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He sings, he strums, and he works at Best Buy. view!
www.youtube.com/bestbuy - Musician and Best Buy employee, Keith Parsons, rocks his Best Buy holiday campaign audition.
170 Comments
- chil2c5, on 02/15/2008, -12/+52You could probably sell a bunch if you put it under a banner that said "For expert users only"
- bherring, on 02/15/2008, -13/+48Sounds good but I don't think most people would understand. In fact, I think people would get confused and wonder why they couldn't load the games that they bought on the advice of some bozo at the store.
I love Linux and use it all the time. But I'm pretty sure that your average buyer would assume they were getting a Windows machine just because they were buying a Dell. There needs to be some serious branding on the part of the community so folks know what they are buying. Then there might be a chance for Linux to succeed at the retail store. - sq377, on 02/15/2008, -4/+38That's only fair if they put "For masochist users only" under Windows Vista.
- ptFoe, on 02/15/2008, -25/+56Bad Idea:
The average shopper that goes to a Dell retail store is an absolute dumbass. Hasn't even figured out what the Internet is.
Imagine this dumbass with a thousand stupid questions harassing the average Dell store salesperson that has no idea what the ***** Linux is. - Waiting2awake, on 02/15/2008, -2/+28and by not showing them alternatives this helps what?
If they are dumb(and if they are using windows....) then they should be gently shown the light. - icechen1, on 02/15/2008, -7/+29worth a try
- StanStutter, on 02/15/2008, -0/+21Of course it would help.
The general argument against this: Consumers don't understand the value of free software so we shouldn't expose them to it. Nonsense, perpetuating ignorance is *not* a worthy cause. - sirhomer, on 02/15/2008, -1/+19Apple seems to be doing a good job selling non-Windows machines to morons.
- ojk007, on 02/15/2008, -4/+21agreed these are the same people that think Internet Explorer IS the internet.
- Aeuta, on 02/15/2008, -4/+18I think Dell should consider trailing it in certain areas if it does not work the Linux community shouldn't get too mad...Again some people will not know what they are buying...but they could put them side by side with a price reduction giving all the features of both...JUST highlight WILL NOT RUN MOST WINDOWS PROGRAMS,,,BUT HAS EVERYTHING ELSE...(Oh yeah if you want your kid not to play games on your computer use it...:)...we could get a lot of parents on board)
And we could get some kids to by-pass that and become developers for Wine :) - phuchead, on 02/15/2008, -1/+15OK... i worked at best buy for about 3 years in the geek squad, my crew was, it looks like from all the stories, one of the only crews that KNEW what we were doing. Somewhere about 75% of the people that buy computers by for one of like one of more of 3 reasons:
1. it for school use... a parent is getting it to help their kids with school or an adult is for a masters or PhD i.e. not for gaming
2. an older man or woman is getting it to get online to check email or surf the internet and buy stuff form amazon
3. getting it to work with camera to upload pictures or print them out
that is the three most basic groups of people coming in. in group 1 most of those people get pissed and come back because there is NO productivity sweet with most computers nowadays and group 2 spends lots of money getting either anti-spyware/anti-virus protection or on removing the spyware and virii after a couple of months. All three of these groups don't use anything except for what came on the computers when they bought it, except for another 2-4 hundred bucks on office, whatever is out at the time. These people need linux, and ubuntu is a well setup version for them to start with. In the 25% case most of those people are the people that game on the pc, but most of those are now being picked up by the wii, ds, xbox360, or ps3 and are gaming THERE as apposed to on the PC.
-phuc - troydoogle7, on 02/15/2008, -1/+12the problem is that the people who vote for it often don't buy it. See snakes on a plane....
Most of the people who are voting for this are probably people who enjoy building their own machines (like me)
and thus won't be dell custies. - om3ga, on 02/15/2008, -5/+14"If people knew of an alternative to Windows, they would go for it!"
What about OS X? People know about that, but Windows still has the greater market share. - roosterjm2k2, on 02/15/2008, -2/+11I don't think that's an issue.
People don't have much of a problem with the windows/mac thing. Some people do, sure, but they are the sames ones that only upgraded in the first place because their 10 year old computer doesnt run anything new... - Jaliyl, on 02/15/2008, -0/+8Oh, I think i'll try this Ubuntu thing then. I'm an expert, I can change my background and everything
- sirhomer, on 02/15/2008, -1/+9I had my secretary e-mail me the Internets this morning and I still didn't get it. Can you please help me?
- cigawoot, on 02/15/2008, -3/+11Expert users usually skips dell and builds their own.
- kiwiboyus, on 02/15/2008, -0/+7Ummm that's the point of buying it preinstalled from Dell instead of just buying a PC and installing it yourself.
- vibrokatana, on 02/15/2008, -2/+9Unless people recognize that there is a difference between operating systems then people will assume that software works everywhere and they will never put pressure on companies to change that. It is basically a paradox that consumers and the industry will need to get over.
Once linux becomes more mainstream then vendors will adopt their software/hardware to say "works with linux", etc and the problem could be alleviated somewhat. - tripzero, on 02/15/2008, -2/+9They didn't take them off the shelves they couldn't keep them on shelves because they were selling so fast.
- Philluminati, on 02/15/2008, -1/+8They could trial the idea by shoving a Ubuntu Live CD into the machines already on the salesfloor. After a week or so they could easily get some feedback and it wouldn't require anything more complex.
/serious
Lol, infact they could just sell the pc with the disc in a drive and the user would be fine for about a week. Then one day they'd boot up without the disc in and be like WTF? You have to admit that would be funny. - TheSilentNumber, on 02/15/2008, -8/+14Are you all saying that this wouldn't help? Okay, for many people it wouldn't, but it does reach out to a lot of people who CAN hande Ubuntu.
