What is Digg?45 Comments
- bigred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the reason is that your average joe doesn't know what Linux is. People who do will go looking for it. If they were to advertise it, people would be "what the heck is Linux?" and likely just ignore it.
No money in linux. - skunkman62, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3you cant play Halo on a linux
- phoggey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dell rocks, I work there. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of linux around, no viruses and plenty of unsupported hardware.
- dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cut the conspiracy theory *****. Linux is not for people who use Windows, and I am sure that Microsoft understands that Linux is no more their competitor than Apple. I consider myself an avid computerist, very intermediate, but I have never had any desire to tinker with Linux. Ever. And I'm sure there are many other geeks like me.
- Prod_Deity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3***** gamers, let them stick to Windows.
As for Linux users, most of them build their own boxes.
So who cares if Dell does or does not sell preinstalled Linux boxes? I don't.
I'll stick to builing my own Linux based computers. - twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Microsoft spends its ad money where the market is. Business (Dell's largest buyers are corporations and medium sized businesses) by and large buys Microsoft. Linux is not yet to the point where an average end-user can function productively and self-sufficiently the same way they can with XP.
If I am running a business, until Linux can be "seamlessly integrated" without a huge learning/support curve, I'm not interested. Dell knows this and spends ad money accordingly.
Basically, business vote with their wallets (this is how capitalism works, folks) and the supply side responds accordingly. - killerklown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I perfer not to see linux on Dell's. Its bad enough windows users dont even know how to run their own OS I really dont want all these lame ass people using Linux.
- Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3ITS A CONSPIRASCY!!1
linux is for a (very very small) niche market, not worth pandering to. - coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3One of the main reasons why Linux occupies such a low desktop share is because no major hardware vendors support it. If companies like Dell start supporting it in this way, eventually the share will grow and there will be more money in it. Plus Dell would save on OS licensing costs. Michael Dell has invested almost $100,000,000 in Red hat, has partnerships with Red Hat and Novell, and Dell even has a linux community site at http://linux.dell.com/ Considering this, I too believe that microsoft coercion is at work preventing Dell's sale of desktops pre-loaded with Linux, the same way it shoved netscape out of the market by threatening to revoke OEMs' windows licenses if they bundled Netscape, even if the customer requested it. (more information: http://www.kmfms.com/whatsbad.html scroll down to the 'Predatory Practices' paragraph) Luckilly, companies like IBM, HP, and Sun are realising Linux's practicality. If they succeed in their Linux efforts, perhaps it will get an example for other OEMs like Dell and they will finally muster up the courage to "waddle" away from microsoft's lock-in. We can only hope.
- rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cost more to support than a linux boy would pay. They wouldn't sell.
- opticwind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A Linux site calling Microsoft evil? THIS certainly won't be a bias article.
- wzzrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"There's no money in it."
No. Right. Tell that to IBM. To Sun. To Michael Dell himself, investing in Red Hat. Tell that to Red Hat, while you're at it. Tell that to Novell. Those are no small entities there.
No-one will be king of the hill forever. Microsoft's time to climb down will come and I wouldn't be surprised if that time would (a) come soon and (b) come at the hands of Linux. But I admit, I'm not completely unbiased.
I was a little surprised by the sheer amount of 'Linux means no money' and 'Linux sux0rz' posts above. There are vast amounts of distro's which are as easy as Windows, if not easier still. There are hordes of companies, people and public agencies already using Linux in one way or another, including the desktop. The 'too hard' argument doesn't hold, and neither does the 'no money' argument. - Metman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This has nothing to do with MS. It has to do with cost analysis of market share and advert costs.
As for:
"The same reason why they wouldn't promote OS/2. Microsoft licensing. Do they still do that "per cpu" licensing thing? You pay for the Windows license whether or not your machine ships with a Windows operating system."
If you read your DELL license, you will find that changing ANY hardware in your DELL voids the Windows OEM License. It will also inform you that that liscense is also ONLY applicable to that Dell computer, so moving to another machine or using a collective pool (as some companies do) for your lisences is also in direct violation of the agreement. Keep reading and you will find that is it DELL's policy not MS's. "Dude! Your getting DICKED!" - teamparadox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2or maybe because there is no money in it?
