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 Channel Futures

Open Source


Will Ubuntu PCs in Retail Succeed Where Mail Order Failed?

  • Written by Christopher Tozzi
  • November 22, 2011

In recent weeks Canonical has announced major initiatives to sell Ubuntu PCs in Asia and Europe, just like it tried — and mostly failed — to do five years ago in the United States. But will things be different this time?  Here are some thoughts.

Five years ago, when Dell began shipping laptops and desktops in the United States with Ubuntu pre-installed, there were lots of reasons to believe Linux just might take off among the masses. Dell not only offered Ubuntu but actually promoted it for a while. The introduction of Windows Vista around the same time left many consumers eager to consider alternatives to the Microsoft universe.

But fast forward to the present and times have changed. Dell has all but abandoned its commitment to Ubuntu in the United States; meanwhile, although Canonical has been pushing Ubuntu for enterprise desktops, the only vendors currently shipping Linux PCs to individual American consumers are the small (but formidable) outfits of ZaReason and System76.

Ubuntu Around the World

Yet if selling Linux PCs to Americans in large volume turned out to be as unsuccessful for Canonical as it was for companies that attempted the same thing in the 1990s and earlier 2000s, that hasn’t prevented the organization from shifting focus to other parts of the world.

Indeed: In late-October Canonical announced plans to sell Ubuntu-powered computers in China. The PCs will again be manufactured by Dell, but this time — unlike in the American experiment of five years ago — they’ll be for sale in retail stores.

And just last week a similar initiative launched in Portugal, with Ubuntu in this case shipping on Asus Eee PC 1215P systems.

What’s different this time around in Canonical’s plan to bring Ubuntu to regular consumers? Beyond the fact that the PCs are now being sold in stores, rather than only through Dell’s mail-order website, Canonical seems to be investing more in integrating the Ubuntu machines into the larger consumer ecosystems. In the Chinese case, at least, Canonical promises stores:

will feature Ubuntu on a range of Dell computers, and will carry branded marketing collateral in-store, trained staff positioning the benefits and advantages of Ubuntu to consumers and will be supported by a retail team of Ubuntu merchandisers.

That’s a big change from what happened in the United States, where Ubuntu received only minimal marketing, and where there was no sign of real investment in training sales or support personnel for the new product.

On the other hand, Canonical also faces an uphill battle in both of these countries. While China is an emerging market with increasing numbers of consumers, the ubiquity there of pirated versions of Windows — not to mention the entrenchment of the homegrown Red Flag Linux distribution — means that Canonical faces substantial competition. And the situation’s no better in Portugal, where the market’s pretty saturated already with proprietary operating systems.

Either way, it’s reassuring for the open source community to see Canonical continuing to invest in desktop Linux, even if the going won’t necessarily be easy. It proves that even after two decades of lackluster results, there may be a future yet for commercial Linux on the PC.

Tags: Agents Cloud Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Open Source

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11 comments

  1. Avatar traderrudd November 22, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
    Reply

    It’s very telling that the only OEM willing to try this is the very one who tried it before…and failed.
    It’s quite obvious that everyone else sees Canonical and Shuttleworth for what they are: not the Linux answer.
    Give us an update in six months as to how Dell’s doing with this new grand experiment, if they’ll even talk about it.

  2. Avatar oregongal November 22, 2011 @ 6:54 pm
    Reply

    I am surprised Linuxcertified was missed from the list. I got Ubuntu loaded Thinkpad from them a while ago.

    As far as future of Linux on laptop, there are still things that are just better with Linux. Trying to make things easy for non-technical consumer (a la OS X) is counter to the needs of most technical users. Linux on desktop will at least have the same state as today, if not better, for long time to come.

  3. Avatar Howy November 22, 2011 @ 8:14 pm
    Reply

    This must be why I saw lots of Dells with Ubuntu on them on a Norwegian public library. They ran as thin clients, but it was Ubuntu.

    I believe that providing Ubuntu preinstalled on computers in stores for people to look at is a good move. It allows people to fiddle around with it, and they’ll see the deautiful default Ubuntu wallpaper. 🙂

  4. Avatar Dale November 22, 2011 @ 8:49 pm
    Reply

    I have a computer retail shop. I have been trying to get people off windows and on to Ubuntu for the last 2 years. I have had some success, I mean about 12 people in that time. The ones that have tried it is happy with it and thinks it is great.
    People do not like to try new things, even when its free.

  5. Avatar yesmathew November 23, 2011 @ 3:49 am
    Reply

    In Kochi, Kerala, India, Manaveeyam Technologies are trying to bring an exclusive retail for pre-loaded Ubuntu experience on Dell computers. We think its a great idea.

  6. Avatar Mackenzie November 23, 2011 @ 5:16 am
    Reply

    I asked someone from Dell about this while we were both at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando. Dell still offers Ubuntu, but only over the phone. I’ve heard elsewhere that Microsoft brought the hammer down on them over offering it on the website.

  7. Avatar Jack November 23, 2011 @ 10:33 am
    Reply

    Everybody seems to think that Linux on desktop is only suitable for the “below budget class” of computers. Thus, when one find a vendor selling with Linux preinstalled it’s generally not the best specced machines.

    The notorious Microsoft arm wrestling is one issue, but besides that – the Linux communities have plenty of work to do.

    In general the Linux enthusiasts will talk down a distribution that holds the qualities that is required for commercial success.

    Hardly any distro is 100% about desktop clients, and that goes for Ubuntu too.

    If the Linux community really WANT distros to become a viable commercial alternative they have to produce pure desktop distros where the consumers/businesses have to activate any repo containing non-desktop functionality themselves.

    It will further be beneficial if the distros select ONE desktop environment each – and use their efforts to make that perfect rather than the present situation where everybody tries to be everything for everyone.

    There’s at least 10-20 distros that are more or less excellent for the typical Linux user.

    At the moment (while Ubuntu is in transition) I have a real hard time to think of even one single distro that have commercial quality to reach the masses. The consumers are not Linux enthusiasts, and they never will be.

    Linux and the desktop systems that belongs have massive potential, but the last 3-4 years there has been little or no development wrt providing a solid commercial product that maximises the obvious potential. Some are on the move in that direction, but no distro is really there.

    Unless the Linux communities change their attitude towards the “non-Linux-usergroups” who really COULD benefit from Linux, there will be no commercial success for Linux on the desktop.

    I do indeed look forward to the day when such distro arrives, but I just don’t see it come anytime soon.

  8. Avatar Daniel November 24, 2011 @ 6:18 pm
    Reply

    I’ve been selling refurbished systems loaded with Ubuntu for the past three years in Arkansas. Linux enabled me to open my business.

  9. Avatar Christopher Tozzi November 24, 2011 @ 6:49 pm
    Reply

    Daniel: interesting. Do you sell only Ubuntu (or Linux) PCs or are you doing Windows as well? Who are your customers?

  10. Avatar Jack November 24, 2011 @ 7:26 pm
    Reply

    @Daniel:

    Great! 🙂

    But do you stick to the LTS, using the latest? Is there a choice available for your customers?

  11. Avatar clockworkpc December 14, 2011 @ 12:15 am
    Reply

    @daniel do you have a website?

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