I owe dell an apology. It was some months ago that i last tried to find linux links. I see that now they have an easy link for “open-source pcs” and they even have a decent video on why one might (or might not) choose linux.

We will have to see if they follow through with tweaking their installed linux to just work for the average customer. More importantly, i’m watching for when they offer linux on their full line of computers and not just a couple of models.

I haven’t really tried searching for it lately, but few months ago when they started doing it, I remember seeing an animated showcase diplay on the front page saying something like “By Popular Demand: Ubundu Dell” or something like that. So there was a time when they were hyping it up, and showcasing it.

Then again – I guess you might be right. They got the price break from MS and now they buried the Ubuntu offer deep in the forest of links on their page. :(

I suspect that dell is dabbling with linux just to weasel a better deal on windows out of microsoft. The only hope i see for them really investing in their ubuntu line is if ms is unreasonable in their negotiations. Have you noticed that it is almost impossible to find a linux offering by navigating, or searching, the dell website. I have only been able to find their linux offerings from links on linux community blogs.

Someone actually did a comparison and a price of the Ubuntu system was only around $100 smaller than the same model with XP on it. It might be a bit more if you compare it to some versions of Viata, but it is still somewhere in that ballpark.

Dell seems to be pricing the Ubuntu models just slightly below the windows ones. Personally I suspect that their deal with Microsoft says that they can’t sell linux models at prices that are very competitive – but that’s just my guess.

Either way, I don’t really see people buying Ubuntu systems to save money. I think they are buying it because they genuinely want to use Linux. Even when cheaper, Linux is alien and scary and most people will go for familiar windows boxes anyway. So I don’t think the price difference is so crucial.

In fact, I bet Ubuntu customers wouldn’t mind paying $100 more to get the system configured with all the good stuff, so they don’t have to waste time with stuff like Automatix which can totally hose the system twice over. All things considered, $100 is not that much money, when you are buying $1500-2000 piece of equipment.

Oh, and bundling is perhaps a bad example here. That’s a whole other can of worms so let’s just save that for another discussion. Let me re-iterate my point.

Dell ships windows with a whole set of tools that let you maintain your hardware (power profiles, disable/enable radio, dimming the screen), retrieve driver updates and etc. Check it next time – all that Dell quick-set crap. One would figure that they’d hire/contract few Ubuntu developers to build simillar customized tools for linux. Perhaps they are doing this right now – I don’t know.

My point is – when you are building and selling systems it’s usually a good idea to invest in making your users life easier. The idea is – anyone can put together a computer, and slap the OS on the hard drive. But if you want a complete solution that is guaranteed to work out of the box, you come to us. This is what they are currently doing with windows, so why not with Ubuntu. Yeah, they will need to invest up front into building these tools and development environment but that’s what you do when you adopt a new OS.

(I started rambling so just skip to the end if you want the summary)
I’m sure the fact that Ubuntu, and really Linux as a whole, comes with an office suite and everything else is part of the reason people have such a hard time with it. Windows is an OS. Yes it has Wordpad, WMP and Outlook Express, but could you imagine what would happen to the software sector if it included all the software, quality software at that, that Ubuntu has? The multi-billion, if not trillion, dollar industry would shrink many times over. And besides the millions of anti-trust suites that Microsoft would get, Dell and other hardware vendors would feel it too. Whenever they bundle that software for “convenience” their bank account grows. And theres the problem. When you sell someone Ubuntu, you sell them what they need, not a starting point. What software are they suppose to sell you after you buy Ubuntu. Name one program that you bought for Linux? Windows-compatibility programs? How long do you think it would take before Microsoft threw they have, bar nothing, at all parties involved.

I guess what I’m saying is that its not that Dell is refusing to do something, its that they can’t really. The solution has to come from somewhere else. MP3 support isn’t something Dell can just add. They would have to pay for it. Since the cost couldn’t be off set from bundling software, they would be forced to increase the price, and, from the consumers eyes, if Ubuntu and Windows cost the same why not just go with what your neighbor has? Not like they know the difference.

[quote comment=”6233″]On the other hand though, from Dell’s POV, why would they pay companies so they could include the proprietary software.[/quote]

Because Dell is in the business of selling assembled, working, fully functional systems. Their customers expect Dell computers to work out of the box.

Ubuntu on the other hand is in the business of developing and maintaining free, open source operating system. Some of the stuff out there that is non-free and non-GPL can’t be included in the base installs because of licensing and legal concerns. Same goes for Windows. Microsoft is not shipping their OS bundled with Office productivity suite, an Antivirus, Antispyware, and a PDF reader. And yet, Dell bundles all these products with windows for user convenience.

