I have a dream... To open a store in my small town that would be all Linux. A small office or side-street shopfront.
With Questions answered, Live and free distro´ distributioning, Custom machines and also linux media pc´s or whatever. The details are sketchy at best and finance does not exist so far. Many questions I have but luck I do not. anyway;

Would companies like Suse let me install and sell a pc built by me?
Could I do same with mythtv?
I could build my own of course. (In that case I should stop now.)

This store I would like to call something like;
Open Source Software Shop (or Store)
First Shop of Linux
Not Windows
The store with no windows

Catchphrase;
Linux does windows better than windows wishes.

I am a pessimist, I have plenty of unfulfilled dreams.

Please offer an alternative to your critisisms.

You have had an excellent idea, if you can get enough people in the area who are into Linux. Having a face-to-face encouter will also be more effective at advocacy than forum flamewars.

As for licensing, I'm fairly certain MythTV is GPL. If it's GPL you can redistribute it. Most free things are able to be redistributed, especially in binary form on a new PC.

SUSE, ey?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suse
http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/ or http://www.suse.com
http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org
Since OpenSUSE (or whatever they're calling it) is GPL, you can redistribute it. You (probably) can't redistribute the boxed proprietary one that people pay for.

For these and others, you could always contact the developers and see if they'll let you. I think developers on many projects might be quite pleased to let you redistribute (even if they're not already GPL) if you're going to advertise their software as part of your product. In any case, if you get the copyright owner's opinion in writing, that should be pretty binding on them, litigation-wise.

Ready-to-go media machines and/or HTPCs are an excellent idea, especially if you can use the free software for a price advantage over your competitors. Selling your own systems will also alleviate some of the problems with Linux's hardware compatibility. It would not be too difficult to sell and support only Linux-compatible hardware. If more stores catch on to your idea and copy you, it may help push hardware companies into supporting Linux.

I will leave the critiquing of Windows to another flamewar, but watch out for people who will take the fight to you in person.

Good luck!
-pcweirdo.

Since linux is still behind in games and some other software areas (Autocad,...) you might lose a lot of opportunities by choosing to ban Windows. Moreover with the next generation of processors supporting virtualization, thus allowing to run Windows from within Linux it would be stupid not to allow your customers to benefit the best of both worlds.

About Suse redistribution last time someone asked, the guys at Suse said he was allowed to copy and distribute even the commercial versions. I'm not sure however if you can sell a computer with it preinstalled, but as you're certainly allowed to tweak an installed system i would be surprised they'd object to that, still the only way to know for sure is to ask them.
Personally i prefer Debian/Gentoo/Slackware-based distros as they tend to be more respectfull of the open source spirit.

If you plan to provide a good level of support you'll probably have to restrict it to few distributions. That shouldn't prevent you from providing other distros & good documentation for those who want it.
In order to generate more interest you could also setup a wired/wireless server or a dvd-burner (check www.freedomtoaster.co.za) for people to update their software or get new. This would be especially usefull to those who haven't yet succumbed to the internet fever.

Whatever you eventually do, go for it!!! Open-source is the way to go

Having a local network providing software is an awesome idea! And it would be yet another example of Linux winning at networking applications.

-pcweirdo.

I have thought about this over and over again. The reason I have not jumped on it is:
1) Its hard to compete with the local walmart that sells computers for $499 that comes with a 17 inch monitor and 512 megs of ram
2) Most people who use linux, do it as a hobby of sorts, it would be hard to tell someone "it don't support alot of stuff, but" and sell a product (where you and I might agree that linux is better then other choices, how do we convince a normal user to pay $499 for our pc?)
3) Most local computer shops (at least here) don't make there money selling hardware and what not, they make money fixing the computer that ? bought at walmart
4) Most people just want a PC, and they go by what they have heard from friends, how many local people talk about linux? I never seen a linux commercial except maybe aimed at the enterprise

I think it would be a great idea to do something like this, but these things stop me. Now what maybe someone could do is open a local shop and sell online also. There are not alot of resources for higher end machines in the linux world. I know this because I have looked. And most of the time, knowing that linux should in fact be cheaper the windows, the computers cost more then a equal windows built PC, this confuses me.

Not to throw cold water, but I have similar reservations to "anti-m". Watch how people buy computers:
90% go into a store (Physical or online) and pick something based on a mysterious combo of factors that they might not be able to articulate. But surely if you started telling them that you were featuring Linux instead of Windows, you would get a lot of blank stares and other negative reactions.

Part of the insidious "de-facto monopoly" enjoyed by MS is that the entire system conspires to perpetuate the belief that "PC" = Windows, that the choices are limite d to PC and Mac, and that--to really be fully compatible--you really SHOULD use Windows.

If I were to find the time and money, I would be tempted to open a shop offering free internet access, free computer time--including peripherals (printers, etc).
Some of the machines would be Linux--esp if the customer just was web surfing or e-mailing.
While I might make a few pennies on coffee and pastries, the shop would basically be a "loss-leader" for a support and services business (maybe classes also).

The principal idea here is that your average Joe/Jill Sixpack will get interested in Linux only if he/she sees a demo--actually uses it--and gets curious.

id call it "LinLand"...

yeah, i know, im sorry...

maxie I do think you got great idea but as I see it profitable idea it isn't, the idea is problematic and when I think about it I see more ways to loss money than earn.

