Grand Opening of Big Box Linux [LWN.net]

From:		Paul Baranowski <paul-AT-bigboxlinux.com>
To:		Linux Weekly News - PR <pr-AT-lwn.net>
Subject:		Grand Opening of Big Box Linux
Date:		Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:43:20 -0500
Message-ID:		<47A8E688.10607@bigboxlinux.com>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Grand Opening of Big Box Linux
February 5, 2007
Toronto, Ontario

Announcing the grand opening of Big Box Linux(http://bigboxlinux.com),
the Canadian Linux hardware store. All the parts we carry are guaranteed
Linux-compatible. No longer do Linux users have to spend hours
researching websites and newsgroups in order to find parts that work on
Linux. Everything for sale at Big Box Linux is known to work, and we
even include Linux installation instructions for the components that
require it.

A typical Linux user cannot just walk into a computer hardware store and
buy anything they like, because there's a good chance it won't work on
their system. Sometimes a component might require sophisticated
technical knowledge to set up, and sometimes a component might not work
at all. This presents a big barrier to entry for the average computer
user. That's where Big Box Linux comes in ? we test components and make
sure they work without any hassle before we offer them for sale.

What will probably be of most interest to consumers is our selection of
printers, wireless cards, and video cards that we have tested to work
under Ubuntu Linux. These three types of components typically cause the
most problems ? if you don't buy the right brand, you will probably end
up with a really expensive paperweight. Big Box Linux has focused on
offering printers, wireless cards, and video cards for Ubuntu that work
straight out-of-the-box without any hassles, just plug and play.

Many long-time Linux fans have been hesitant to recommend Linux to their
friends and family because there is no easy way to discover and buy
Linux-compatible hardware. Now, with Big Box Linux, Linux fans can
recommend their favorite operating system to everyone with worrying
about grumpy and unsatisfied users coming back to them for technical
support. One of the reasons Big Box Linux was founded was to allow Linux
to grow and prosper in the mainstream world.

Visit us at http://bigboxlinux.com.  Now shipping anywhere in Canada.

Contact: Paul Baranowski / paul@bigboxlinux.com / 416-619-0874

to post comments

Meh.

Posted Feb 7, 2008 6:56 UTC (Thu) by ncm (guest, #165) [Link] (1 responses)

Only Intel CPUs, only Nvidia display cards.  Hmm.

Meh.

Posted Feb 7, 2008 19:26 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (guest, #24648) [Link]

Just curious, are you turning your nose up at the limited selection, or the implied lack of GPL-supported drivers (I'm thinking of NVidia¹ here)?

The limited selection issue spills over to the supported distros - BigBoxLinux might better be described as the "Ubuntu Hardware Store".²

I noticed a glaring omission of any mention of GPL-friendly driver support in Mr. Baranowski's announcement above and on the Web site. But, I did see this odd disclaimer under the ATI card on the front page: "Note: This card does not work with Ubuntu Compiz effects."

(I don't know for sure on the GPL-friendliness of the Wi-fi cards on the site - if any of those cards on BigBoxLinux.com have in-kernel or GPL drivers currently, I'd certainly like to know!)

I must say I admire Mr. Baranowski's efforts to market Linux to the Average Joe computer users of the world (well, Canada, anyway). I wish him success with BigboxLinux in this respect.

¹ Disclaimer: I admit I use NVidia's proprietary graphics driver on my desktop (GeForce 6600 driving two monitors in Xinerama/TwinView). I've also used NDISWrapper in the past with a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card (I blame Broadcom for that).

² I don't mean to deprecate Ubuntu here; in fact, I do respect all the work the {K,X,Edu,U}buntu folks have done to evangelize the value of running Linux to the masses. But, I don't use Ubuntu - it doesn't like my system/hardware configuration - and I wonder how much support I'd get from a place like this if I walked in sporting my Slackware laptop? (Yes, I know, Slackware users are probably the third-best group of "do-it-yourself" hackers in the Linux community - I claim that 2nd and 1st place go to LFS and Gentoo hackers). :-)