Why a simillar approach can’t be used for linux?

Just to throw in my 2 cents…

I have a Dell 1420. Its not the N-series one simply because I needed to have Windows and its easier to install Ubuntu. Anyways I have installed 7.04 and 7.10 on it and read up on some stuff and heres what I say.

As far as the touchpad its only slightly more sensitive on Ubuntu than it is on Vista. And its really not that bad it has to do with how fast you slide your finger. Thats user error. Also with the proprietary stuff, I would not be surprised in the least if it was being worked on. As it is Dell had to do some work to get Ubuntu to work on the 1420 because of the new Santa Rosa platform and 7.04 just didn’t really work. On the other hand though, from Dell’s POV, why would they pay companies so they could include the proprietary software. That should be the Ubuntu communities job to get that stuff available, and I would have to agree. Dell should support the community in that effort, but in the end they are doing what people asked. That wanted preinstalled Ubuntu and that is what Dell has done. They are supposedly even looking at increasing their support of Ubuntu. I have read though that they are bound by contract not to sell Windows and Ubuntu side by side, which makes me wonder what else they aren’t allowed to do.

@jambarama – the only reason I can think of for rebooting a linux system is to check if whatever daemons you disabled/enabled start with the system during normal boot. Well, that and applying kernel patches but why the hell would one need to go that far just to get an iPod working? Definitely windows mindset. :)

@Matt` – actually IBM… Or… Um… Lenovo might or might not consider Ubuntu. At least some people there are thinking about this, as evidenced by their distro poll that I blogged about recently.

@Starhawk – I love how anti-linux FUD dispensers always bring back the DVD issue. And they will continue using the same argument with HDDVD, BlueRay or whoever is easier to hack on consistent basis and thus wins the next-gen format war. It is a null and void point but they will keep bringing it back anyway.

Oh and wow – it’s great to see that small businesses can adopt linux so easily. Very awesome!

yeah i read that dumb shit and yep he certainly is a “clinical case of complete fucking idiot.” It really didn’t bother me much tho i read a lot of dumb shit. i have however saw a few positive reviews of dell-buntu perhaps by Linux lovers but nonetheless not everyone has such a negative view.

All of Mossbergs problems were basically trivial, but nonetheless it is true dell should do a much better job of installing Ubuntu. As ya know I’m somewhat new to Linux but have been converting a few of my Friends. machines I set up with ubuntu are certainly “ready for the average Joe” none of my friends have yet had any problems with ubuntu itself. I install everything necessary for full functionality and if i run into a problem like with hardware I figure it out. Google knows most everything. lmao.

Now mind you these are the same friends that had all kinds of problems with windows xp. I know because i had to constantly deal with that. So from my perspective I don’t think windows is ready for the average joe and from what i’ve read Vista certainly is not.

“Ubuntu won’t play commercial DVDs”, yeah that’s funny because as you even say we all know it can. If i install Ubuntu on a computer with a dvd player it will play dvds when i am done. I think it was Thoreau that said it was a just mans duty to refuse to obey an unjust law. I live by that and all I got to say is arrest me if ya don’t like it. haha. Of course i can understand why a company like Dell can’t be so brazen, but again that is a minor issue and easily fixed. Plenty of people and web sites will tell ya how to fix that.

Anyway I think in time Dell will do a better job of installation. Blogs like this I feel will help. And i disagree with Matt i do think more and more people care about Linux. Today for example i met a business man who converted his companies computers to Linux and was totally and pleasantly surprised … I had no idea he even knew what Linux was, in fact I ask him what distro he was using and he didn’t know. That shows beyond any doubt he is a techno-retatd. His reason for Linux, Security first and Price second. Someone indubitably advised him to do so and maybe the same person installed Linux for him but the message is slowly getting out there :)

wow.. lame

Some other major vendor (IBM does this too you say..) needs to get in on the act and leverage some marketing around their extensive linux support, put some pressure on Dell to get it right.

Chances of this happening: poor, not enough people care about linux

More likely: other vendors will look at the trouble dell has with ubuntu (I assume they’re having trouble, or soon will be, or else I wouldn’t be here reading this) and decide that the great dellbuntu experiment has failed and they should avoid repeating it.

I’ve been meaning to give ubuntu another try myself, hearing about stuff that put me off a bit being fixed now is always encouraging, so if my posted by” dealy changes, that’ll be why

PS: Screw you Dell!