I'm starting my own business...

[speedwell68]

...a home and small business computer support and repair service. I was inspired by PC World and my local computer shop. I have a friend that runs a BMX shop and he has been using Ubuntu for a year or so now and is fine with it. Today he bought one of those small Acer desktops that have Linpus Lite installed. Other than Linpus being appalling, the setup on this machine was dreadful, the keyboard was set to the wrong country, Nvidia drivers didn't work, they couldn't get his HP printer to work and god knows what they did to the networking. He paid £50 extra to have it setup, he did get that money back. Anyway basically I showed my friend how to create a install disk on a USB stick and let him get on with his Ubuntu install, which worked perfectly BTW.

Also today a work mate was charged £80 by PC World to remove a virus on a computer, they spent two hours virus scanning his computer to decide they couldn't recover it and then they charged him another £40 to do a system restore and another £28 for Norton. I was shocked. They also assured him they could save his photos and they said they forgot. I could have saved his photos and restored Windows to factory for a fraction of that price.

So I am going to bite the bullet and start up for myself.

[corrytonapple]

Good Luck. Sounds like PC World is ripping people off. I Assume everything will be done via Ubuntu?

[drawkcab]

I have one of those Acer nettops with Ubuntu...it's a sweet deal once you clear Linpus off of it.

[sgtslwilson]

I don't know what you guys are bellyaching about. I actually LIKE the Linpus that came on my Acer Aspire One. The AspireOneUser.com forum is vast and helpful. Macles blogspot on this OS is fantastic and everything works out of the box. The bug you reported has been fixed for like 3 years now.

It intruduced me to Linux. It's actually just Fedora 8- Red Hat. The OS is so similar to Ubuntu that when I switched to a new laptop that I found Ubuntu to be a familiar OS.

Instead of griping about particular Linux Distro, let's just all unite our forces by agreeing that Windows sucks.

[Zlatan]

I don't know what you guys are bellyaching about. I actually LIKE the Linpus that came on my Acer Aspire One. The AspireOneUser.com forum is vast and helpful. Macles blogspot on this OS is fantastic and everything works out of the box. The bug you reported has been fixed for like 3 years now.

It intruduced me to Linux. It's actually just Fedora 8- Red Hat. The OS is so similar to Ubuntu that when I switched to a new laptop that I found Ubuntu to be a familiar OS.

Instead of griping about particular Linux Distro, let's just all unite our forces by agreeing that Windows sucks.

You don't need an enemy OS to like Ubuntu. Winows is OK for some people, trust me.

[ST3ALTHPSYCH0]

I'm gonna steer clear of the flamebaiting here, and go straight to the meat:

@OP
Good on ya, mate! I had to start my own business refurbing abandoned machines for resale along with repair back in Feb, b/c I was laid off and noone was hiring. I'm now subcontracting to another IT firm here in town. Good luck, and remember, when you love what you do, it's no longer work!

[lisati]

Good luck to you. Find something you enjoy doing, and do it well, and a lot of the rest will fall into place.

[OLDMANHOOK]

Good luck. I run a computer sale and repair shop someone noted that PC World is ripping people off,maybe or maybe not but if this is going to be your job you will fine that it's more work than when it's a hobby.
If you are going to try and sell Linux computers might need to make a coustom install DVD ready to play DVD's MP3's ect; and lot of hand holding--You will see the price of tech support--Any way Good Luck--When you sell a Linux computer Make sure you give a restore disc with all installed programs