I own my own computer repair business and have to say that I have been spreading the news about Ubuntu in an unusual way. See when a person brings me thier computer to repair it I tell them the price that it will be to fix it. Then I tell them that if they let me dump thier harddrive and do a clean install of Ubuntu I will wave any and every price. So they get a fixed computer with Ubuntu as an OS. You know I don't get many complaints about Ubuntu but the complaints about Microsoft has increased a 100 fold here lately.

It's a good way of spreading Ubuntu, but maybe a little heavy handed. Why not fix the actual problems, and say you'll also install Ubuntu alongside Windows for free?

As much as I'd rather stick Linux on the majority of PC's I have to fix, many users will have hardware + software that isn't going to work on Linux straight out of the box and don't want to tinker with things themselves. If they buy stuff that doesn't work and so have to keep going back to you in order to fix it, word might spread you stick another OS for nothing, but keep charging to fix other issues that develop from it

you could also order a couple hundred ubuntu cds. Then give them out. That way they have a live cd to try and one to install down the road. Plus if they like it, you can get return business to install it for them

soule

I agree with fouldsy, it is a good idea for beginners to install ubuntu next to windows.

You have an unique method of running your bussiness though, it seems that you care very much about your customers.

I work finding housing for homeless people. A client of mine, whom I found housing for, bought a second hand computer with Windows 2000 on it. It ran like crap due to adware, spyware, malware, viruses, and whatever else. I gave him an Ubuntu LiveCD, telling him that it may run slowly, since it ran exclusively off the CD, but that it was a good way to test it. He stated that it ran really well; so, he went to the Ubuntu website, and tried to install the Ubuntu OS, as a program, within his Windows OS. He refused to believe that Ubuntu could be installed on the hard drive, and run, without Windows being on there.

Eventually, as his Windows deteriorated, I gave him an Ubuntu 5.04 install disk (Warty Warthog, I think), and he installed it. He said it was great. He was especially impressed with the interface of gaim.

There were some problems, though. He was unable to install a java runtime environment (for Yahoo games). "java-package, fakeroot, make-jpkg blah blah blah" was too much for him. Also, when I told him to change the distribution category from "warthog" to "breezy" (5.10), and do a smart upgrade via Synaptic, well, that just freaked him out. I did give him a Breezy CD, which he used to reinstall. From this, he was able to install Blackdown JRE 1.4, which is good. Hopefully, since Ubuntu upgrades are every six months, they'll make upgrading a little less intimidating to newbies, thereby avoiding the need to reinstall.

He's even more impressed with 5.10 than with 5.04, now that he can use java for interactive web browsing. Anyway, that is one success story of a person with few resources benefitting from quality free software.

PS:
Good strategy. My experience has shown me that people will continue with what they know, no matter how bad, because they fear the unknown.

There is already a way that it is easier than changing the text file in /etc/apt/sources.list. If you open System>Administration>Update Manager then click on Prefernces, you can go through and click on each download source and change warty to breezy, then you click OK. When you are back to the main update manager window, you click Reload, then install, and tada, its updated. At least I know you can edit it like that in Breezy, and I'm pretty sure you can in Hoary, but I haven't ever ran warty so I wouldn't have a clue about it.

Haha
That's sweet! Props.

Linux still has a ways to go, I think. The guy whom I had converted to Ubuntu recently went back to Windows 2000, claiming that he was unable to get 3d acceleration for his ATI Mach64 3d Rage Pro card, unable to get sound from his sound card, unable to play online games on sites such as shockwave.com, etc etc. It would seem that Linux does not work well with hardware that is very common in inexpensive computers (bought primarily by those with few financial resources). What's the point of making free software that only works on newer, expensive hardware?
And, all the software that he thought was great from Ubuntu, he discovered was also available for Windows (Gaim, Mozilla, etc). So, he has more options on the internet, equal, if not more, software options, and all his hardware "just works".

Unfortunately, everything does not work out of the box with Ubuntu. New Ubuntu users are not going to be able to do anything with mp3 or windows media files until they figure out how to find and install everything they need. This will aggravate them.

Are there any websites/applications that "punish" a user for using Blackdown Java instead of Sun Java?

EDIT: Oh I see it is a version of Sun Java. Just 1.4.