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Story: Netbook returns blamed on Linux 'teething problems'

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Lots of Possible Explanations...

Wow, does this lend itself to a lot of possible explanations. This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit lately, as I have been setting up more of my friends with Linux systems rather than Windows.

The first, and most obvious, explanation is in the last paragraph... if it has "serious shortcomings", and in particular if it has problems connecting to wireless networks, that is likely to cause a significant number of people to return them. I just hope that something like that, which is obviously limited to that specific implementation, based on my experiences with Ubuntu and Mandriva, doesn't give Linux in general a black eye at this critical early stage.

However, beyond whatever functional problems there might be, there are issues that are likely to cause Linux netbooks (and notebooks) to be returned. The first is simply incorrect purchasing - buyers who order the lowest price unit they can find, and then are surprised to find that it doesn't have Windows. There's not much that can be said or done about this.

Second, though, are those who buy Linux netbooks/laptops, and then find that some favorite application doesn't work. This could be anything from MS Office to Quicken/Money to Photo Shop, or lots of other things. I've run into this with friends several times already, and the important thing is first to point them to the obvious alternative, if there is one - OpenOffice instead of MS Office, or GIMP/F-Spot instead of Photo Shop - or look around for an alternative, if you aren't aware of one. This is what I am doing right now with Quicken, for example, and I was surprised to find three or four different possibilities once I really looked. However, in the end, I think a certain number of Linux systems are going to be returned just because people can't run application xyz on them, and they are not willing to adjust or accept an alternative.

Finally, of course, there are going to be those who return them, even though they knew they were getting Linux and not Windows, just because they decide they don't like it. Screens are different, buttons are different, whatever, it just doesn't fit for them.

I would be interesting to know what the actual return rates are, for Windows and Linux.

jw 10/10/2008

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