[vox] [fwd] Re: [svlug] News: Linspire and Micro Center Announce Expanded Desktop Linux Offerings In Response to Customer Demand

[Bill Kendrick]

A fellow from SVLUG dropped by the local Micro Center (in Santa Clara)
and has the following to report...

----- Forwarded message from James Sparenberg -----

Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 19:24:34 -0700
From: James Sparenberg
Subject: Re: [svlug] News: Linspire and Micro Center
	Announce Expanded Desktop Linux Offerings In Response to
	Customer Demand
To: SVLUG <svlug at lists.svlug.org>

On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 09:15 +0200, David N. Welton wrote:
> James Sparenberg <james at linuxrebel.us> writes:
> 
> > > >Interesting.  And hrm, there appears to be one of these places in Santa Clara.
> > > >I might need to go check it out. ;^)
> 
> > hmmm.  You see I'm worried about 1 thing with Linspire.  Everything
> > and Everyone is root.
> 
> Worry or not, it's good news - you can buy machines that work (ship!)
> with Linux from a store!  Laptops too, it would seem.  If you want,
> you can go put Debian, Ubuntu or whatever on them afterwards:-)
> 

So being the optimist ... I went to Micro Center today.  Although they
(the one in Santa Clara) don't have the Linux systems in yet, the staff
was unbelievably receptive and helpful in this regard.  

What I found out.  

It seems that the initial laptop will be a Winbox (that's the company
name nothing to do with M$)  Celeron 1.4ghz cpu 128meg ram etc etc.
Nothing earth shattering.  Till you get to the price.  $699.00  Yep It's
actually no more expensive than the same model with that other OS.  It's
pre installed with Linspire etc as expected.  It can be seen at the
Winbox.com site right now.

Now comes the excellent news (As if the above wasn't enough)  I talked
with the "Store Operations and Customer Service Manager"  A gentleman by
the name of Red Calub.  Who is more than a little interested in handling
this product and developing a relationship with  Linux oriented
customers.  (Of course it didn't hurt that when I asked him about this
the only other customer in that area said "Hey I'm interested in that as
well.")  He would like to solicit our business and to that end would
like to have constructive feedback about who would be interested in
possibly purchasing this box.  Sounds reasonable.  As he noted, they
have no prior knowledge of what the demand would be so if any one wants
to drop him a line he asked me to give out on this list his e-mail
addresses.  He's trying to gage the market so he doesn't under/overstock
too much.

Red Calub

redc at techie dot com
rcalub at mircrocenter dot com

(Don't know if the above obfuscation is worth it but I'm sure he gets
enough offers from nigeria.)   He also told be that if people are
interested in buying a laptop and would like to be sure if it will run
Linux, then it's OK to bring in your Live CD and try it out on their
floor models!  However he did ask us to let him know if we find
something good bad or indifferent.  Their attitude (definitely his) is
that we know Linux and so what we tell him is valid info he can pass on
to other customers. (sounds fair)  Besides that he also understands that
if we have to take it home to find out if it works his return rate and
costs go way up.  Better to try 3 at the store and find the right one
than buy one have a bad experience take it back and go away.    

So overall the business seems to be well stocked, pretty good selection
of goods and books, and so far pretty good to do business with.

James

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
-bill!
bill at newbreedsoftware.com
http://newbreedsoftware.com/