“White-box VARs, looking for a lift after a tough spell, may
find some light at the end of the tunnel with the impending launch
of Windows 2000 and lower-cost Linux flavors hitting the
streets.”
“White-box resellers also are considering an alternative in
Linux, but the OS has failed to move into the mainstream. While
resellers tout the cost advantages of a cheap, multiuser OS that is
open-sourced, Linux has some of the same downsides as Windows
2000–complexity and a lack of application support, said
VARs.”
” ‘There will be a cost advantage to Linux, and there’s a
possibility of anti-Microsoft feeling in small businesses because
of the costs,’ said Scott Jaffe, president of Business Computer
Technology, an Akron, Ohio-based subsidiary of Sedata Systems Inc.
‘[The cost of] Linux is effectively zero, so it would enable us to
sell a box for $300 and some change.’ “