[xpod]

"tough luck" isn't an attitude that helps. What'll happen is that a lot of people will return their PCs.

Actualy, I am not saying Linux is a mistake. As long as you can learn new stuff, it is an excellent OS. However, most people (in my experience) are not interested enough in computing to bother to learn new OSs. Most people in my experience, are not even aware that their PC does run an OS.

Your right and i take the "tough luck" bit back.
I`d be the first to argue against them selling pre-installed Linux pc`s without at least having someone on hand at every potential purchase to explain a few realities to Mr & Mrs Soap.

It may not be to you, but it may be to someone else.

Me/Us....or hundreds of thousands of other users either.
I think there are probably quite a few more NON-pc gamers out there than there are those who do, dont you?

You haven't read my post correctly. The scenario I envisaged is that the parents have about £200 they can spend on their kid's birthday present. The aforementioned kid wants a games console. The parents see the PC, and think "Ohh, he can play games on that and do more", so they buy the PC.

I think you`ll find i`ve read it just fine...
I`m not actually disputing what you say in fact.Of course there will be those cases but,all i`m saying is...What about the thousands of other senarios,that dont involve pc games?

While I am aware that Linux *can* play games, very few shops (on or off line) sell Linux specific games, and while it can play Windows games with some tweaking, little johnny is going to be a little disappointed when he finds he cannot buy games off the shelf.

Also, bear in mind that a family in this position are unlikely to have (at least initially) the knowledge required to tweak linux (I count emulators such as wine as tweaks).

I just dont think pc games are the be all & end all of pc use.While ending up with a Linux pc might be problematic for those who bought one intending to play pc games again i thinik thats the retailers responsibility to at least assure these people are properly informed before they leave the shop.

Also, regarding the hardware, I picked Digicams as an example of something people are likely to have, but my point refers to any bit of hardware they might have (such as a mobile phone for instance).

Mabey we`re just lucky
With quite a large family we seem to go through more phones and mp3 players etc than i care to even think about and the only thing i`ve ever plugged into Ubuntu that has not shown up right away has been the eyetoy`s they have and some other dodgy webcam a while back.
Again,i know what your saying and i`m not completely disputing it but the truth, for us anyway is that i`ve struggled(so far) to find hardware of any sort that did`nt just work in Ubuntu, out the box so to speak.

Ipods/MP3 players,usb drives,Cameras,Phones galore....they`ve all shown up as extra drives and while that might not have the same shiney functionality you get with the fancy suites that come with your >insert device< it`s more than enough to do what needs done in most cases.