[ubuntu-uk] ubuntu in india

[richard]

On 22/06/12 10:08, paul sutton wrote:
> On 22/06/12 08:09, Chris Fox wrote:
>> On 22/06/12 07:38, richard wrote:
>>> On 21/06/12 17:47, john wrote:
>>>> Thought that this may be interesting :
>>>>
>>>> ww.h-online.com/open/news/item/Dell-to-bring-Ubuntu-laptops-to-850-retail-stores-in-India-1620657.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>> so why not sell them here too ?
>>>
>>  From what I recall, they did for a while and it was a monumental
>> failure. Perhaps it was before its time, perhaps Dell didn't do a good
>> enough job of marketing it, but either way I think they did it for a
>> while and then binned the idea.
>>
>> Personally I'd like to see someone try it again. The big stumbling
>> block, I think, isn't telling Joe Public that Ubuntu is better than
>> Windows: They can figure that out for themselves, and if they can't then
>> maybe for them Ubuntu /isn't/ better.
>>
>> What Dell, or PC World, or whoever tries this at a national level needs
>> to educate your average home user about is that Ubuntu is different, and
>> isn't compatible with Windows, and why. I vaguely recall stories from
>> the last time someone tried selling pre-loaded Linux laptops to Joe
>> Public that a number of users were returning them as "faulty" because
>> their Windows software didn't work.
>>
>> Good luck to the chap who posted to this list a few days ago trying to
>> do the same thing - I hope it's a big success.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris
>>
> I think given when I ask people what Operating system they use they say
> Windows and some struggle to then tell me what version of windows they
> are running,  this is going to be a real struggle.
>
> I think the Raspberry Pi may perhaps suffer the same fate,  illiterate
> adults will struggle with them while children and computer literate
> adults will probably understand what is going on and thrive to a point,
> then be frustrated at the illiteracy of adults who are then unable to
> help them progress further and what is worse they won't admit they are
> clueless on the topic.
>
> It won't fail per-se just highlight how bad things have got with regard
> to peoples technical literacy.
>
> Going back on topic the biggest fail was putting linpus on netbooks,  a
> lot of Linux users hated it, and it really gave a bad impression as to
> what Linux is.  As for the impression given to non linux users it was
> probably enough to really put people off.
>
> For this to work you NEED local support and this is hard to get,
> people support windows and know windows and can fix most issues,
> fixing issues with ubuntu does require the same level of knowledge which
> for the avg user is lacking,
>
> Paul
>
I would be happy if they sold them on line with a warning that you would 
get no software support. But last time i asked one of the salespeople 
that pop up when you visit their site  I was told "we don't do that", 
only a few weeks ago.