, and, quite reasonably, are more
>than slightly allergic to getting involved with computers any more than they
>absolutely have to. This would explain the rather minimal WWW site too.
>
>
>
>>The cost of windows XP Home seems to be about $199 if the retailers who
>>do not bundle it are anything to go by (eg PC Practice ad in Buy Sell &
>>Exchange).
>>
>>
>That's the cost of the O/S alone, as soon as you try to do anything useful on
>a Win. PC you have to fork out yet more $$$$. OTOH a Linux PC comes with the
>apps. ( 3000+ of them ) for $0.00.
>
>
>
>>But if retailers are selling brand name pcs or lappies then
>>they pay for windows in the bundle anyway.
>>
>>
>See above. For the Warehouse I don't think that that is necessarily the case.
>
>
>
>>In that sense installing
>>linux is a cost to them in terms of labour, training, support etc.
>>
>>
>Indeed, but remember that that cost is one which stays in NZ, whereas the MS
>cost goes off the Redmond
>
>
>
>>>The current Windows worm appears to have effectively shutdown the 'Net.
>>>Can we make use of that fact?
>>>
>>>
>>Mine is going very slowly. My AV thingy is updating from germany at 6300
>>bytes/s on full speed jetstream.
>>
>>
>
>It's perked up slightly now.
>
>
>
I noted an OS free laptop running knoppix in the Riccarton DSE branch
yesterday.
