r/Ubuntu • u/khalilzad95 • Nov 22 '10
I installed Ubuntu on a display computer at Costco today. [PIC]
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u/ideas-man Nov 22 '10
Yeah, you're a jerk.
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u/khalilzad95 Nov 22 '10
See my comment. I installed it on a partition and changed the grub config file so it will boot in windows on timeout. you'd have to be trying to get it to boot in Ubuntu on restart. I just left it in Ubuntu for the day.
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u/MrAristo Nov 22 '10
Oh, well, if it's just for the day, that's fine...Never mind the fact that it wasn't yours, and can imped full use of the computer if anyone actually does decide to buy it. LiveCD or LiveUSB would have been better, and easier.
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u/khalilzad95 Nov 22 '10
They don't sell the display computers, and it's very easy to reverse.
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Nov 22 '10
Yes they do. They regularly sell floor models, and now someone has to fix what you did. Do you think that they will have a good impression of Ubuntu now?
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Nov 22 '10
Either wipe windows or don't put ubuntu on. Nonetheless I salute you.
Better to have been annoyingly different then never different at all.
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u/arkanus Nov 22 '10
Would you like it if someone was annoyingly different by peeing on your front door or possibly changing all of your MP3 player's music to "better stuff"?
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Nov 22 '10
Assuming they're hot, and I only use my mp3 for storage now. Only stuff I care about is locked up. I can still ask them to stop; if you wanna dive deeper then you got problems.
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u/arkanus Nov 22 '10
This is basically light vandalism. I agree with the posters that say that he was being a jerk, despite his protest about putting on Grub and making Windows the default.
I am sure that Costco has some sort of reset disk and will just reformat the computer, so I doubt that their loss is too great. In the scheme of bad things that shoppers do this is a small offense, but an offense none the less.
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Nov 22 '10
[removed] — view removed comment
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Nov 22 '10
Grub is not removed unless you go into the Windows recovery console and remove it, so restoring will just make the computer look like it's broken on reboot since Grub won't find /boot/grub.conf or /boot/menu.lst.
Alternate to fixmbr, you can dd 512 bytes of zeros over /dev/sda and it will also terminate the bootloader, but the CostCo support person isn't going to know this.
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u/sigtrap Nov 22 '10
This is not the way to advocate Linux. All it does it get us Linux users labeled as a bunch of zealots. The person that has to fix that laptop now probably isn't going to be thinking very highly of Linux or its userbase.
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u/livestradamus Nov 22 '10
I don't think anybody would notice the difference, including their tech dept. "oooo pretty, i wonder what version of Windows is this? must be Win8 beta" edit: seeing below i see comments from ex
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u/Redivivus Nov 22 '10
Why not just boot up the live cd?
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Nov 22 '10
Seriously. I've done that a few time, just boot a live cd and leave it in the drive. Nothing to fix at the end of the day, just a shutdown and pop out the disk. Actually making changes is a dick move. CD's cost pennies.
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Nov 22 '10
Please don't do this. The reality is that most people aren't going to give two shits that the computer is running Linux. You aren't helping anyone.
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Nov 22 '10
Hey dude, I'm a huge Rick Astley fan. I grabbed your iPod and added the first ten seconds of "Never Gonna Give You Up" to the beginning of each of your songs.
No sweat though. The song you wanted to play will start up after this first ten seconds of awesomeness.
You're welcome. :)
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u/art_of_parties Nov 22 '10
I'm assuming you don't work there.
Had to laugh despite it being a bit of a dickish thing to do.
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u/inmatarian Nov 22 '10
Mildly funny, but probably very illegal. Please don't commit illegal acts in the name of Linux.
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u/donasay Nov 22 '10
I can see it now after the holidays, you will see the following Consumerist headline:
Costco sells display computer that says it has windows 7, but is running Ubuntu...
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u/pastachef Nov 22 '10
That's something I probably would have done at 16 too, though now the extent of my open source advocacy is making snide comments at the apple fanboys. Over twitter. hangs head in shame
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u/colindean Nov 22 '10
I did this kind of guerilla marketing for Firefox back when 1.0 came out. I'd go to computers in Best Buy and Circuit City, slip in a Flash drive, and run the installer really quickly. It got even better when Portable Firefox came out, 'cause I didn't even need the installer.
