Dell gives the go-ahead for Linux

galactus

According to the BBC

My bet is on Ubuntu

aidan_walsh

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/dell-to-offer-ubuntu



Interesting that they're offering 7.04 as the main installation, rather than the 6.06 LTS.

workaccount

aidan_walsh wrote:

Interesting that they're offering 7.04 as the main installation, rather than the 6.06 LTS.

Is it because of the longer support with 6.06 that you say its interesting?

workaccount

From BBC article:
"Dell has heard you," said a statement on the firm's website.


They would want to start listening to people regarding tech support aswell.
Why isn't that more popular in ideastorm?

wes

Wow, big surprise, go Dell. Might get me one then .

niallb

aidan_walsh wrote:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/dell-to-offer-ubuntu



Interesting that they're offering 7.04 as the main installation, rather than the 6.06 LTS.

Ubuntu's support for 6.06 LTS on desktop has left a lot to be desired.
Primary application for a lot of users is a web browser.
Firefox in 6.06 is still a 1.5 version - even mozilla.org dropped support for it recently.

There are claims that there is too much work involved to release a firefox 2.0 version as it would require a lot of - genuinely awkward - library updates.
Still though, isn't that what 'support' is supposed to mean?
Dell would have had immediate problems trying to do front line support
for Ubuntu 6.06, when every user as one of the first things they'd do would be to attempt to upgrade their browser.

thebman

Canonical will still be the ones providing support for Ubuntu on Dell. Dell will direct them to Canonical.

bogman

Dell gives the go-ahead for Linux
From what I have read it will be in the USA and not here in EU
Please correct me if I am wrong

NutJob

wes wrote:

Wow, big surprise, go Dell. Might get me one then .

Mmmm cheap linux boxesss:)

galactus

bogman wrote:

Dell gives the go-ahead for Linux
From what I have read it will be in the USA and not here in EU
Please correct me if I am wrong

Can't be long before we can get it here too. Its the future (like garlic bread).

Oracle

Great news. Also announced on the Direct2Dell blog: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx includes an interview with Canonical's founder Mark Shuttleworth, creator of Ubuntu. (The interview presentation uses Flash, also in Ogg format.) New article on BBC website too: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6610901.stm

Tom Dunne

Could this be a turning point for Linux? The start of mass adoption perhaps?

I must admit, Ubuntu has passed The Wife Test(tm) in the Dunne household. When I changed my laptop over to Ubuntu, Mrs. Dunne didn't have any complaints, she is even using instant messaging. As more non-technical users begin to see that there is nothing to be afraid of when using Linux, and as the likes of Dell start offering it, I would like to think this could be the start of something.

Rambo

tom dunne wrote:

I must admit, Ubuntu has passed The Wife Test

Has she tried installing drivers and setup wireless network

scojones

Rambo wrote:

Has she tried installing drivers and setup wireless network

Yeah, because I bet she can do this on windows as well. This has no relevance to Linux on a Dell. Every piece of hardware will be working 100% when released. What was your point again?

Tom Dunne

Rambo wrote:

Has she tried installing drivers and setup wireless network

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get Ubuntu to talk to my wireless router. Nothing to it really, anybody who can do it on Windows can do it with Ubuntu. In fact, I was having trouble with XP and my wireless connection, which I don't see with Ubuntu.

As for drivers, I haven't added any hardware, but wouldn't that be the case for the average Joe who buys a laptop with Linux pre-installed?

Blowfish

tom dunne wrote:

Could this be a turning point for Linux? The start of mass adoption perhaps?

I must admit, Ubuntu has passed The Wife Test(tm) in the Dunne household. When I changed my laptop over to Ubuntu, Mrs. Dunne didn't have any complaints, she is even using instant messaging. As more non-technical users begin to see that there is nothing to be afraid of when using Linux, and as the likes of Dell start offering it, I would like to think this could be the start of something.

Unbelievably it passed the ultimate challenge for me which was the Mother Test.

Since Dell will be supplying support you may actually see more businesses actually choosing Linux which would be great.

Thats actually impressive with their survey - 70,000 out of 100,000 saying they would use Linux.

The only thing I would wonder about is if the average punter will think Linux is "worse" because its cheaper than Windows.

scojones

It's official now. http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/unbuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&

workaccount

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9644921792.html

Seems like Toshiba may be considering also now. It would be cool if a few companys followed suit.

AndrewMc

niallb wrote:

Ubuntu's support for 6.06 LTS on desktop has left a lot to be desired.
Primary application for a lot of users is a web browser.
Firefox in 6.06 is still a 1.5 version - even mozilla.org dropped support for it recently.

There are claims that there is too much work involved to release a firefox 2.0 version as it would require a lot of - genuinely awkward - library updates.
Still though, isn't that what 'support' is supposed to mean?
Dell would have had immediate problems trying to do front line support
for Ubuntu 6.06, when every user as one of the first things they'd do would be to attempt to upgrade their browser.

This is the way that support of a release on Debian (and now Ubuntu) has always been done. The idea is that when you make a release, it never, ever changes except for security and critical functionality fixes. In commercial setups upgrading the OS is done rarely, and often only following extensive testing that all applications operate to their satisfaction. Commercial users may also want to retest each individual update before rolling it out across their users - again something to be kept to a minimum, This is much less of an issue for residential users.

Although a version of software (such as Firefox 1.5) may no longer be supported upstream, support is maintained by the distribution itself. They will analyse each critical fix, "backport" the fix to the older software, recompile and distribute that. That way you know you're now secure, but otherwise everything works today just like it did yesterday.

scojones

scojones wrote:

It's official now. http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/unbuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&

The link is now pulled. Hmm.

workaccount

scojones wrote:

The link is now pulled. Hmm.

