Apple is rapidly winning market share

[clockworkpc]

The Apple-Microsoft duopoly still reigns supreme in the PC marketplace. Linux has begun to receive recognition, but mostly as a mysterious alternative. Ubuntu is designed to fix this and is gaining ground.

However, there is no store to rival the Apple store. It is like a Starbucks in a city with no real cafes.

This is a bug, which Clockwork PC has taken upon itself to fix.

This gives the warped impression that besides the walled garden of Apple, there is no alternative to Microsoft Windows. This restricts the pool of users available to the free software world, and robs it of potential talent.

Steps to repeat:

1. Visit an Apple store
2. Observe that all the items in the store are overpriced and lack most of the applications that are freely available to Ubuntu users.
3. Observe that for almost every free package available to Ubuntu users, there is a proprietary, and usually expensive version for sale.
4. Note the emotions that the design of the Apple store and the conduct of its employees exploit in order to drive sales.

What should happen:

1. A store that offers a true alternative to the customer experience of the Apple store should be opened.
2. This store should market Ubuntu in a way that highlights its usability and stability, amazing features and benefits, and offers a complete alternative to the Macbook-iPod-iPhone vendor lock-in of Apple.
3. Free software enthusiasts should make this their meeting place and volunteer assistance to interested novices
4. This meeting of minds will generate new ideas on how to extol the virtues of free software to the general public.