Selling Linux on Startup?

[der.hans]

Am 25. Aug, 2010 schwätzte Ariel Gold so:

moin moin,

> My dad fixes up old computers and donates them. He's also volunteering with
> non-profit thrift shops.  If the system has a licensed copy of windows he
> uses that license, otherwise he's loading ubuntu. I've also suggested he
> look at some other distros like Puppy for some of the older systems.

Awesome that he's helping out, especially when he's using Free Software!

For the msft stuff, ask him to look at PortableApps.org and install Free
Software applications :).

For the GNU/Linux stuff, he can give out CDs with the computer. I suggest
giving out two copies, one for the person getting the computer and one for
that person to share. Do you know which distro(s) he uses? We should be
ablt to get some official CDs for him.

www.KidComputers.org is a non-profit here in town doing something similar
that can use some help.

> Anyways, he says the linux systems are selling slower than the windows
> systems.
>
> I thought it'd be cool for the linux systems to sell themselves somehow.
> Maybe a screen saver slideshow that features firefox, how openoffice is
> compatible with MS Office, etc. And/or maybe a desktop background that
> explains what icons are on the desktop and what they do. Or maybe even a
> video on a loop...

As Ted pointed out, there are videos already out there. Ubuntu has some,
but I think other distros do as well. Make sure you can include them
elsewhere, but that should usually be the case.

Also have him put some on random screensaver. The top two apps I've found
for general, non-tech public has been the screensaver and mahjongg.

Can he network a couple for some gaming?

Depending on the customers, it might also be good to make sure the spanish
language packs are installed and have a couple of boxen up configured to
be in spanish.

> Ideally I'd like to set him up with an install profile where he can just
> install the distro and the custom screensaver and desktop are installed
> along with it.
>
> Has anyone done this, or can point me to some resources to do this?

Creating your own repo is pretty easy. Search for custom repo for whatever
distribution he's using.

If it's just a few packages, then maybe just create a simple script
that'll grab them an install them. The script can be on a web page for
easy cut and paste.

ciao,

der.hans
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