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First your rant... :-)

Please ;)

"Third largest economy and dominated by IT" means that everyone down
to the average Joe and his dog can have a computer. This audience
isn't as interested in learning Linux, so another way to look at it is
that this actually encourages sales of Windows machines. A
salesperson who knows Windows can speak to most of the customers that
walk through the door...

Understandable. However, would this count as "knowledgable" staff?

If I could tell you that a Pentium 2 is faster than a Pentium 1, that would not qualify me as "knowledgable". If I could explain why a Pentium 1 60 MHZ is faster than a 486 DX-2 66 MHZ I would be. I find that advertisement quite irritating as a result.

As for servers, I don't know about Japan, but I think if you were a
company and you were filling up your new office space with Linux
machines, you probably wouldn't buy it from Yodobashi Camera. You'd
probably go to a place less flashy that's for corporate sales. (Or
even direct from Dell via their web page, which is far cheaper.
Speaking of which, try asking the Dell shop's staff...they're in front
of Akihabara station/Atre on I think the second floor. Hope they're
still there...)

As I mentioned in the grandparent message, I went to that Dell shop. They told me they had nothing related to Linux at all, which is what really irritated me. Again, we are talking about geek paradise Akihabara, not Shinjuku or whatever. There should be a higher bar of knowledge there.

FWIW, I built my own Linux server 3 years ago and am very happy with it. :) If I had the ability to build my own laptop, this would not be a conversation.

As for a Linux laptop, I'm afraid you're going to have to do your
homework.

You see, this is what I don't get. Respectfully, this is exactly what a big mega store should do itself, not task it to me. Why should I have to investigate all of this if these shops are supposedly hurting in a hyper-competitive environment and they actively want my business?

Hypothetically, if someone had told me that Ubuntu worked on the Laptop XYZ123 without much of a hassle, they would have had an insta-sale.

What really happened was that I went home, looked it up, and now have a certain amount of price knowledge. (More now, thanks to Edward :)) They gave up their potential business advantage and now are competing against the Internet on price alone, and they didn't have to.

Is it hard for ONE PERSON IN A CHAIN to take the time to produce a compatibility chart. It wouldn't increase sales significantly, but it would increase the perception of competence among a crowd that is highly influential among technology crowds.

In short, I'm afraid that they will need to do their homework if they want to sell to me. If I am going to do it for a commodity product, I will buy from the cheapest supplier (in this case, the Internet).

Look up models on the Internet and see what other's
experiences are with installing Linux. Things are much better
nowadays; 10 years ago, you'd install Linux and reboot and hold your
breath to see if it comes up. :-)

Or I could buy a mobile phone which has Linux built into it, and plug it into a monitor ;)

10 years ago the Internet wasn't obliterating these stores. It is now. It is time for them to realize that the long tail is not difficult to appeal to, and having information available in the information age should be a piece of cake for a mega corporation

As a start, I would advise you to avoid any laptop with an integrated
NVidia graphics card. It's not going to work under Linux [yet]...

Much appreciated! :D

Re: [tlug] Ubuntu Laptop Assistance Please + Rant about Akihabara