I think that times have changed now, and it is an excellent idea opening such a store.If many people start to do it around the world almost simutaneously, the movement will succeed.But governments have to help such movements as well, by teaching Linux in the schools and giving good financial solutions to people who want to open such stores.So, just go on thinking about the best realization plan of your dream, and talk about it with people of your government as well.

It's a great idea, but I'd think carefully about what business the store actually is in. Meaning, where would the profits come from? Would it be from hardware? That would be tough, since these days PC components are largely commodities, and you'd have to do massive volume to make the razor-thin margins add up to substantial money. Would it be software? No - it's free, and one of the first facts anyone learns about Linux is that it can be freely downloaded. (As for buying one boxed retail SuSE set and then installing it on multiple machines that you're selling, No, since the boxed set contains non-GPL software. If you wanted to sell PC's with SuSE pre-installed, then I think you'd be obligated to buy another retail box for each machine.)

So if hardware and software won't generate much profit, that leaves charging customers for your services, which leads to the question: How much do you want to earn per week? Whatever number that is, divide by 40 to come up with your hourly rate. Note that this pre-supposes that you would have a full 8 hours of chargable time every weekday, plus you need to figure in how much of a bite taxes would take.

Overall, considering that the Linux market is growing, and demand for Linux is increasing, your idea could definitely work, but I'd suggest having a very conservative, realistic view as to how fast it would take off. Good luck with it

I really can't recommend this yet.
You do have to be a little geeky to even care about what operating system you are using. To the vast majority of people the operating system is the computer. They see no difference. This is why you'll hear people asking "but does it do the internet?" They don't understand how installations work, that the whole thing doesn't have to be manufacturer loaded and they don't want to understand it.
Also, I could see you saying "It will be hard for you to install on your machine, you can't use any software you have already purchased, and you will more than likely have some issues when installing new hardware, but I think you should use Linux because it gives you choice." Do you really think anybody cares? They don't care about this stuff. They just want to use their systems. Most don't even know that you can uninstall Windows. So you want them to go through the trouble of doing that, losing ALL of their data and preferences, and then going through the hell of installing Linux with all of the hardware issues? And you think that they will like Linux more with all of that and the added fact that they can't play games their friends recommend, they can't use everything that they are used to, and that they can't set up things as easily as they would in Windows? And if they dual-boot in this case, given all of the issues which will arise, which one do you think you will find them booting into more often? The answer should be clear.
An example for those of us who aren't very good with cars: If a new shop popped up in your town selling car parts for the "average driver," would you look inside? Most likely not. You just want to drive back and forth. Do most people really care what's under their hood as long as it works? No. Translate this to the Linux world and you'll get my point.

Well if you're good enough at marketing you can make anything work. Just hype it up. Say oooh. 'Linux Operating System of the future!' 'Immunity to viruses'. 'Look at what it can do!' 'It can make you breakfast too! Its just that good.'Show off the latest bleeding edge features like 3d desktop and stuff like that. Or some the simple conviences like apt-get. And ofcourse you only get the parts that work good with Linux. Make your place a one stop shop pretty much. Apples been doing much of the same for years. You would'nt be alone either. You might even have big name support. IBM. Novell. They might even encourage you start a chain. You can take care of all areas they don't feel like being bothered with. If you do really good, you might even get bought by IBM and then its smooth sailing from there. Linux chain, the fall of microsoft, an ofcourse world domination.

I agree with peter_89 that you have to be a little geeky to care what operating system you are using. I think that most users buy two things: shiny stuff and impressing stuff. I see all my friends get excited when they read this brochure where they sell a computer with a super high 64bit @ 7000Mhz processor, 3 GB or RAM and 900 GB hard disk, while they never care that it has integrated graphics and sound, crappy mother board and monitor. It is impressing and it sells. On the other hand most of my friends would like a mac, even though they have never seen one running, just because it's shinny.

So, what I would do if I had the money, the knowledge or anything good, would be try to make PCs as shinny as apple's with modest specifications and prices that can compete with apple and not regular pcs. But these computers would have to be as pretty as apple's computers. For the user coming back home with only a small box, the size of imac's or something a bit bigger, plugging it in and starting an operating system that has never used (since it is not windows it doesn't matter if it is apple or windows) is cool. And would work out of the box, since it will have linux pre installed and customized. Does it sound logical to you?

Why don't you hold a focus group to see what people want out of an open source shop?

I say the key to winning the desktop market is to get Dell & co to invest in pre-loading Linux distros like SUSE and Mandriva. Novell/Mandrakesoft/RedHat and the like have much more than enough money to get the OEMs to do this for their home desktop lines. I don't see why they aren't putting it to that use. Preload Linux on common desktop computers and they will have to write real drivers for all of the cheesy parts they throw in them these days (think WinModems) and users of older prebuilt desktops will get to install Linux on their systems because it can finally deal with all of their hardware. Then if it gets popular enough from users buying it preloaded we will see more games developed for Linux, shifting the gaming market to it's user base -- beleive me, a LOT of gamers (most of whom are geeks themselves) would use Linux but don't because of it's lack of games. More importantly there would be an increase of regular software developed from commercial companies -- so people who would feel better using commercial proprietary software instead of the free stuff (for whatever reason) will switch to Linux, with no reason to stay with Windows.
You see, this is all a big cycle: and it can all be started by large Linux companies investing to get their distributions preloaded on home desktops.