Dell customers want Linux

Message

Lavene · #1 Post by **Lavene** » 2007-02-20 06:41

Dell asks customers for ideas...
The most popular ideas? Preinstalled Linux and preinstalled OpenOffice.

Who said: "There is no demand for preinstalled Linux"?

Tina

Dargor · #2 Post by **Dargor** » 2007-02-20 06:45

woot, ten points if they(dell)(and the rest of the world listen).

ghostdawg · #3 Post by **ghostdawg** » 2007-02-20 06:59

"Dude, you're getting a Dell"

njkt · #4 Post by **njkt** » 2007-02-20 07:51

currently at: 29079 for pre-installed linux... yay?

synux · #5 Post by **synux** » 2007-02-20 09:25

Lavene wrote:Dell asks customers for ideas...
The most popular ideas? Preinstalled Linux and preinstalled OpenOffice.

Who said: "There is no demand for preinstalled Linux"?

Tina

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Optional · #6 Post by **Optional** » 2007-02-20 10:01

How ironic. My Core 2 Duo Dell laptop arrives today.

It will have its Vista partition resized and be dual-booted with Debian.

Grifter · #7 Post by **Grifter** » 2007-02-20 15:11

I don't think dell will offer any linux stuff seriously, they've tried before and got punished by ms, so they've learned their lesson well

hcgtv · #8 Post by **hcgtv** » 2007-02-20 17:20

Dell has always hinted to pre-installing Linux, there's the page, now it's gone type of thing.

I believe this is a reaction to the obvious slow adoption of Vista, nobody upgrading, no need for new equipment.

So let's start offering Linux, once again, but this time let's get it Digged, wonderful idea!

synux · #9 Post by **synux** » 2007-02-20 19:01

My local PC store used to offer SUSE Linux pre-installed for FREE on any custom built PC ordered through their website.., but now they have dropped it from the list of the available Operating Systems.. I don't know why they took it out from the list?

Stretch · #10 Post by **Stretch** » 2007-03-05 07:44

Hey I guess that's something Dell and I have in common. We've both been flirting with Linux over the years.

Several years ago I found a small, out of the way corner of Dell's website that offered to sell a Dimension Desktop running Red Hat. I thought this was very cool at the time. Now, I think they still offer something comparable - the N series - with no OS installed and a copy of Freedos shipped with it. In fact, I suppose you could purchase a very nice, basic dell desktop and install Debian on it after you've wiped the Windows OS.

This article is a year old, but it reveals a little more on Michael Dell's view of Linux.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3822185143.html

oswaldkelso · #11 Post by **oswaldkelso** » 2007-03-11 14:02

Stretch wrote: I think they still offer something comparable - the N series - with no OS installed and a copy of Freedos shipped with it. In fact, I suppose you could purchase a very nice, basic dell desktop and install Debian on it after you've wiped the Windows OS.

yes heres the link

http://www.dell.com/content/products/fe ... l=en&s=bsd

Pobega · #12 Post by **Pobega** » 2007-03-11 14:08

oswaldkelso wrote:
Stretch wrote: I think they still offer something comparable - the N series - with no OS installed and a copy of Freedos shipped with it. In fact, I suppose you could purchase a very nice, basic dell desktop and install Debian on it after you've wiped the Windows OS.

yes heres the link

http://www.dell.com/content/products/fe ... l=en&s=bsd

Sorry if I'm wrong, but I remember reading about that on the Ubuntu forums some time ago and it turned out that the N Series without an OS costed more than a comparable PC with Windows. So in reality it'd be cheaper to just wipe Windows from your computer.

oswaldkelso · #13 Post by **oswaldkelso** » 2007-03-11 14:20

Pobega wrote:
oswaldkelso wrote:
Stretch wrote: I think they still offer something comparable - the N series - with no OS installed and a copy of Freedos shipped with it. In fact, I suppose you could purchase a very nice, basic dell desktop and install Debian on it after you've wiped the Windows OS.

yes heres the link

http://www.dell.com/content/products/fe ... l=en&s=bsd
Sorry if I'm wrong, but I remember reading about that on the Ubuntu forums some time ago and it turned out that the N Series without an OS costed more than a comparable PC with Windows. So in reality it'd be cheaper to just wipe Windows from your computer.

Thats why you should join my thread

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=12962

garrincha · #14 Post by **garrincha** » 2007-05-02 01:35

This is the 2nd top headline in the BBC News online technology section:

Dell to use Ubuntu on Linux PCs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6610901.stm

As I suspected and no surprise to me.

DeanLinkous · #15 Post by **DeanLinkous** » 2007-05-02 01:43

Yea, it is offical - since late yesterday actually.

Should be interesting!

e1even1 · #16 Post by **e1even1** » 2007-05-03 01:25

am i the only one who thinks this is a bad thing?

maybe i'm wrong but anyone who needs linux pre-installed to use it definitely isn't linux material and shouldn't be using it.

linux isn't unbreakable. you guys see that up here regularly. and the quickest way to break anything is to give it to an unsophisticated user. so these users are, for example, going to hear about some new whizbang package manager and install it and totally bork their systems and then not have the ability to fix it or rescue it or even re-install it. and THEN, god help them, they'll call dell and not even be able to reach a 98.6 and if they can, then that agent will transfer them to a dial tone.

so they'll give up on dell support and open the yellow pages and try to find a tech and they'll see pages and pages of windows techs.

then they'll go up to the forum (buntu in this case

) and rant insanely.

actually, it could be pretty entertaining.

jml · #17 Post by **jml** » 2007-05-03 01:50

Actually, eleven1, it may turn out OK. When I read the news release it says that Dell will be referring their customers to Cannonical for Ubuntu support, (for a fee I presume) I hope that the purchase price will include a reasonable amount of this support, say one year. If they handle it right, the new user's experience may not be that bad.Unlike experienced Linux users, I would bet that most new users are less likely to break their system. I would assume that their computer demands would be a bit less sophisticated, and by limiting there software downloads to "official" repos, the chance for breakage is less. Personally, if it were not for the commercial customer support option, which I think many former Windows/Mac users would want, I think the best distro to install would be Debian Stable. Once installed, very few updates or changes to break a system. Its not unheard of for an official Ubuntu update to cause breakage. That's why customer support will be so crucial.

Joe

DeanLinkous · #18 Post by **DeanLinkous** » 2007-05-03 01:59

A few thousand ubuntu geeks will buy these systems, a few thousand linux geeks will buy these to use with other distros, and then hopefully everyone will see that linux is a geek market and nothing else.

Dargor · #19 Post by **Dargor** » 2007-05-03 03:58

Commercial driver support is the most important thing.

Thats all i care about on the issue. I would think it to be the main motivation for this campaign.

e1even1 · #20 Post by **e1even1** » 2007-05-03 04:11

Dargor wrote:Commercial driver support is the most important thing.

i hadn't thought about that. if we end up with better driver support because of it, then that's a good thing.

Debian User Forums

Dell customers want Linux

Dell customers want Linux

Re: Dell customers want Linux