- sirhomer, on 02/15/2008, -1/+7If you can handle Windows I don't see why you can't handle Ubuntu. In fact doing stuff like installing software is significantly simpler in Ubuntu then in Windows thanks to package management.
- tprzepiorka, on 02/15/2008, -1/+6I know that in Poland at some major stores (like Media Markt) you can easily get desktop's with Linux pre-installed. I'm not sure on their popularity though, but I think this is a great idea. I'm sure this would have a big help on brand recognition and the advancement of Linux as a whole.
- cawpin, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4Yeah, they didn't pull it, they sold out in a matter of days.
- EvilWalksWithMe, on 02/15/2008, -1/+5Holy crap man, your grasp of the English language seems troubled at best.
- cawpin, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4Walking INTO a Best Buy is a bad idea.
- tripzero, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4I totally disagree. Dell wants to make money. That's why they put Linux on their machines -because the market was there to do so. No big retail company is going to risk putting anything on their machines just for the sake of promoting "awareness" unless they are going to profit from it in the bottom line. It's just smart business.
- wigren, on 02/15/2008, -2/+5I've never bought a Dell machine, and I may never buy one. But, I'll sure consider more than I would have if they didn't offer Ubuntu.
- EvilWalksWithMe, on 02/15/2008, -1/+4She should have used the internet to do some research before handing over the money. Or even contacted you seeing as you know it all. Don't blame Dell. They are a retail company that wants to make money like all businesses, It's not their fault when consumers buy things they can't afford.
- init100, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3For how long? I voted for the "Put Ubuntu on Dells" almost a year ago, but just a few months later there were complaints that the sales were much lower than the votes. What did they expect really? I voted because Ubuntu (or Red Hat, etc) on a Dell would make me consider a Dell next time it is time to buy a completely new PC, not because I was planning on buying one immediately or even the same year.
- pyrates, on 02/15/2008, -6/+9Idiot, it's NOT gnu/linux, its just linux. Linus calls it linux, so should you. Stop being a RMS fan boi already :)
- Philluminati, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3Yeah I haved changed my mind. If you want to see Ubuntu demo machines, regardless of if you buy them or not, I guess you should vote actually.
- tsmithe, on 02/15/2008, -1/+4Although your point is valid and I totally agree, please learn to spell "productivity suite".
- cawpin, on 02/15/2008, -1/+4Um, no. She shouldn't be buying ***** she can't afford.
- muuhgnoo, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3This isnt a "What are you gonna buy" but a "what would you like us to sell" vote. I already have a laptop but voted anyway, since offering and officially supporting Ubuntu makes the chance higher, that my next machine and the machine I reccoment to other people will be a Ubuntu Dell. Offering Ubuntu strenghtens their trademark within the computer savvy crowd which influences the purchasing habbits of other people more than any advertising campaign could do.
- LingNoi, on 02/16/2008, -0/+3Just call it Ubuntu or Fedora or whatever distro you're using. I don't call my system GNU/LInux/X11/Gnome/OOffice/Calc/etc/etc
Calling your system the GNU system takes credit away from the people who have licensed their code under the GNU license and assumes Richard Stallman made all the projects because you're calling it a GNU system from the guy that started the GNU project. - schotty, on 02/15/2008, -2/+5No, there are plenty of people on this website now that are happy Dell customers that would take offense to you clearly ignorant comment here.
- fancyj, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3"What?....You son of a bitch! You lied to me!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhh5RKXjRY - thenome, on 02/15/2008, -2/+5Hey, I like linux, nothing wrong with linux, but for all practically purposes idea storm is like a group of linux fanboys trying to steer a major corporation. I mean have they sold more than two of these linux desktops; you only save a couple of bucks for something installed you could do yourself in a minute.
- LANjackal, on 02/15/2008, -0/+3I think the one interesting thing that's missing from this debate is actual sales figures for Dell Linux machines.
- hamobu, on 02/15/2008, -5/+7Most people like to stick with what they know, and not experiment.
- ModernDayDarwin, on 02/15/2008, -2/+4No, they really won't. Until they can expect a familiar, and divine user experience, they're going to stick with what they know. they may know that it's not ideal, "but what's my other options?" Apple is converting people to OSX because they're giving them other options, and branding themselves around being the "better option." Apple's just work, and even my aunt Sally knows it.
- admiral101, on 02/15/2008, -5/+7Seems to me when a linux computer is cheaper and runs faster then the same computer with windows many people would buy linux.
- getoffmybridge, on 05/05/2009, -4/+6Waste of time, won't sell.
- tripzero, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2Hmmm, I think you've got something there. Geek Squad is going to be rich! Dell should partner with them. To add, a decent Geek squad will be able troubleshoot and fix the computer faster without having to just "reinstall" the OS thus they'll make more money cuz they'll be able to service more machines. And if all their service calls are "I can't find internet explorer", than that's an easy $25 bucks to say "use firefox instead".
- aztak, on 02/15/2008, -1/+3drm it's all about drm
- gharding, on 02/15/2008, -6/+8Didn't Walmart sell a Linux PC a while ago? They took it off the shelves (mostly) because nobody bought it (except for computer people who wanted a cheap-ass PC ready-to-go).
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allReviews.do?produ ... - ModernDayDarwin, on 02/15/2008, -1/+3It's called Branding and Support. It's something that windows (that's a stretch) and Apple have, but Linux is void of.
Everyone knows what Windows is.
Everyone knows what Apple is.
Not everyone knows what Ubuntu is. - tsmithe, on 02/15/2008, -1/+3I logged in to digg you up. Hah.
...Or maybe you were using reverse psychology, and actually wanted to be dugg up? Damn. -
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