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suomalainen
April 12th, 2009, 09:44 PM
Ubunteros,

Has the community ever organised a "Group Buy" where Linux-Ubuntu users could order from a predefined list of hardware components required to build a PC???

As an example, in April of 2010 Ubuntu 10.04LTS will be released. To mark this occasion the community could make an agreement with a vendor/supplier/OEM, that provided certain quantity commitments are fulfilled, product would be sold on a discounted volume basis to community members....

Curious to know if this has been done before and what others may think of such an idea and if it makes sense?????

Suomalainen

stalkier
April 12th, 2009, 09:50 PM
Ubunteros,

Has the community ever organised a "Group Buy" where Linux-Ubuntu users could order from a predefined list of hardware components required to build a PC???

As an example, in April of 2010 Ubuntu 10.04LTS will be released. To mark this occasion the community could make an agreement with a vendor/supplier/OEM, that provided certain quantity commitments are fulfilled, product would be sold on a discounted volume basis to community members....

Curious to know if this has been done before and what others may think of such an idea and if it makes sense?????

Suomalainen

This sound pretty viable but there is such a diverse community here. Everyone has their own needs as far as hardware is involved. It is almost better for the companies to build the PCs and supply them at a discount.

suomalainen
April 12th, 2009, 09:58 PM
And that's exactly why I stated:


Ubunteros,

Has the community ever organised a "Group Buy" where Linux-Ubuntu users could order from a predefined list of hardware components

LowSky
April 13th, 2009, 05:05 AM
Great idea but do you know of any companies that will sell worldwide and not overcharge for shipping?
The "Community" is too diverse, too many people, and from too many places. It would be too hard to buy equipment that could easily be use in any country.

I guess as an American I could try to get newegg or tigerdirect to offer community members some cool deal, but these company's prices are really low already.

anewguy
April 13th, 2009, 01:12 PM
The idea itself is great, but in practicality it probably wouldn't be possible. I have great respect for all the people I've seen on these forums where English is a 2nd language (I even started a post about it a few months ago) since I just don't have the ability to learn another language. However, I'm sure the vast number of those people would also like to use their computers in their native tongue, which I assume (I've never seen one as I've never been outside the US) means a country-specific keyboard. Combine that with the default language of the OS, etc., and you're talking about just enough individuality that a company can't really cookie-cutter out PC's (the way they can make them cheaper). I also suspect that the number of people who would actually order one would not make the idea profitable for a company. I remember when Dell offered Ubuntu on their PC's - don't know if they still do - but I've also wondered what the sales of those units where like. I would suspect that many who bought those were new to Linux and probably went out and got Windows afterwards.

Just my 2-cents worth.

Dave :)

overdrank
April 13th, 2009, 01:13 PM
Moved to Cafe

LowSky
April 13th, 2009, 02:44 PM
Dell is still making them, unfortunatly nothing worth buying...
Cant blame them, they are not making money on these computers, so why sell them
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs