Unleash PC

[Ryan Porter]

>I agree.
>Actually both of you are right.
>There are people out there that like local user groups and there are others that like the feeling of having a >professional support.
>For Lubuntu I think we should endorse both of them. Making money does not stand in the way of the free >software movement or their ideals.
>But we as Lubuntu should not make ourselves dependable on commercial support or a promotion plattform for >commercial software. (this however is indirectly with the software available on the Software Center already >the case somehow)
>So we need to find a balance between both opinions.
>
>--
>
>Von meinem Nokia N9 gesendet
>
>
>
>contact at unleashpc.com schrieb am 23.08.12 15:46:
>
>red hat, canonical, novell, xandros, etc etc etc all have businesses built around linux in which they make
>
>"money" the dirty word in the opensource community
>
>what is so wrong with compensating linux advocates for their time setting up machines?
>
>no one is getting rich here,
>
>all the time i read about the trouble with making money with linux
>
>probably a good deal of that stems from attitudes like yours i would imagine.
>
>as far as fees go, in IT this service is incredibly cheap and god forbid someone in linux land would make some >extra cash and promote their favorite os at the same time
>
>regards,
>ronnie
>
>promotion & advertising dollars has to come from some where right? which has always been a thorn. No one said >that you can't make an honest coin in the world. Not all money is evil, only when its obtained through flawed >ethics.

Well, I'd just like to throw out my two cents.

In my rather limited experience, the easiest people to convert to Linux
(and they will never become Power Users) are those poor souls who are
clueless about their computers and are having problems like viruses or
corrupted systems and don't know what to do and don't want to spend
piles of money getting it fixed. They come to me, ask for my help, and I
look over their system and figure out what's wrong. Usually, it can be
fixed easily. But when it can't, I tell them, "You could pay someone a
pile of money to try to fix this with the risk they'll make it worse, or
you can install Linux on your computer for free and never have this
problem again." What do you think the response is?

So, to sum it up, I think the best way to convert people to linux is to
give them a copy and let them try it out. I'm planning on teaching at a
4-H leadership conference next year about this, and I'll be (hopefully)
giving away old laptops to kids who install Lubuntu on them. That's
something that'll convert people, not making them pay money for more
tech support.

BTW, Ronnie, I have a few comments for you. You mention "as far as fees
go, in IT this service is incredibly cheap"... Well, your intended
audience for your business is not in Information Technology, they're
clueless Windows users. And also, a group of volunteers for a Linux
distro isn't very likely to embrace a commercialization of their hobby
and passion. Try asking System76 or another commercial Linux project for
participation instead; I'm sure they'll be more open to the idea.

Sincerely,

Ryan Porter