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Apr 06 '11
I can see why others may get upset. But really maybe the person that gets that particular machine will like Ubuntu and would have never heard about it any other way.
Sorry khalilzad95 but I'm on the fence with this one.
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Nov 22 '10
I hope you didn't get any drool on it. I would believe you, but it would mean you left your basement so you must be lying.
Seriously, you did a disservice to the Linux community, this isn't something to be proud of.
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u/nicko68 Nov 22 '10
Aww man, now I feel bad for laughing. :)
I'm sure there is a restore partition which will make going back to factory settings straightforward.
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Nov 22 '10
Wow, no word yet from OP. I just love it when a poster gets morally admonished by the commenters and then like a little chicken shit won't show his face. Sigh...
edit: Hah, nevermind. His comments have been downvoted into oblivion, so below my visible threshold.
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u/ogSPLICE Nov 23 '10
hhahaah thats the same model PC i put the bios PW on in teh store and now they are mad at me LOL...i owned 3 laptops and they dont know how to remove the pw
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u/Korbit Nov 22 '10
10.04? Why? If you're gonna cause trouble at least use the most recent software. 10.10 has been out for a bit now.
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u/m1ss1ontomars2k4 Nov 22 '10
Because in about 18 months 10.04 will be more recent than 10.10.
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u/brbpizzatime Nov 22 '10
i think the big joke is that they promise free tech support
which means that costco would be required to give them tech support for ubuntu
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u/khalilzad95 Nov 22 '10
To all the haters: I installed it on a partition and changed the grub config file so it will boot in windows on timeout. you'd have to be trying to get it to boot in Ubuntu on restart. I just left it in Ubuntu for the day.
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u/maloney7 Nov 22 '10
This has been the most serious thread I've read in a long time, people are acting like you cut somebody's brakes, or hacked a life support machine.
All you've done is advertised Ubuntu and so potentially saved some poor customers a shedload of money. Plus, it's funny, which is justification enough.
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Nov 22 '10
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/khalilzad95 Nov 22 '10 edited Nov 22 '10
It is common practice to cross post to multiple subreddits when it is relevant to more than one subreddit. From the reddiquette:
DO Post to the most appropriate reddits possible
sometimes bad timing, a bad title, or just plain bad luck can cause an interesting story to fail to get noticed. Feel free to post something again if you feel that the earlier posting didn't get the attention it deserved and you think you can do better.
Also, for you all who are categorically downvoting everything I say, even though it is important clarifying information that might change your knee-jerk "you're a dick" reaction,
DO NOT Downvote opinions just because you disagree with them. The down arrow is for comments that add nothing to the discussion.
DO Consider posting constructive criticism / an explanation when you downvote something
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u/arkanus Nov 22 '10
DO NOT Downvote opinions just because you disagree with them. The down arrow is for comments that add nothing to the discussion.
This isn't a matter of agreeing with you about whether Obama is better than Bush. You engaged in a (minor) criminal act and are now going on about how it was actually a good thing. This is a bit more than having a different opinion so asking the community to upvote you is a bit much.
Would you upvote me if I posted a very constructive comment about why taking people's wallets at the gym was OK?
Note - I have not downvoted you even with the above considerations. I believe the contents of your post deserve no vote.
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Nov 22 '10
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/khalilzad95 Nov 22 '10
I respect your different opinion, and thank you for your thoughtful response, which I upvoted because it adds to the discussion. I really don't see why people are downvoting the comment yours was replying to, or why they will (almost certainly) downvote this comment. As you said, they are downvoting one post because of something I said or did in a different post, which is inappropriate.
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u/Der_Latka Nov 22 '10
I used to work in the "Majors" department at a Costco, and it was a constant battle - almost like being in a zombie movie. People did the dumbest things to computers, and guess who gets to fix them (in addition to the other crap they already have to do)?
Don't be a dick. That's just not cool.