That link was spelled wrong. unbuntu. Change to Ubuntu....

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&

aidan_walsh

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2126692,00.asp

Microsoft Corp. said on May 7 Dell Inc. had joined a business collaboration it had with Novell Inc. to allow open-source Linux software to work with Windows.

The move makes Dell the first major systems provider to join the Microsoft-Novell collaboration, which consists of a broad set of business and technological agreements to make their products work together better to serve corporate customers using both Linux and Windows computer servers.

Under the latest agreement, Dell will purchase Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates, Microsoft said. Suse Linux is Novell's operating system.

Dell will also establish a services and marketing program to migrate existing Linux users who are not Dell Linux customers to Suse Linux, Microsoft said.

I think we just found the sugar to go with the Ubuntu pill.

Thrill

Blowfish wrote:

The only thing I would wonder about is if the average punter will think Linux is "worse" because its cheaper than Windows.

I thought it was free?

Blowfish

thrill wrote:

I thought it was free?

It is, and thats my point. I can imagine lots of people thinking "its free so it can't really be that good".

I'm hoping that they will also allow a dual boot option of both so that people can try it out. Then its possible that when they are buying their next PC they will realise after trying it that Linux will do everything they want and is free too and so will go for it solely.

aidan_walsh

Blowfish wrote:

I'm hoping that they willaslo allow a dual boot option of both so that people can try it out.

I doubt a preinstalled dual boot would work. The more logical way of doing it would be to allow people who buy a Windows system to have the option of including the supported LiveCD.

harney

As far as I know they are only offering this in the US. If that is the case I hope that they at least allow non-US people to download an ISO for their specific system.

This would cause less of an issue with people that want to try Linux and would like the least amount of issues possible when installing a system.

I guess they will have no particular issue with including the latest nvidia drivers too?

mickoneill30

Good move on Dells part. I used to work in a company that were licensed for a certain amount of Windows PCs (most big companies do it like this). So when we bought new PCs we used to have to re-image them anyway and decom the old PCs. This will save the coporates a bucket. They can buy the cheaper linux machine and put the standard Windows SOE on when it comes on site. They're still licensed under their site agreements but it'll save X amount of Euro per PC.

BopNiblets

Lets see them cram it up with useless software now!

The least the could do is find a decent printer driver to work with the Dell (cough*Lexmark*cough) J740!
I've been trying all sorts of drivers for it and I've only gotten as far as the page moving through the printer with nothing on it!
Yeah I checked the HOWTO on the Ubuntu forums, no use.

AndrewMc

For future reference, there's a very comprehensive list of printing support here: http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting

BopNiblets

I had a look through that site but I think the main problem is I don't know what model the printer is, I know it's a Dell branded Lexmark, but other than that no amount of Google detective work will give me the model number...
So I don't know which driver to try.

generalmiaow

wow, mark shuttleworth is very...I'm not sure exactly what, intensely calm? I wonder what they did to him in space?

to be honest this won't affect me as I'm already running ubuntu on my dell laptop anyway, and it'll be a long time before you see it on my girlfriend's laptop ... although I was shocked beyond belief the other day when I visited my relatively non-technical friends' apartment and they were all now running ubuntu... from their own initiative

Tom Dunne

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/zdnet/20070524/ttc-dell-launches-linux-pcs-for-us-only-20a87fa.html

Looks like it will be a while before we see it this side of the pond.

By ZDnet ZDnet - Thursday, May 24 03:42 pm
Dell has finally launched three systems with the Ubuntu Linux distribution installed, but only in the US. Users around the rest of the world will have to wait at least a little while longer.
On Thursday, Dell announced three low-cost Linux systems: a basic model, Inspiron E1505n, with few frills, for $539 (£271); a more powerful Dimension E520n, for $599 (£301); and a top-of-the-range XPS 410n for $849 (£427). The base system has no internet connection other than wireless, 512KB of memory, an 80GB drive and a 15.4-inch display.

The other two systems both have 250GB drives, 1GB of memory and 10/100 Ethernet connections. The chief difference is that the cheaper system has a 17-inch display, and the larger has a 19-inch display.
Dell made it clear that, for now at least, the new systems will only be available in the US, and Dell would not give any comment on why this is the case other than in an official statement. "Dell is still working out details of its global programme and will share details when it has definitive plans," the statement read.
New products from Dell are usually launched worldwide, although there is often some delay in different markets to sort out local product details. When asked to explain why there should be a delay in the UK and in Europe when the products have been widely expected for some weeks, a spokeswoman for Dell said that the company "has no further comment to make apart from the statement".
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Dell intended to launch systems with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. Later, the company said that the reason for the delay in launching Linux systems in the UK was that it wanted to always make sure that its systems could offer the right level of Dell support.
"The challenge behind Linux is about support," Dell's EMEA director of client marketing, Eric Greffier, said at that time. "In the US, they are going to do it on one product, in one language. We have to have the right troubleshooting scripts translated into [many more] languages."

Oracle

Ubuntu Dell's actually on sale now (US): http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

thebman

Because I can't understand US English apparently.

They should release it in all English speaking countries.

Oracle

I agree, a bold, imaginative move would have been to launch Ubuntu worldwide, as an option on all Dell models.

zod

backstage with dell and ubuntu video

Oracle

Interesting video thanks for posting. Maybe I'm expecting too much but for a new initiative from Dell, it's disappointing they've only a handful of people working on it. I don't understand why they made the schedule so tight? A better strategy would've been to work for 6-12 months in the background, developing, researching codecs, and testing, and then give the customer a fantastic experience (Christmas 2007?) with Ubuntu on Dell.