Sitting on the train, it is hard not to be inundated by desperate Yodobashi camera signs that tell you about the benefits of buying from a brick-and-mortar store.  #3 on the list is a knowledgable staff. And they also had something about a wide variety of computers.  You’d think that meant that in nerd-capital Akihabara, we could get a Linux laptop without much effort.

First, “wide-variety” is more-or-less Pravda-worthy Newspeak. Every store has the exact same models from the exact same manufacturers.  The specs are all the same.  The monitors are the same resolutions, the chips are 95% the same.  With the exception of the Alienware laptops, there is no difference.  Ok, that’s understandable; same underlying components after all.  Let’s run with it.

However, the staff is _never_ knowledgable about _anything_ related to computer software. At the Dell store, I was informed by the salesmen that “Dell does not sell anything but Windows branded PCs”.  (Android mobile phones?  Linux server boxes?  Project Sputnik for laptop-based developers?)  At Yodobashi, I was told “Oh, we never had Linux computers”, as they ushered me by Android (read: Linux)-branded touchpads.

If this is the world’s second or third largest economy in a world that is going to be dominated by information technology, given that most servers are running Linux, why is it so hard to stock a _single_ Linux laptop model in a store that is otherwise filled with generic boxes from the same companies?  Even if preinstalled linux is a pipe dream, why can’t there be at least one person on staff who is knowledgable enough about PCs that *he could let me know which laptops have generally decent Linux support?

I can build my own desktop.  However, it’s a different story with laptops and I am willing to pay extra as it is a business tool, not a god damn toy.  Instead, Yodobashi Camera is playing commodity hardware chicken with Softmap and Yamada Denki.

*  There are no females in Akihabara PC stores. That is not very PC.  Har har har.