Charging money for *buntu install?

[ksatta1]

I just thought I'd check here on the community's and Canonical's view on this.

I have a computer service shop. I'm thinking of selling a service to install some *buntu on clients' machines and charging (a small fee) for the service. To my understanding this is legal, but I thought I'd check here just incase what other people think of this

I think it would be good for *buntu and Linux since I'd be getting more users for them (people who don't know much about computers, and can't install themselves), and also show them the basic use etc.

I'll probably change some settings etc to make it as fast possible (on older machines) and maybe also some changes to make it very easy to use for people who have never used computers etc. I'd be sharing these changes with the community, ofcourse.

[fdrake]

you can charge the service of the installation/ configuration and support. why not. Red hat does that all the time . What i suggets you to do is to get speccifi hardware that are compatible eith linux/ubuntu 100% otherwise you will have costumers asking the wirdest requests.

[CaptainMark]

Yes this is totally fine, you are after all charging for your services and labour rather than the product so legally you can do this.

Some words of wisdom from someone with experience in this: I've found installing Linux on peoples computers is fine for them as long as they are not expecting it to be the same as windows, if you just tell them that "It can do everything a Windows PC can do" which to you and me is true, the customer might get cheesed off when they cant double click the itunes.exe they downloaded and get their familiar music player. It all depends on what the customer is used to in the past. I would recommend using an OEM install so the customers can set their own user data and password https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ub...aller_Overview and don't forget about the patented codecs and formats, your customers will expect their *.mp3 files to play without any hassle, and they will expect to be able to watch youtube videos without using the command line or install extra software, this is where it gets sticky, installing for a friend is fine but as a retailer you can you safely install patented software for profit, I don't know I'm afraid, I've only installed for friends and family as non profit. If you go ahead then I recommend the Linux Mint OEM install http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=112 , it works out of the box with codecs and flash and is easy to setup, its only available in 64 bit though and has no lightweight version so not ideal for very old hardware

EDIT: I just checked and installing patented software for other people is legal in certain countries, so depends where you live, in the UK its legal, also in Europe but not in USA or many Asian countries, see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent

[3rdalbum]

All software on the Ubuntu CD is under the GPL or more permissive licenses. You can sell Ubuntu if you want. If anybody asks for the source code, you must provide it or show the person how to apt-source.

[lisati]

Thread moved to The Community Cafe.

[prodigy_]

I'm thinking of selling a service to install some *buntu on clients' machines and charging (a small fee) for the service.

The installation is so easy a monkey could do it. You should charge for troubleshooting and maintenance. ;)

[sudodus]

Yes this is totally fine, you are after all charging for your services and labour rather than the product so legally you can do this.

Some words of wisdom from someone with experience in this: I've found installing Linux on peoples computers is fine for them as long as they are not expecting it to be the same as windows, if you just tell them that "It can do everything a Windows PC can do" which to you and me is true, the customer might get cheesed off when they cant double click the itunes.exe they downloaded and get their familiar music player. It all depends on what the customer is used to in the past. I would recommend using an OEM install so the customers can set their own user data and password https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ub...aller_Overview and don't forget about the patented codecs and formats, your customers will expect their *.mp3 files to play without any hassle, and they will expect to be able to watch youtube videos without using the command line or install extra software, this is where it gets sticky, installing for a friend is fine but as a retailer you can you safely install patented software for profit, I don't know I'm afraid, I've only installed for friends and family as non profit. If you go ahead then I recommend the Linux Mint OEM install http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=112 , it works out of the box with codecs and flash and is easy to setup, its only available in 64 bit though and has no lightweight version so not ideal for very old hardware

EDIT: I just checked and installing patented software for other people is legal in certain countries, so depends where you live, in the UK its legal, also in Europe but not in USA or many Asian countries, see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent

+1
Linux Mint OEM install is a good choice. An alternative is a standard Linux Mint version with no codecs, that you find at this page

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

You can deliver it without codecs, but at the welcome screen, the customer will find a button to install multimedia codecs, an easy one-click solution See the attached file.

Unfortunately it is a little more difficult to get started with Ubuntu, but it is certainly also possible. The small company where I bought an Ubuntu computer sold it without codecs, but attached a paper with instructions how to install what is necessary to play video clips and DVD disks. It worked for me. At that time I had no Ubuntu Forum beans

[Paqman]

To my understanding this is legal

Absolutely. There's nothing about open source that makes it illegal to trade on your skills. In fact that's the way open source usually makes money, by selling a service around the product. Just look at the way massive companies pay big wads of money for things like MySQL. They could just download it and install it themselves, but what they really want is to hire someone who knows how it works.

[ksatta1]

Thank you all for the feedback

[DMGrier]

I just thought I'd check here on the community's and Canonical's view on this.

I have a computer service shop. I'm thinking of selling a service to install some *buntu on clients' machines and charging (a small fee) for the service. To my understanding this is legal, but I thought I'd check here just incase what other people think of this

I think it would be good for *buntu and Linux since I'd be getting more users for them (people who don't know much about computers, and can't install themselves), and also show them the basic use etc.

I'll probably change some settings etc to make it as fast possible (on older machines) and maybe also some changes to make it very easy to use for people who have never used computers etc. I'd be sharing these changes with the community, ofcourse.

Completely legit and a great idea, Windows 8 sales are hurting and people are looking for something else. My Dad just got a Alienware running Windows 8 and I am waiting for him to through in the towel and ask for the Ubuntu install. I have been doing install for years now for people and have had pretty good success with it, now my question is what are you going to charge for your service and what support are you going to provide for your service.