After collecting some 1,800 new product and service ideas from IT users and customers using an online “suggestion box”, Dell has announced that it’s taking the user suggestions seriously and will soon debut and sell a new line of certified, user-ready Linux-loaded desktop and laptop computers.
Just a week after debuting the IdeaStorm site, the company said that the Linux-loaded desktops and laptops will be the first user-generated suggestions that it will follow.
And while earlier Linux-based machines didn’t exactly set the company’s sales charts on fire, several IT analysts and Linux luminaries said conditions are better for Dell to try again.
Running Linux on Dell laptops could have another lure, Eric Raymond wrote. “I think one significant problem Dell and Microsoft are facing is just that Vista is too resource-hungry and bloated to run well on sub-$500 machines, which are the highest-volume market segment now. Dell may be arranging itself some manoeuvring room to preinstall an [operating system] that won’t make its low-end hardware look like crap.”
They’re starting off by pre-certifying for Novell; but, other distros will be offered as choices, too. Or so they say.
Thanks, Joshua
Glad to see Dell get back to some forward thinking. Is this due to Michael Dells’ return?
#2 – Pedro – “this is a lie! people prefer osx over linux.”
Which people? All people? Certainly some people prefer OS X to linux, at least on the desktop (but pretty much nowhere else). But, your message sounds like flame bait anyway, so I shouldn’t have responded.
OSX? Why do that? They lost their “most preferred OEM” title when Intel ditched them for Apple.
Suse is nice, but with a lot of eye candy can be a resource hog too…. I’m thinking Ubuntu may be a better way to go as an all-around distro for the masses.
Ubuntu is also supposed to start using proprietary drivers starting AFTER the next upcoming release. They’ve also teamed up with Linspire to start supporting what looks to be an easy way to install apps for Linux which is a good thing for Dell if they go this route.
Pedro…
When I ask someone what type of computer they have, they say Windows. When I ask what operating system they have, they say AOL.
“People” don’t know the difference between OSx and Linux.
“and Windows is better because Windows games” 🙂
“When I ask someone what type of computer they have, they say Windows. When I ask what operating system they have, they say AOL.”
Or they say Microsoft.
Funny, sad, true. All at the same time.
I think this is stupid. Better to sell completely OS free computers and allow the user to choose what to install on it. If I’d buy a laptop like that I’d reformat it anyways…
7. And then install what? AOL?
#8 – 🙂 hahahaha… true…
#7 – I agree that companies should offer the option of an OS free system, and simply provide a DVD loaded with device drivers and such. But only as an option. Most users need the OS preinstalled. It just so happens that I don’t, and it seems that you don’t either.
#4
If you’re seriously considering Ubuntu, why not do it properly and go back to the real source, viz Debian. Debian may be a bit conservative and picky but at least you know that you are safe!
#7 — actually, Dell offers a couple of desktop machines w/o OS and will be adding Latitude notebooks w/o OS, as well. That’s a different — and I think much smaller — story.
#10 Nobody uses the original Debian anymore. Ubuntu is the #1 distro, why not just use that. None of this digging up all the obscure distros to satisfy someone’s linux fetish. If you want Debian, then go ahead an install it, but don’t expect Dell or anyone else to. If Linux is ever to come out of the shadows then it needs to be easy and there is none easier then Ubuntu.
7) There are two reasons why you typically are hard pressed to find an OS-free computer. One is because Microsoft helps subsidize the cost of the computers to begin with. Second, third party apps pay the OEM to preinstall their apps thus also subsidizing the cost of the computer.
If you want OS free, be prepared to pay more.
#2
MS or Apple… same dope, different dealer.
Dell should start sending Jobs some vegan prostitutes and try to convince him to license his OS; after all, unlike the mac clone fiasco, Dell has quite a sales volume and since the MacIntel machines are virtually the same…
Wait, scrap that; people will then realize they’ve been paying several times more for the apple computers EQUIPPED WITH THE SAME HARDWARE.
Please correct me if I’m wrong … I read the release on the IdeaStorm site, and I didn’t see anything about Dell actually preinstalling Linux on their systems (well, at least not the servers) – just certifying it. Is there a discrepancy there?
Angel- actually I think its a great idea. I though I heard Michael Dell say he would be willing to do it, I would buy Apple stock at that point because I believe it would soar. I have no problem making money off the mindless.
