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Originally Posted by mjukr  I'm an Ubuntu user, but I have to say honestly that I don't think you'll ever turn a profit.
Linux will never make a dent in the minds of the consumer world until it comes pre-installed on hardware at major retailers (in the US, for example, Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, etc. etc.). |
Walmart has Linspire on some of its PCs. Is that major enough? B-)
Why do you think he'll never turn a profit? Never is an absolute, and you already gave a situation in which it is possible for him to make money. There are already a lot of people who use Linux-based systems, and it is a growing market. It has a wider user base than the Mac supposedly, although the Mac is primarily geared towards the desktop while Linux-based systems are more likely servers.
I get tired of hearing people complain about Windows, viruses, spyware, etc, and then conclude "Well, it isn't like I can do anything about it." Those same people either haven't heard of GNU/Linux or they equate it to the command line and assume it is archaic.
I don't think it is impossible. TuxGames apparently makes quite a bit of profit from games, which indicates that not only is there a desktop audience out there, but there is enough of them that a subset (game players) can support a company.
Yes, the general customer might still need to know about it, and GNU/Linux isn't getting the publicity that it did prior to the dot com bubble burst, but it has significant mindshare already. It can't exactly get worse unless users and developers give up on it in droves or they get simultaneously killed in some catastrophe. Neither one of those is likely, so the market will only get better.