On Thursday 03 July 2003 10:59 am, Eric Huff wrote:
> > > now if Dell and all the other biggies would sit up and take
> > > notice. linux may well make a desktop dent.
> >
> > Part of that would entail "getting in good" with the hardware
> > manufacturers - that's where Microsoft has made the inroads.
>
> It's true that the hardware issu is big. That's what many of the
> emails on this list refer to.
>
> But if HP or Dell, etc, want to install Linux on their desktops,
> they just have to figure out in the beginning which hardware is
> compatible, or program the appropriate drivers. And that only
> has to be done once. Then they can sell that combo. The people
> getting the computers won't care: it'll be all preinstalled and
> work.
>
> I see what you are saying, though: if those same people want to
> buy add-ons, they'll have to be careful to get ones that are
> compatible.
>
> Maybe (i'm dreaming here) the big companies would help maintain
> hardware compatibility lists, and even encourage the hardware
> companies to support linux. Like i said, it's a dream, but i
> think it is a possible one...
>
> eric
Here is a possibility, now that HP has begun to sell computers
with ML 9.1 preinstalled and if I understand correctly at a price
that is $90 less than their windows counterpart they may start to
do some advertising letting people know about this.
That would give the average user the advantage of being able to
buy a name brand machine for $90 less and may attract a lot of new
sales to HP. That could put a dent in the sales of some of the
other big name brands. Not a good thing in a allready tight
economy. That could force some of the other big brand name computer
manufactures into also offering some brand of linux preinstalled.
If that was the case HP would probably start to brag that they
have the easyest and most user friendly Linux distro on their
machines " Mandrake 9.1 " and that could eventually cause a lot of
OEM's to start preinstalling ML 9.1. That could cause a snowball
effect and Mandrake could become king of the linux distros or the
king of the OS market in a short time say 2 or 3 years.
The folks at HP must know a few things about marketing and
advertising to have become the industry giants that they are today
and in my mind it is a fact that computer users in particular and
people in general always seem to want the latest greatest and best.
I would suspect that at this point in time HP is just doing a bit
of test maketing in offering machines with ML preinstalled but if
things go well they may start some aggressive marketing and if that
is the case it could cause a snowball effect almost overnight.
I did leave a lot of if's, could's, might's and maybe's in the
above statement but the possibility is there even if it is only
wishfull thinking at this point. If any of this comes to pass we
can expect the evil empire to start cranking out FUD at warp speed
using more obserd claims than ever before if you can imagine that.
Just my $.02 worth
Marc
KM5KW
--
Composed on a 100% Microsoft and
Windows free computer with
Mandrake Linux 9.1
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
