On Sat, 2008-05-03 at 12:06 +0800, Harish Pillay wrote: > > > > > (that perhaps says a lot about the state of open source in > > Singapore). > > > > > > > > I'm not sure what it says about the state of OSS in Thailand, but > > > > yesterday I was surprised to see at least Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and > > > > OpenOffice prominently displayed (top row, right in front) at more > > > > than one shop amongst the cornucopia of software available at Pantip > > > > Plaza in Bangkok. I wasn't even looking for them, just strolling by. > > > > > > And you would find Fedora, Ubuntu and others on sale at similar shops > > > in the neighbourhood shops selling unofficial CDs. These are just > > another > > > title form the point of view of the seller who has, in most cases, no > > interest > > > in what it is except to make a buck. > > > > > > Harish > > > > > > > Why put a negative spin on it! Is this FUD! > > I beg to differ. It is neither a negative spin nor FUD. I have > visited and spoken > with a lot of these vendors - in Jakarta, JB, KL, Manila, Sim Lim, Woodlands, > Bedok, Jurong East just to name drop a few. > > In almost all of these instances, the vendor has no clue what the software is > about - "Oh, it is Linux. Supplier provides. I sell. You go test > it. If the CD has > problems, I will just replace the CD." > > > I prefer to make the assumption that the retailer is a brilliant person > > who understands that in the art of retailing you put the product that > > you want to push. Or the product that is popular and making money. Up > > front. Top or middle. What you don't care about goes on the bottom or in > > back. > > > > Easy to reach! Is what you want. > > > > I'm actually offended at your comment. Coming from the tradition of > > retailing. My guess is that the proprietor from experience is probably a > > person that just, knows, what works! > > I don't see why you should be offended. It is a reality of the marketplace. > > Actually, seeing Fedora, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions on sale at > these shops means that Linux has arrived. There is demand. And clearly, > it is a good sign. > > I think they are doing a service in selling Fedora, Ubuntu and other > distributions that do not have a retail model. > > Pantip Plaza - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantip_Plaza - is not much > different > from Sim Lim Square or KL's Lowyat. > > Ethics of selling the other unauthorized titles aside, selling Fedora, Ubuntu > etc is actually a good thing. Nobody is ripped off in the process. The > revenue > generated stays in the country and is an honest business. > > Harish
Exactly. Thanks, for expanding your comments. Carlton _______________________________________________ Slugnet mailing list [email protected] http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet
