Dell's Linux Distribution

[pkellmey]

Anyone know what Dell is distributing? I am thinking this may really improve that distros support in the marketplace and possibly increase business usage.

 

[choknuti]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

Dubuntu?

Dellaware?

Fedella core?

Mandella?

Sorry no idea Anything at this point is pure speculation. Dell has the recourses to develop their own distro if it suits them.

 

[dasickninja]

I think it might be Suse. I'll get back to you on that.

 

[audiovoodoo]

I'd suggest that will be the way it goes.. Not seen anything for certain yet either.

 

[choknuti]

I think it might be Suse. I'll get back to you on that.

Could be even redhat but as I stated in my post, Dell still hasn't announced anything yet as to which distro they will be using and all guesses are speculation unless you know someone (someone really high up) inside Dell.

Personally I would hope that they drop Linux :twisted: and go for BBSD but that's wishing for too much

 

[riser]

Keep in mind the major thing Dell has to look into..

Its not what distro or anything.

Its their tech support for that computer illiterate who gets Linux but knows nothing about it and is going to have tons of problems.

 

[audiovoodoo]

I wouldn't be surprised if they outsourced that support. It's a valid point but getting progressively better as the quality of the distributions improves.

One of the reasons I would say SUSE stands a better chance than most is the MS relationship and the fact that they include media codecs in the standard distribution and I'll be surprised if it is anything else. On the server side I expect they will continue with RedHat as its much more established in that area.

 

[choknuti]

Well considering the majority of Dell's customers ( cooperate excluded) I think that they already have that problem with Windows users.

 

[knightrous]

Dell goes with UBUNTU!!!!!

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

Dell To Offer Ubuntu

LONDON, 1st May 2007 - Canonical and Dell are pleased to announce a partnership to offer Ubuntu 7.04 on select desktop and notebook products. This is a tremendous step forward for Ubuntu, our users and customers.

More about the announcement is available on the Dell website, including a video interview with Ubuntu's founder Mark Shuttleworth.

We believe that Dell’s decision is a strong endorsement of Ubuntu and to the work of many in coding, translating and promoting open source software. It is also testament to the demand that exists for Ubuntu.

Canonical is honoured to play a leading role in making Linux more widely available to everyone.

Jane Silber
Canonical – Director of Operations

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx

Dell to Offer Ubuntu 7.04

In February when Dell launched IdeaStorm as forum for customers to contribute ideas for product offerings, we received overwhelming feedback that customers wanted Linux on desktops and notebooks.

As part of an overall effort to update our Linux program, today we are announcing a partnership with Canonical to offer Ubuntu on select consumer desktop and notebook products.

This represents another step in the overall enhancement of our Linux program:

* Since 1999, Dell PowerEdge servers have been available with Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and since 2005 with Novell/SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.
* Dell Precision workstations have shipped for years with the option of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
* OptiPlex desktops and Latitude notebooks are certified to run Novell SLED 10
* Dell updated its policy on driver support of new Linux desktop and notebook products to use open source drivers in kernel.org where possible

We recently launched a Linux community board as another way to help our customers to get help they need to augment things we've been doing like supporting Linux mailing lists.

You can also find the IdeaStrom update in Ideas in Action section.

In this video, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth talks about why he started Ubuntu, Linux adoption rate trends, how previous barriers to Linux adoption for mainstream users are improving, and more.


Published Tuesday, May 01, 2007 9:35 AM
by Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager

I'm blown away 8O

 

[riser]

Its a step forward but I don't think its going to be a big deal.

I'm betting you'll see huge issues with it now.. mainly, Dell doesn't offer Windows support, they won't offer support for any other OS.

That's where I think the main problems will surface.

 

[knightrous]

The way see it is. Dell support sucks, you don't buy from Dell because of their support, you buy from them because they are CHEAP :lol:

Ubuntu bring many advantages to Dell. Free for Dell to use, they don't have to provide support (Rely on the community to do it instead), No AV or SW software required etc etc...

Now, it's not going to suit everyone, but imagine an office, with 50 concurrent users that just use internet, office and emails. You buy these cheap $500 Dell PC's with Ubuntu. You just saved yourself $150+/user by not purchasing XP/Vista. No Anti Virus or Spyware software to purchase, which is around another $60/user. That's $10500....

For any problems, a simple techie with minimal-none Linux, only needs to have a search through ubuntuforums.org and they can generally fix the problem by opening terminal and C&P the commands provided by the community...

I believe the Dell/Ubuntu deal will be a bit difficult in the beginning as people adjust to the change, but then it will gain exponential force. 8)

Just my views on this

 

[audiovoodoo]

That is EXACTLY what Mark S is planning..

I'm chuffed.. for once even this dumb chimp seems to have backed the winner :lol:

I'll be interested to see if the ISP's have a push for more Linux support to back Dell up on this one... There might be some work to be had out of this...

@riser
It's all about mindset. Different products will attract different users.

 

[heltoupee]

Dubuntu?

Gotta admit it's kinda got a ring to it.

"Dude, you're getting Dubuntu!!!"

sounds a little dirty, doesn't it? :lol:

 

[audiovoodoo]

First thing to learn in Open Source land is never to mock the daft names...

http://www.dubuntu.com/

and how about..

OSDir Dubuntu Screen Shots

 

[heltoupee]

First thing to learn in Open Source land is never to mock the daft names...

http://www.dubuntu.com/

and how about..

OSDir Dubuntu Screen Shots

Wow, just, wow. 8O

On a side note, when is a -hup not a -HUP? When you're restarting sshd remotely on a Linux-based router, and forget to capitalize. Now I get to drive out to the location and restart sshd from the console. I'm batting 1000 lately.

 

[riser]

The way see it is. Dell support sucks, you don't buy from Dell because of their support, you buy from them because they are CHEAP :lol:

Ubuntu bring many advantages to Dell. Free for Dell to use, they don't have to provide support (Rely on the community to do it instead), No AV or SW software required etc etc...

Now, it's not going to suit everyone, but imagine an office, with 50 concurrent users that just use internet, office and emails. You buy these cheap $500 Dell PC's with Ubuntu. You just saved yourself $150+/user by not purchasing XP/Vista. No Anti Virus or Spyware software to purchase, which is around another $60/user. That's $10500....

For any problems, a simple techie with minimal-none Linux, only needs to have a search through ubuntuforums.org and they can generally fix the problem by opening terminal and C&P the commands provided by the community...

I believe the Dell/Ubuntu deal will be a bit difficult in the beginning as people adjust to the change, but then it will gain exponential force. 8)

Just my views on this

Dell Support for business users is great. Its called Gold support. Dell doesn't sell their PCs in a store. Why? They're targeting companies. People use the computer at work, then they buy a Dell at home. Gateway once had stores. As far as I'm aware, they all closed down.

Home users upgrade their computers every 5-7 years on average.. some more often, most probably have a 5 year old computer sitting around today.. So, Windows 2000 or Windows XP from 2003.

Business? We upgrade every 3 years. We have thousands of computers, constantly upgrading; replacing.

Dell's regular support isn't the best... but they also only support their basic stuff on their computer. You get next day support if you buy the warranty. Avoid the tech on the phone, request someone to come out. Its that simple. I do it all the time when I don't feel like dealing with a tech on the phone and I know its a hardware issue.

 

[riser]

raiser -

Now lets bet that Dell will do something smart like providing a special deal for buyers with a one year or more support subscription in one of the numerous companies that provide support - hell why not ubuntu itself.

20$ annual fees will kill no one and will provide good revenue for dell even!

Yeah.. that would be a good deal. Problem is finding enough people that can do the support. :?
If I brought in a Linux machine where I work, I'd probably get killed by the employees. They don't know how to use it, they don't want to learn how to use it.. they have too much to deal with already.

Plus those support centers would have to be huge, employing thousands. There will be a lot of questions because people generally don't know what they're doing. No one will want to go search the internet to try to find open office, or something comparable, or something that works with their version.

Until Linux has a business model surrounding it (as pk and I have repeatedly stated) I don't see Linux becoming anything significant in the market.

All the software companies would have to revamp, hardware would need to update.. Face it, everyone is out there to make money. Putting free stuff out there is going to upset a lot of companies.

 

[knightrous]

In my area, the local Dell Centre is around 4.5hours away.... We needed to order a replacement PSU for a Dell system here, it took 6 weeks for them to send the wrong power supply... When you provide S/N and Part #'s, you'd expect them to get it right... Also, their phone support is horrible. It would be nice to speak to someone who ACTUALLY SPEAKS ENGLISH! :twisted:

We had Gold support, now we don't have Dell :lol:

 

[dunklegend]

I was reading in yahoo that Dell made a deal with Novell.
Is that just for servers?
Are they really going with Ubuntu for desktops?

 

[audiovoodoo]

Most serious IT environments I've worked in wipe any pre-installed software to install a corporate image. As in your active directory environment you answer the question once and then repeat.

A whole scale move between versions of Windows and office can be just as traumatic. Have you tried explaining the new office interface and features to an average user yet? Is every driver working in Vista?? Nothing is perfect.

Yes - Windows is more of a commodity, you can find half competent engineers for sensible money. However the guys in India will pick up Linux just as fast...

 

[riser]

Most of our people switching to Office 2k7 are either taking the time to learn it or they're going out and signing up for training classes.

I don't know that our company would pay money to train someone to use free software.

Vista, we're starting to disable Aera, disable UAC, enable the admin account, and making a few changes to the firewall.

Overall, we haven't had any problems with Vista at all. All the drivers are working. Though, we have a few software apps that won't run on it because they're shoddy programs but they're the industry's best. :?

 

[pkellmey]

I was reading in yahoo that Dell made a deal with Novell.
Is that just for servers?
Are they really going with Ubuntu for desktops?

Isn't that part of the same deal that for every Novell license sold, Microsoft gets a cut because of the contract they made last year to push linux for small server platforms? I think if it's the same contract, it only affects servers and Ubuntu is only for desktops. How did Red Hat miss this one? I guess it was because they were already in bed with IBM.