Felt it maybe better here as its not just a Linux Core subject.
So soon where I work want to sell Linux systems, these systems are refurbs, and we want to test the market, Now Linux is a completely different world for a lot of people so what would be the best way to sell Linux? Use an OS like Zorin with a Windows skin over the top? Have play on Linux ready for any windows applications?
Any ideas about how this could be done?
Thanks in advance!
I have experience in the matter, and I have tried several distros. One piece of advice: don't focus on windows, you can't sell linux by making people use it like Windows, sell it like linux, and get the best of linux in terms of safety, support and features. However strange it may sound because it's bleeding edge and generally known as "engineers distro", but we've had the best experiences with Fedora. Gnome is very easy to use, and Fedora always patches every problem within 24 hours, is super safe with their strict open source policies and safe repos, super user-friendly with thousands of mirrors, presto and fastest-mirror functionality, fedora main is just incredibly stable, and all features and software that anyone would need are there. Just don't tell people that they will have a "windows-alternative", but tell them the truth, that they're going to have an enterprise-grade professional and modern operating system with a real concern for privacy and security. Also, always stick to open source graphics drivers, proprietary graphics drivers are just a huge pain, as nVidia drivers only work fine up to kernel 3.6, and AMD Catalyst only works fine from kernel 3.11 on. Proprietary graphics drivers for linux are just a huge party pooper. Refurb systems with nVidia GPUs up to GTX 240 work just fine with nouveau, and AMD open source drivers perform almost the same as catalyst on refurb systems. With Fed-Up, people can easily upgrade without reinstall, and SELinux/firewalld keeps them safe.
I have the most recent kernel on my Arch with Nvidia 325.15. I know that the most recent drivers are 319.60, but 325 are only a few months behind. I've quite honestly not even tried to install 319.60 because 325.15 has no performance limits or clock issues like 304xx had, and supports everything I need it to. I'll try to update to 319.60, and report back; on Kernel 3.11.7, if I recall correctly.
Like Zoltan said, whenever you sell stuff; don't bullshit.
Give people the opportunity to play around with the computers, but never give them the illusion that they're running a familiar OS like Windows or OSX.
Yup, a lot is possible, and there are patches for every kernel, and arch is very good at patching, they don't do SELinux, and you probably don't have the VMWare or Virtualbox kernel headers in there. I've gone through 8 patches from RedHat to make the 325 not completely screw up RHEL and Fedora systems to the point of not having to boot into runlevel 3. You can make anything work in linux, that's why it's linux, but the question was about selling systems to customers with linux preinstalled, and I don't think it's a good idea to risk liability for binary blobs.
Well all the systems are on show, We just thought Zorin OS would be a better solution for people that are used to the Windows interface, personally I like KDE and XFCE, but the sort of people that come to us havent got a clue what happens inside the PC, they want it to work there and then, and to be fair linux does that in buckets, also its more secure and faster in general, I dont like the BS salesman ship, if they have questions I answer them to the fullest I can, but these are the standard people that go to places like PC world Or Best Buy or where ever you can purchase stuff like HP Compaqs and Lenovos etc, If only linux could get a word in edge ways against MS and Apple, We are doing 1 test system in the next few weeks, more so near the holidays to see what happens.