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

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Nick Bikkal writes:

 > Pity. I was looking for a Linux shop some time ago and couldn't find one.

What exactly were you looking for?

That is, you won't find "Linux shops" labelled as such (or even
advertising it in the window), because the shops can't make a profit
selling Linux.  They sell something else, like servers, workstations,
and laptops, maybe even Windows and package software, but the staff
(or a few members) knows about Linux (and/or *BSD and/or BeOS
and/or...), runs it at home, etc.  You need to talk to the people, and
(especially if you're not fluent in Japanese) give them time to warm
up to you or try several different staff.

The last is very important.  AFAICT, none of the big vendors (Yamada,
Ishimaru, BIC, ...) put technical knowledge high on their list, but
(at least out here in Tsukuba where getting arbaito in Akihabara is
not a thinkable option) some geeks do end up walking the floor, even
at those stores.  The last two guys my wife bought computers from were
more than happy to tell my wife honestly "look, if you run anything
more demanding than Minesweeper, Outlook, and Notepad, you need to max
out the memory".  (N.B. I don't know about margins, but buying more
memory was much less expensive, and way more effective, than using the
money to upgrade the CPU clock speed -- which also brought a bigger
HDD or an SSD, but she didn't need those at all.  So I'm sure their
incentive was to try to sell faster CPUs, but they were honest
instead. :-)

But we also talked to several people who said "this is fine" or "if
you're worried about speed, how about a business model rather than a
home model?"  I suspect they were just repeating the party line rather
than actively trying to deceive.  We're satisfied that the guys who
said "max memory" knew what they were talking about and were honest,
though.

I suspect in Akiba the general level of tech knowledge will be higher,
but there will be a lot of staff who just know about Windows (or Mac)
because that's what they use.  (And if it weren't for the monopolistic
practices of MSFT and Apple, I'd have no more problem with that than I
have with Yomiuri Giants fans. :-)

Another thing you might try is going to a nearby university with a
decent science or engineering school and rummaging through their
wastepaper baskets :-) for flyers from vendors.  For example, these
guys:

    　　http://www.applied.ne.jp/ 

do advertise medium-sized GPU-based workstations with Linux installed
(IIRC you can choose RHEL or Centos, and the prices look like they're
just passing through the RHEL licensing and support package), so they
have people who know about it.  I don't think they offer Linux
preinstalled on any of their laptops, but at least it should be
possible to explain the concept to them! ;-)

You probably need to find the flyers, though.  Last time I was at
their website, I couldn't find anything I wanted to know. :-(  (Of
course, one of the services they offer is website design ... ouch!)