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Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge)
Jay Lyman
describes the dismal Linux support experience he received
from mainstream vendors Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Dell.
"Calls to three local stores in Oregon proved somewhat disappointing, as the dreaded Linux (incorrectly pronounced L-eye-nux) bewilderment continued. The first store, in Portland, routed my call to computer support, which rang indefinitely with no answer. The second call was to the Best Buy in Beaverton, home to the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL). However, during regular store hours on a regular business day, there was no answer, no answering service, no re-route -- nothing but ringing."
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Silly mistake Posted Jan 20, 2005 20:46 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link] This is an unimportant detail (though the author made an effort to singleit out), but there are multiple "correct" ways to pronounce Linux. In fact, the form he says is wrong used to be the most popular.
Silly mistake Posted Jan 21, 2005 1:22 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] It's kind of like Al Gore's reference to CTRL-DELETE-ALT. It's technically correct, but whenever I hear someone say lye-nucks, I file a mental note that this guys a real newbie. That said, I can remember at least one situation in which I heard someone pronouce it lye-nucks, automatically started to file my mental note, and then realized that he was a well known hacker. If memory serves, I think he was a well known member of the Samba team. So your point is well taken. ;-)
Silly mistake and Political Correctness Posted Jan 21, 2005 22:45 UTC (Fri) by nicku (subscriber, #777) [Link] I called it L-eye-nux for years, just waiting for some PC person to come and correct me, so that I could say something like, "Do you pronounce Microsoft with a US accent just because Bill Gates does?"Sadly, no one had the courage to challenge me, and perhaps many quietly filed me in their mental compartments under "T" for "twit". I've now given in and call it the same as everyone else.
Silly mistake Posted Jan 21, 2005 12:41 UTC (Fri) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] Since in English (at least US English) Linus is pronounced L-eye-nus, it is natural to pronounce Linux L-eye-nux. It was years before I ever even heard anyone pronounce it - since I learned about Linux from reading about it on the web.
Silly mistake Posted Jan 21, 2005 15:42 UTC (Fri) by minichaz (guest, #630) [Link] Yeah, but I'm not sure we should be taking pronunciation advice from a country that pronounces Iraq as Eye-rack. :)
There's a recording of Linus himself pronouncing Linux somewhere and I think that should be regarded as the definitive pronunciation myself. On the other hand, who cares? :D
Cheers,
Silly mistake Posted Jan 21, 2005 15:47 UTC (Fri) by jedidiah (guest, #20319) [Link] OTOH, Linux is a successor to Minix.
So you could think of it as Minix with an L.
Silly mistake Posted Jan 21, 2005 16:11 UTC (Fri) by Strike (guest, #861) [Link] That's not pronounced M-eye-nicks?? ;)
The *definitive* answer Posted Jan 21, 2005 14:03 UTC (Fri) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link] When Linux started to get popular (read: when it penetrated my consciousness) there was a popular audio file, versions of which are still available online. They are The Man saying Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as ``Linux''.(Real useful in print, right?) As best I can transliterate it, he says ``LEE nooks'', where `oo' is as in `room'. I wonder if he's been corrupted by life in the U.S.A.? :-)
The *definitive* answer Posted Jan 21, 2005 15:49 UTC (Fri) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] Real useful in print, right?) As best I can transliterate it, he says ``LEE nooks'', where `oo' is as in `room'.I wonder if he's been corrupted by life in the U.S.A.? :-) Quite possibly. I'm a Finn living in Finland, but in spite of that I have sometimes caught myself and other Finns pronouncing it the "lyenux" way when speaking about Linux in English... But I think it is a bit like saying the names of well-known cities different ways depending on language, a sign of the name getting assimilated in the language.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 4:28 UTC (Fri) by gte223j (guest, #6492) [Link] I was a bench monkey at best buy for almost 10 months and I never saw anybody bring in a linux box. I doubt the other wankers would have taken one in, but I sure would have.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 5:44 UTC (Fri) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link] I'm still a bench monkey at BB and in my 1 1/2 years there I've seen 3 PC's/laptops with Linux. 2 of those 3 times was the same guy with a Dell Inspiron and RH9 and in both cases I had to show him how to mount a USB thumb drive. Anytime someone comes in with a Linux box (or to the sales floor with a question about whether a certain peripheral or hardware component will work with Linux) the usual response from the salesperson or tech is "I don't know" or "We don't support Linux."
