I am considering starting a business as a PC OEM that ONLY ships Linux boxes. I am not good with software, but can do hardware. Does anyone have any tips??

I think you might need to be more specific on what type of advice you're looking for.

I'm going to take a guess (and probably be wrong, too) that you're wondering how to set up your hard drives without needing to do an actual install on each PC.

If that's what you were wondering, you can make an image of a drive that you set up a basic installation on and use a program to copy the image onto the other hard drives. I like Acronis True Image. The CD version actually runs in Linux and can copy an image to an external hard drive, then transfer the image back to another computer's hard drive. It will also install in Windows, but it sounds like you don't need that part of it, just the bootable disc that it comes on.

There are other solutions for this. I mentioned this one since I have it and have experience with it. I believe that you can use Gparted to do this but I have only used it to make new partitions. This might help if you want to use Gparted to do this:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/move/move.htm

Though this isn't what you were asking about, I should mention that this is a bad time to get into a business like that. The major makers will probably be dumping their PCs at or below cost until the economy turns around again. There are signs, though, that it may already be on the rebound, so planning ahead now might put you in a good situation when the time is right. This might sound like conflicting advice, but my MBA crystal ball tells me that no one really knows what is ahead, and even the most knowledgeable economists are only guessing.

There are some other PC builders who make Linux boxes. Dell chose Ubuntu since it is much like Windows. It would appeal to those who are used to the bloated Windows OS and like lots of free software standard. The Gnome desktop is a bit different from Windows, but it is very full-featured. It is the one I use myself. Kubuntu is the same but with the KDE desktop, which may seem to be more like Windows to some people.

This isn't to say that Fedora, SuSE, Debian, etc., aren't worth offering, but Dell chose Ubuntu for business reasons, and I would guess that it would require a lot less customer support than some of the others.

Linux Mint is a nice Linux variation based on Ubuntu.

If you want to give these a try, you can use the Sun VirtualBox program to allow you to install different operating systems and try them out. If you can't figure it out (it has some quirks, but it is free), then you could just install different Linux distros on different hard drives and either switch your boot drive or unplug one and plug in another when you want to switch distros to give each one you're interested in offering a try.

You could also do something that I don't think is being done, or at least it isn't commonly done. Why hot offer a default Linux distro, but offer several others as alternatives at no additional charge, installed and running.

You would have to supply some basic instructions for setting up a user account, changing the default root password, etc., for whatever distros you intend to support.

If you market your Linux boxes to the Windows user, be prepared to spend a lot of time on support calls. If you don't offer support, you'll lose business, but you might feel that losing that kind of business is OK.

If you market your product to Linux users with no support for the OS or software, they will probably still buy your product, providing that you offer at least a one year warranty on the hardware. How you provide that support is another consideration. Will you contract with a third party who can service your product in your country? Will you require that the product be shipped back to you for repairs? Who pays for shipping to you and back? What if it was a software problem and the hardware is OK?

Lots of things to think about. If you only sell your product locally, like in a 100 mile radius, it might not be as much of a problem to service the product. You can require that the PC be brought in for service. Be ho9nest and explain that up-front, but let them know that this is part of how you can sell the product at a reasonable price with high-quality components.

You'll have to test all of your different optional hardware configurations to make sure that they work well with whatever distro(s) you choose to offer.

I hope this might be helpful. I tend to think in business terms since I got my MBA a few years ago.

Donald

Thanks Donald, some good advice there. In answer to your first question, I am after all advice, on all related subjects.

My plan is to build performance desktops with built-in eye candy!! I will most likely be offering Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu type flavours possibly with a little fluxbox based distro for real speed freaks.

I am not really looking at the value end of the spectrum as the big boys would wipe me out too quickly, I am aiming to be to Linux pc's what Linn is to HiFi. So support will HAVE to be A1 and the price tag will HAVE to reflect that.

My ideas are still very much fledgling at the moment, hence the vague question, I suppose I am looking for ideas/inspiration as much as advice at the moment!!

Thanks again.

Yes, absolutely. However, I have a couple of minor corrections that may or may not be significant to you in your endeavor. Best of luck either way.

Fact is that Dell created a website specifically to obtain user input quite some time before actually releasing their Linux machines. Ubuntu received the majority of votes, but many others got quite a few votes as well.

Also, the majority voted to rely on community support for the OS and software.

Perhaps you might try the same, and maybe do something different with the results.

Cheers