Hello
I'm thinking of starting a small business.
A small internet game shop where you can buy linux games.
Right now, it's just an idea, i don't have a name, domain, nothing.
So i'm geathering as much information as possible.
So i would like to hear the opinion of you linux users.
I would like to hear as much comments as possible.
So if anything is on your mind, please let me know.
Hylke

Didn't work out so well for Loki Software, but that was more of a management problem I believe.

That is great as a thought in an ideal linux world. You know that linux games and especially commercial ones aren't too much. Maybe you shouldn't just make a linux game shop but a "linux shop" with distros, books, penguin toys, t-shirts and everything that matters the linux community. Just to know that there are not much shops that deal exclusively with linux and if you make it in a place with much people using pc's and not in any village be sure that you will have some response. And ofcourse the best could be to have some support about linux software, hardware compatibility info. The most of us using linux always speak and solve our problems over the internet, thought a little that speaking to someone face to face is very good to keep permanent customers. About the support i don't mean any guru's standing on nails giving solution to everything just a good guidance about where someone should look of what he's looking. Again it's a great idea but as i said above there are a lot of things that you should look if you want to keep it and not just close it after awhile.

Being open source, you may have a hard time profiting from such a website,

Prehaps a better idea would be to create an environment similar to steam (http://steampowered.com).. where the user downloads software which gives them access to free games and updates, however the engine also updates games and allows easy multiplayer access.

Also instead of limiting yourself to the linux market, you could make it run on both linux and windows....

Starting off with simple 3-4 player games (for free with ads) then moving on to more complex 3d games.

just an idea..

You can sell Linux stuff like books, CDs among others toys and games. Maybe a stuffed Tux would also make an attractive window shopping item.

Yeah, i've heard about that too.

I know there aren't much linux games, but i don't want it to be a very big company, like i have to hire people.
It's more like, doing it in my spare time.
I do have some experience, but not much.
So i don't think i really can give support.

I don't really want to make much money out of it, as long as i don't lose money with it, i'm totally fine with it.

But that's just basicly a game shop.
And what exactly is steam?

I like the idea although I am not too sure how well it will work. If you just want games that run on linux I think you will be very close on the bills and I am not too sure if you will stay on top. But if you add a few items such as t-shirts, mugs, etc.. I think you will make a little cash. I don't think you will need to be too big to handle the t-shirts and such. Also I think having a cheap cd section would be good to. Offering distros pre-burned on a cd. With how cheap CDs are and how easy it is to do I think you would do ok with it. Let me know if you get it up and going I will spread the word in my little group.

From Hylke's profile:
"Alnds"???
"All Linux Nerds , Doomed Starving"?

Oftewel : tiep-vhaudtje?

I feel kinda dumb about my earlier post about the "ideal linux world" because I didn't pay attention to the phrase you wrote "internet" game shop and I was speaking about a real shop but in any case every thing I wrote could do for the internet shop as well. ofcourse you set up such a web please let us know so we can spread the word in our little groups as Tux_Phoenix said.

You would be best off not limiting your service to a game service, but more importantly a service business that burns distro ISOs for customers and charges for that and shipping and handling... Copies of Fedora Core, Debian, Slackware, Mandrake community, etc. I would also recomment selling open source win software in this manner, like OpenOffice.org and Firefox, all on one combo CD. There are still tons of people who don't have broadband, for which doing these things are difficult. You can make the games thing a sideline, selling both commercial and non-commercial Linux and open source games...

Be up front about your charges and you should be ok, running it as a part-time endevour. I wouldn't bet the farm on it allowing you a life of leisure though.

yup, ik zal het zo wel fixen :-p

And i don't think i'm gonna start such shop after all, cus,just like y'all say i wouldn't make enough money.
And i don't want to sell extra things.
So i gues i'il have to wait a litle longer for more linux games to be on the market.
Thank y'all for your advice.
Hylke