MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-03-13 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] gNU in the store
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Why Wal-Mart won't have Linux desktops on its store shelves Mar. 13, 2008
Opinion -- The other day, Wal-Mart let it slip that it would no longer be
selling Linux-powered computers in its stores. The retail giant will,
however, continue to sell Linux desktop and laptop systems via its
online store.
On March 10, Wal-Mart spokesperson Melissa O'Brien told the Associated
Press that Wal-Mart had decided not to restock its in-store gOS
Linux-powered Everex Green gPC TC2502. "This really wasn't what our
customers were looking for," O'Brien said.
Wal-Mart, according to Everex, will continue to sell its new gPC2 for $199
without a monitor and its gOS-powered UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), the Everex
CloudBook, for $399, through Wal-Mart's online store. Currently, Wal-Mart
is selling a no-frills gPC2 desktop system and the CloudBook laptop.
In a Washington Post story, O'Brien expanded on her comments, saying,
"We are America's retailer, so the decisions on what we offer in our
stores [are] based on how our customers vote with their purchases." It
wasn't that Wal-Mart is rejecting Linux, she said. "The idea was to
see if shoppers in our stores would respond as they do online to the
offering. The answer is that customers did not respond to expectations,
so we decided not to restock."
That hasn't stopped some writers from declaring, "Middle America
Rejects Wal-Mart Linux Experiment" and "Linux PCs Flop on Wal-Mart
Shelves." Since Wal-Mart sold out of its in-store Linux desktop stock,
both those headlines overstate the situation.
So is Wal-Mart's decision to drop these gOS Linux-powered computers a
big deal or not? I decided to do a little old-fashioned reporting to see
if I could get to the bottom of why Wal-Mart will no longer be carrying
cheap Linux systems in its stores -- besides, I needed to get some more
Diet Coke anyway -- so I visited several of my local Wal-Marts.
At these stores, I talked with some Wal-Mart workers. Since Wal-Mart
likes reporters almost as much as it does union organizers, I'm not
going to even mention any individual store names.
Here's what I found out. Customers did want to buy the computer, but
they, and all too often the workers, were thoroughly confused because the
PCs came with Linux and not Windows. The word "clueless" comes quickly
to mind.
But let's be realistic here. How much technical expertise do you think
an average Wal-Mart customer, or any ordinary U.S. citizen, really has
anyway? The one technically adept customer service representative I met
told me, "These are the same people who really can't tell the difference
between the computer and its software. At best, they know they need
Windows to run Quicken, Office and games. That's it."
The people who ended up buying the gPC, I was told, were either
technically savvy -- "They came in looking for it," said one worker --
0r, all too often, "They thought it was a normal -- read, Windows --
PC and they exchanged it."
The irony is that gOS with a broadband Internet connection is perhaps
the easiest operating system for a novice to use, with its dependence
on Google applications. It would, in many ways, be ideal for someone who
just wants to use a PC and doesn't want to buy additional software. Say,
for example, the typical Wal-Mart customer who wants the best deal for
the lowest price.
So, I concluded, after my informal survey, and bringing home three cases
of Diet Coke, that the gPC didn't fly off Wal-Mart's shelves for several
reasons. The first, as David Liu, founder of ThinkGOS, the company behind
gOS, told blogger Dana Blankenhorn, is that there's very little profit
margin on a $199 computer in the first place. If you're not selling a
ton of them, you don't have cash flow to speak of.
Another reason, as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes observes in his blog,
is that Wal-Mart is no place for a "soft launch" of any really new
product. Another brand of diapers, sure; another kind of computer that's
not quite like anything they've ever seen before, no, that won't work.
I'll add another reason to that list. Before there will be mass consumer
pickup of the Linux desktop, any Linux desktop, the public needs to know
more about Linux. I'm not talking about Linux 101, I'm talking about
Linux 01.
Before Linux desktops will start flying off store shelves, people need
to know three things: Linux is not the same as Windows; but it's cheaper;
and you can do pretty much all the same things except play games. That's
it. Once people know that much, then with that keyword "cheap" in mind,
you can expect to see Linux start to make inroads into the Joe Six-Pack
market.
There, finally, one other point. Linux has good home accounting programs
such as GnuCash and KMyMoney. Either can be used to replace Quicken,
and GnuCash is a decent substitute for QuickBooks as well. The
Linux vendors need to start pushing these programs more in their
distributions. Consumers want home finance programs, and when Linux
companies don't make it as easy to find these programs as they do
OpenOffice.org or Firefox, they're putting another small barrier between
a potential Linux customer and a Linux customer who's willing to put
down his or her credit card.
-- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com -
Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like
Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -
RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS -
RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers
to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in
our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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