Linux.com

And there is the rub. Apple's ads cost millions and millions of dollars. When you're running the ads to sell products and content that make you billions, it all makes sense. Running that kind / quantity of advertising for something that is basically free or carries a pretty small price and even smaller profit for some documentation and / or support is a sure way to go bankrupt. As zonker said, the point of openSUSE is to get Linux to as many people as possible. He also said the point is not to make a lot of money. What he didn't say is that the point is also not to lose money.

I don't see a money making way to distribute desktop Linux other than pre-installed on hardware. The netbook craze may be the vehicle that breaks out Linux. Instead of charging almost nothing to the hardware guys to bundle Linux, Novell or Ubuntu ought to be giving it away in exchange for not having to bear the cost of sales and marketing. And they should negotiate prominent advertising air cover in the overall advertising for the PCs, Laptops, Netbooks, etc.

Novell has plenty more to sell to corporations that adopt desktop Linux in the form of management software, collaboration and more. Neither Novell or Ubuntu has much of an upsell with consumers though.

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