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Re: Everex TC2502 Green gPC Review



Title:
Yeah... Microsoft / Google / Apple... they're all trying to control your data right now.  Whoever holds the biggest piece of your digital lifestyle owns you...

Its a shame that they released the machine with a UI that wasn't ready for market.  Sounds like the guy had some silly difficulties getting crucial things going (wifi).  Did anyone catch the "f you" icons at the bottom of the first screenshot?  Hilarious.

It seems terribly wrong to me to be talking about "market share" and "perceived value" in the home PC market with Linux.  Linux is supposed to be about the consumers freedom to choose what and how his/her hardware runs.  Who cares about market share?  Our OS will survive without it.  We aren't bound to the same business rules as other software is.  Linux isn't a company.  Marketing should only be a concern for companies that base their services around Linux.  Any PC preloaded with Linux available in the retail world should be seen as a positive thing.  The consumer who purchases it has complete freedom over their hardware.  If they wanted to drop a few extra $$, they could even install Windows on it. 

My $0.02

-Jason

Tim Hart wrote:
ebb482bb0711261455l4333a50cy6acd2618330998ac@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">Even beyond marketing, Microsoft has positioned itself to control all of your data.  Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Sharepoint, Outlook/Exchange.  Explain to even a moderately computer literate person how to open a MS Word 2007 document on a linux box. 

I work in an all MS shop, yet I run gutsy on my workstation.Here is a few statements I've received recently:
"You mean it can't open a Word doc?"  .docx
"You can't use our Sharepoint Intranet?"  sans activex
"You can't navigate DFS shares?" 
"You can't use SourceSafe from Linux?" 

Microsoft focuses on controlling data which will dictate what software is used company-wide, which influences what software one might use at home or at school, etc.  The availability of MS Action Pack licensing is also a major boost for the MS popularity, I think.

There is movement towards being a real Windows/Mac replacement for the casual PC user, but why should they make the switch?  Windows was preloaded when they purchased the machine, they already know how to use it, their kids know how to use it, the apps they steal from work and are familiar with work on it.  The games they buy at best buy run just fine, if not, they can probably find some semblance of support in a forum, etc.  The more flexibility and customization options you add, the less support structure that exists for your specific permutation of features. 

In any case, the commercial projects to bring Linux to average consumers has always been motivated by cost savings, which will actually have a negative effect on the perceived value of Linux.

tim

On Nov 26, 2007 12:25 PM, Koree A. Smith <koreesmith@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree that would be very cool.  However, I don't see it happening
any time soon.  Please read the rest of my email keeping in mind that
the ease of use I speak of is targeted to the majority of the market,
the non-computer geek.

To see why Linux PCs do not sell very well to the general public, look
at the products that *are* selling.  You have Windows Vista-based PCs,
and, of course, the Apple products.  While we all know that a
computing device running Linux is plenty capable of doing everything
the above products do, there's one thing that most Linux-based PCs
have missed that MS and Apple do very well.  That's marketing.  Apple
has convinced two generations, in just a few years, that using their
systems makes you "cool", and MS has just marketed like crazy and
spread their seed over the last 20 years in such a way that it'll be
hard to take their market share.

Apple and MS don't have the lion's share of the market necessarily
because they are better, they have it because they have good marketing
people, and one thing that, in my opinion, is lacking in the Linux
desktop market:  focus.

We've seen focus come together in a big way for Red Hat in the server
market, but in the Desktop market, there hasn't been one company or
group that has really risen to the top.  There have been several
distributions, including Red Hat's WS product, that have attempted
this in the last few years.  But honestly, as far as the non-computer
geek world, people don't want to decide if gnome or KDE or, something
else, is the right way to go, or whether they should use SuSe, Debian,
CentOS, or Ubuntu.  They want to buy a computer, and turn it on, and
then do things with it.  While I can do exactly that with most
Linux-based solutions, my 50-year old mother can't, and most people
can't, or more importantly, don't want to screw around with all of the
setup. (the older I get, the less I like to screw with PCs - it starts
to remind me too much of work)

Sadly, (or not, depending on how you look at it) Apple's dumbing-down
of the OS is what's making them grow.  I recently bought my wife a
macbook, and I'll say, I was pretty impressed that she had it up and
going and editing video within the first day.  This is what people
want.  They want a system that they don't have to screw around with
for hours or days just to do what they want to do.  Unfortunately,
most Linux systems require just that.  Don't get me wrong, they work
great once you get them where you want them, but nothing just comes
out of the box ready to go, and getting them to the point where you
can use them is not easy.  For a Linux system to be mass-marketable,
it'll need to be easy to use, and my grandmother should never need to
edit /etc/fstab in vi.

I think this ease of use issue is exactly why people are putting their
own window manager on systems.  They're attempting to make the system
easier to use.  They're failing, usually, but they're trying.

So, if you want to make big waves in the PC market with Linux, put a
front-end on Linux that makes it operate as easily as OS X :D  Then, I
could see a mass market happening for Linux...given that the proper
marketing machine is in place.  I'll be the first person to buy a
copy, too.  Apple has done just that with whatever BSD variant they
used (can't remember which one right off the top of my head), so why
shouldn't that be possible with Linux?

This is just my 2 cents, I reserve the right to be wrong.

Koree

--
Koree A. Smith, RHCE
--
koreesmith@gmail.com
koree@ameth.org

On Nov 26, 2007 9:06 AM, NZG <metalninjadragon@gmail.com > wrote:
> Nice to see Linux in the stores, even if it is clearly a "value added" turd.
> I could hammer a better system together with wood, nails, and parts for the
> local goodwill computer recycling center (a kewl place)
>
> Start selling Linux Laptops and high end systems, then they'd really be kewl.
> But would they be able to beat prices on no-tax internet sales? Debateable.
>
> I don't get why everybody has to put their own window manager in there though.
> My 9 year old daughter figured out KDE solo about 2 years ago.
>
> my 2 cents,
> NZG
>
>
>
>
> On Sunday 25 November 2007 8:29:58 pm Tim McDonough wrote:
> > I ran across a review of the Everex TC2502 Green gPC that Wal-Mart has
> > been selling with Linux loaded. I don't plan on getting one, it was
> > just interesting reading about the $200 "green" PC.
> >
> > <http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/gos_review.html >
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > -
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>
>
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