I have followed Dell/Linux development in last 7+ years both for personal and professional interest (Dell is major resource for the University where I work and we mainly use Linux for workstations). I hope that the present suituation continues to improve, but “as is” it is not very helpful. Two major reasons: 1) Dell tends to offer only the weakest configurations with limited options in a “OS Free” (or Linux compatible) form. Can you get “top of the line” workstations with all bells-and-whistles in such form ? No (I hope “not yet” and offering have improved over years, but it is still weak).
2) Price gauging. Configure the same machine with Win OS and you’ll realize that the price difference is negligible (at least improvement over the recent past). Part of the reason is that Dell tends to offer these machines under their “small bussiness” section where products are typically sold with less discounts than ex. “Home” or “Government” sections. Remaining part (i suspect) is cow-tow to the mighty MS. As absence of OS means that not only Dell saves OS cost but as well install and support, any price difference less than 100$ in advantage to “no OS” configured machine is unfair.
My advice (that I followed in practice ever since cheap Win 98 dissapeared from the OS options at Dell) is to switch to the local small bussiness as the “no OS” PC source. That way we got high-spec machines without money waste on MS OS we woun’t use at the Dell-competitive prices. Local small bussiness also turned out to be quite reliable in hardware support (at least matched with Dell, if not better).
#16
I know, BUT it would also send Apple to the same road IBM took with its overpriced PCs that no one bought because they could buy better machines for the same price.
PLUS it would also mean that MacOS will have to deal with the same problems Windoze has and is the infinite number of hardware combinations you can do.
What ever happened to the Google OS?
Well, actually (nods to Buzz Out Loud) the Linux and OS free Dell boxes cost the same (or more!!) because their agreement with MS states that Dell must pay MS for EVERY PC they sell, regardless of OS installation. In most cases, it’s actually cheaper to buy the default MS installed version and format the hard drive as soon as it arrives. Then you can install the OS of your choice (AOL???).
>> Glad to see Dell get back to some forward thinking.
If you call a 20-year old OS “forward thinking.” Still, better late than never.
Computer manufacturers have been complaining about Microsoft’s monopoly since DOS days, yet they never do anything about it.
If they would spend even just $10 per unit on software development, they would have freed themselves from MS years ago.
The lack of buzz about Vista indicates to me that there is an opportunity — right now — to have a paradigm shift in OSs and computers.
My vote is to GO BACKWARDS in features but WAY AHEAD in security, stability and ease-of-use.
This means, I suspect, something like the ‘Net computer that was touted five and even ten years ago. Put a small, well-written, robust OS on the local drive and most of the applications are on the Internet.
This OS wouldn’t be for us techie geeks here, it’s for our kids and grandparents.
Has anyone tried Knoppix as opposed to Ubuntu?
Sad but true that you can get a better machine from Dell(or others) for less if you get one with the current MS Home version installed, because of all the adware subsidies. There is a percieved penalty for getting a ‘nix box (regardless of flavor) because of this.
In the past this has had a definite effect on the spread of ‘nix to home and business desktops, because people look for the low up front cost and never allow for what it’s going to cost get rid of all those QuickBooks pop ups. Or the time it takes to root out the various preinstalled malware AV programs.
Folks comfortable doing a reformat and new install, which every Dell box requires first thing (in my opinion) see this as a small discomfort. But miss factoring it into the base cost of the machine. However, time is money.
Small Business and Home users who are tempted to switch to ‘nix , but have only basic user skills, see the cost difference as an unacceptable penalty. For them “wipe and install” isn’t seen as an option. Too scary. It’s a key part of what keeps linux from becoming more accepted. It’s hard to buy it running off the shelf from a mainstream ‘puter dealer.
That said, it’s also the reason Ubuntu and it’s variants are becoming the most popular flavor. Stick the free disk in and it walks you though a complete format, and bare drive setup; not just of the OS, but all the main drivers and basic apps. Slick, simple, and not well known by the general user.
Why is it that Mac fanatics have all the bile and monomania of gay activists?
Nobody wants Macs! They have, what, about five percent of the entire market? Sure, the Hollywood and pony tail set loves them, as do folk singers who can’t actually understand how to operate a “difficult” PC, but, face it, Macs are like Hybrid cars; overpriced badges of “Political Correctness” for the trendies out there.
So, take your Prozac, read a few books about self-esteem, and compose your free verse poetry on your Macs, but don’t suffer from the delusion that anyone with any sense wants them.
MS or Apple… same dope, different dealer.