Being from Texas, we have a lot of non-native-English speakers as customers, and I often hear "Can a Spanish-speaking associate please report to the Home Theater Department for customer assistance?" over the P.A. system. It would be interesting to hear "Can a Linux-speaking associate please report to the tech bench for customer assistance?" It seems that the retailers really don't want to shut out a portion of the population due to a language barrier. Now the retailers need to reach out to the Linux-using population...
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 9:02 UTC (Fri) by petegn (guest, #847) [Link] The problem is most of theses retailers are so far up Mr Gates asshole they cant even see electric light let alone the light of day ..
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 17:53 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] Well, this is a brilliant argument for turning off guest posting.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 18:16 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] This issue has been discussed extensively and a general consensus reached. See:
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 22, 2005 19:44 UTC (Sat) by gte223j (guest, #6492) [Link] See the child post
"Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge)
of my parent post above. This is an excellent example of good guest post. It is far better than the contents of my usual posts:=0
i think that when it gets as bad slashdot then we should turn off guest posting, but until then it doesn't bother me. this site is _nowhere_ near as bad as slashdot
oh well, don't take me too seriously and think what you will:-)
Brian
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 21, 2005 18:21 UTC (Fri) by chohman (guest, #5519) [Link] I have not read Mr Lyman's original article, but the quoted portion suggests to me that his real problem is that these retailers have lousy computer support in general. An unanswered phone says absolutlely nothing about the level of Linux support offered by a vendor that it doesn't also say about the support of any other operating system. Unless, of course, someone has invented a caller ID system that identifies Linux users as they call in :-)
Oh, sorry, I forgot - only Linux needs support, not like the road-to-nirvana, nothing-ever-breaks user experience of that other widely used system.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 22, 2005 0:20 UTC (Sat) by dokhebi (guest, #14023) [Link] Another problem with "bench monkeys" at computer stores: I brought my laptop into Fry's Electronics for repair because of problems with the display. When the tech saw Grub on the screen, he pressed return to boot the laptop. Since it didn't immediately boot to Windows he put on the repair ticket that the machine "...does not boot Windows..." I had to scratch that out before I signed the paperwork.
I know my laptop is going to be returned with the hard drive "repaired" so it will correctly boot Windows. Good thing I made a disk image before sending it in.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 22, 2005 0:55 UTC (Sat) by ssavitzky (guest, #2855) [Link] Amazingly enough, when I took my daughter's dual-boot laptop in to Fry's to have multiple keyboard, CD-ROM and power-connector problems repaired, it came back with boot sector intact.
My guess is that, at the factory, the first thing they do is swap in their diagnostic disk and run that. They probably don't even try to boot *your* disk unless the trouble ticket says you're having problems with it.
YMMV depending on the laptop's manufacturer; this was a Fujitsu.
Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) Posted Jan 22, 2005 20:03 UTC (Sat) by gte223j (guest, #6492) [Link] "My guess is that, at the factory, the first thing they do is swap in their diagnostic disk and run that. They probably don't even try to boot *your* disk unless the trouble ticket says you're having problems with it."
That is not how the tech service centers of best buy do it. When you send a box out that is under warranty for hardware problems depending on the problem they generally boot into the os unless that is not possible. they do use diag tools to assess and verify the initial findings of the "bench monkey". they do that first, however they do boot into the os and monkey around with it for sure no matter what the problem may be. would you replace a mb or proc and not try to boot into something!!???
I say this becasue I heard of guy who bought a laptop and put freebsd on it and couldn't burn a cd. The technician at the service center (remote shipped location) sent it back becasue freebsd was not supported!!! I gasped when my fellow bench monkeys told me. I thought that the stupid service center guy would have a spare laptop hd with a known good os on it. how lame.
these retail chains do not hire people capable of dealing with different operating systems. the tools provided are also limited. there are many shortcuts taken and many dissatisfied people.
As a side note though this story was from before i started working there. towards the end before I quit some of them used knoppix!!! it was really cool to see that on the ticket. i myself would use it to differentiate between hardware and software problems in addition to the diag tools. it was great for showing the customer that their nic really did work. it was an easy 20 bucks for the driver reinstall!!
later
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