Office Depot Infiltrated by Ubuntu Linux

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Have you ever cruised by Office Depot to checkout the new PCs only to findout that the Vista login screen is password protected?

Suffer no more my friend! Follow the steps below and it'll fix you right up...

First, Arm yourself with any Linux LiveCD (checkout http://livecdlist.com), then head over to your favorite computer store, put the cd in any computer that has a cdrom, and reboot the machine to Linux!

The pic above was taken at my local Office Depot around midday.

The cherry machine in the picture has a great monitor, which I was very impressed to see boot right up beautifully.

So I was hanging around playing chess/mahjong/solitaire/etc and then when I was finished, I simply left the Ubuntu Linux up on the screen for the next shopper to enjoy. The Office Depot guy walked by a few times but I guess he didn't quite realize what was really going on.

I am a good samaritan, and kind administrator, and I wouldn't want to leave the next poor soul to experience Vista with a locked screen! Actually I wouldn't want the next poor soul to endure Vista at all for that matter.

So there's my good deed for the day. That was pretty easy.

Of course I didn't click on "install" or delete any files from the native NTFS "hp_factory" partition, doing that would just be uncool (even though Ubuntu would install alongside Windows anyway).

However, I would like to see the salesperson's face though, when he realizes his aisle cap machine with the biggest screen has been visited by the Ubuntu God!

Go Linux! Go Freedom! Go GNU!
(pic credit: Treo 650 - taken by Shannon V.)

Comments

  1. kozmcrae7/8/08, 10:43 PM

    What a great idea. It seems so obvious but I have never heard of it before (or the brain cells that contained that information are no longer functioning). The only thing I would add would be to delete the Install icon. Office Depot doesn't need some kid checking out the cool laptop and installing Ubuntu on it. Well actually they do, they just don't know it yet. From now on, whenever I visit Staples or Office Depot I will be fighting the urge to "scope out" the place for a possible LiveCD hit and run.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7/9/08, 10:58 AM

    I'd be careful doing that. You could get in trouble for vandalism. I'm not saying that is what you are doing, but next time you should just leave the browser open on The Truth about Linux page and let the customer decide from themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Craig Jackson7/9/08, 12:24 PM

    It's not vandalism. He DIDN'T click install. I think it's absolutely a sweet idea, and I want to try it, this time all planned out with good footage of the reactions. What's the worst that could happen? Asked to leave? Heh

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7/10/08, 10:25 AM

    http://www.manucornet.net/pcjacking/

    And don't worry about the troll promoting his website, they're everywhere these days. Pose as innocent people too.

    They're turning a nice joke into an uncool thing :/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shannon VanWagner7/10/08, 12:14 PM

    Someone should do this with the linuX-gamers live DVD:


    http://digg.com/linux_unix/One_live_DVD_one_ton_of_Linux_games

    http://live.linux-gamers.net/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1/11/09, 12:24 AM

    Yeah, the O/S is great, but why are you pushing that crappy Dell junk? Their PC's are the Windows of the hardware world.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shannon VanWagner1/11/09, 1:05 AM

    Interesting, What is it about Dell that you think I should be so disappointed with anyway?

    Yeah, I've heard a few gripes about Dell from a few people over the years, but none of these people have ever been issued a computer by me.

    As a matter of fact, I've personally worked and repaired Dell servers and workstations for years now, and I think Dell's products are as good as any. If you want my opinion on what computers suck, I would say that I've had performance issues with some Vaio models...but that's story for another place.

    Look, Here's the BIG(and I mean HUGE) difference with Dell: Dell is a company that has enough intestinal fortitude(aka: BALLS) to STAND UP to the monopoly of Wi*** by DIRECTLY selling computers that have the Ubuntu GNU/Linux installed.

    Get your Dell Ubuntu computer here:
    http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

    Oh and by the way... If you're grappling with some type of issue concerning a Dell computer, I would be glad to do whatever I can to help make the problem more visible and hopefully help you get it fixed. That's me, I'm all about solutions!!

    Cheers!
    Shannon VanWagner

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown5/4/09, 6:56 PM

    Freakin...WOOT!
    Linux forever!
    I support the open source movement 100%!
    We have a right as humans to obtain knowledge and information freely, so long as it does not impose upon another persons privacy.
    Government ≠ Private

    ReplyDelete

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