On 6/23/05, Dean Michael Berris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > No problems with running Linux on cafe computers -- however, it's the > customers' clamor for something familiar and the latest and greatest > games. Majority of your target market would want to play games when they > enter the computer shop, so it's not good business sense to put up a > computer shop that doesn't offer computer games. It can be shown that in > urban areas, computer shops are easily substituted for gaming arcades -- > in that almost all the people that pay to play in computer shops would > want to play games more than surf the net.
[snip] > Business-wise, it's even better to invest on non-free software to offer > the most familiar and most "user friendly" (not to mention popular) > software titles out there. And it's always better to show your > investors/partners and maybe shareholders a bottom line that's positive > due to sales volume -- and not because of low maintenance costs and very > little sales. > > Maybe there are avenues where Linux is better for business -- perhaps > mail servers, DNS servers, and server markets. However a detailed study > should be done for better analysis of a system within a given context. On a related note, I've been talking to the owner of a shop where I study (the school will remain nameless). Apparently, he's clued-in with Linux and, though he wishes he can run it on the customer PCs, he can't simply because of the games that the clientele run. OTOH, he is quite a fan of Linux on the backend, having seen the wonders of running several instances of the Counterstrike server on a Linux box, vis-a-vis one instance on a Windows box. He believes in the backend potential of Linux, and would be a hard sell in terms of Linux as a desktop platform. I've been talking to him also about using Linux as a gateway and bandwidth shaper. The shop does have a lot of MMORPG clients, and although it's being fed by a 512kbps DSL line, there is a tendency to bandwidth-grab when Internet browsers download stuff or listen to Shoutcast, hence those activities are severely curtailed in the shop. The owner does want to enable clients to listen to music or stream videos, but he also wants to give MMORPG players a lag-free experience. So, a Linux or even *BSD box acting as a bandwidth shaper and gateway is a welcome thing. Why would this be a Good Thing? Well, in this case, the shop owner can concentrate on providing more services to his clients-- it's a win-win situation. People can listen to streamed music while gamers have lag-free Ragnarok. With such a gateway box, the owner could likewise expand into other uses (say, being able to hook up a monitoring client or even a cafe timekeeper), without too much additional cost. And the enabling technology here is the Linux gateway-- not the desktop. ;) So maybe the desktop isn't a good fit at the moment. Big deal. The backend is also an enabler, and does make good business sense. > It boils down really to where the money is -- and right now (AFAIK) > Linux/Open Source and Computer Shops do not mix well, and that's not > where the money is. This is where I beg to differ. Although Linux will not prosper *at front*, it will, as I point out, prosper at the backend. Eventually, of course, we'll see shops with Linux desktops. Soon, my pretties. ;) > > However, I still like Linux and it's place in the market -- only not in > computer shops. Sometimes it's the invisible presence that counts more than the visible one. -- JM Ibanez -- A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. -- Bertrand Russell ----- http://www.livejournal.com/~jmibanez/ http://www.mycgiserver.com/~butiki/ _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