- cphuntington97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To all of you "linux users build their own computers" sayers... try building your own laptop. Yeah, that's fun.
- nbx909, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i'd by a high end laptop from them if it ran a decent linux distro and was configured and had all the drivers ready. Because linux on a laptop is something i don't want to mess with unless i have to. Don't get me wrong linux is great but some things don't work out right driver wise and i don't want to buy a laptop and then loose functionality when i could buy a macbook pro and get basically the same thing but with an awsome gui and the brand name of apple.
- aa3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Maybe because they're terrified of the impending tech support doom it will bring?"
exactly. dell support can hardly support windows, could you imagine them trying to support linux. - jefu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If Dell and other vendors supported Linux on desktops, many of the problems that the microsoft fanboys have would not be problems - driver support, games support..... as the hardware and software vendors would have an incentive to support Linux. But as it is, vendors do not have such incentive, so MS is the only system supported - vicious circle and all that.
- Shazam999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why is this such a big deal? Dell has been selling Linux servers for years now. What's the big deal about the Linux desktops?
- goofballjm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I know they're too different websites, but I almost feel that anything posted on slashdot should NOT be posted here. I must find 10 articles or more a week that were posted on slashdot the same day, or vice versa. Not really hard to digg those articles. Searching Slashdot is the lazy man's way of digging.
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/28/1350256 - extraspecial, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Maybe because no one cares?
Maybe because they're terrified of the impending tech support doom it will bring? - 7of7, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Why would you promote an unstable and overly complicated desktop? It's there if you want it, but who wants to be associated with something that still requires you to mnaipulate text files to get it do to what you want?
- MrLobster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't get this story. When I bought a dell for my computer I bought the server a long time ago with no OS because it was cheaper. The author is concerned they categorized a computer as "desktop" as upposed to "server" or whatever. Who cares. I bought a "server" computer from dell but I use it as a "desktop".
- sorti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Games are the key to Linux.
I'd love to see a major game come on a Linux boot disc, boot the game it makes a small cache on your HD to keep it's settings.
One DVD disc for the new MAC hardware or PC hardware both running some version of Linux.
I remember a few games back before Windows took over the world came with runtime versions of Windows (1.04 I think)
So many people have viruses and broken drivers and spyware and 100 tray icons all stealing cycles you could make a nice boot DVD with something like Suse linux 10.x and it could have all the drivers you'd need and a nice IM and email client. Get people setup with a nice windows like default.
And once people figure out how the new DRM will lock them down with windows Vista it will be nice to have options. - tech10171968, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's the "plug-and-play" generation, folks. Joe Six-pack wants it to "just work". If he has to screw around with tarballs, "apt-get" and kernel configs, he'll just walk away and choose something which doesn't require so much, you know, _LEARNING_. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that (unlike the average Digg poster) the average user would be absolutely intimidated by most Linux distros (with the possible exception of Linspire).
I also have to agree with the point that driver support for Linux OS's is a pain in the ass (to put it lightly), but it doesn't look as if manufacturers are going to be motivated enough to rectify that problem anytime soon. Until there is some money in it for them, we'll probably have to keep depending on hackers who are 1337 enough to figure out driver configs for most of our equipment (that's hw most of the drivers in the Linux community came to be, after all). - Demagogue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Or people dont want to use linux, the people who use linux build their own PCs usually anyway.......
- jbiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0as i learned at our data center today, dell's openmanage cds do use a linux-based install program to set up the os on the server
- cphuntington97, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0second the *linux laptop with full out of box driver support
- themuffinman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0OMG!! m$ doesnt want dell to promote linux!!! why the hell not!!???!!??!!
- scsikool, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0>> Why won't Dell promote its Linux desktops?
The same reason why they wouldn't promote OS/2. Microsoft licensing. Do they still do that "per cpu" licensing thing? You pay for the Windows license whether or not your machine ships with a Windows operating system. - beta1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Don't know... Definitely the only Dell I would ever buy, lol
+Digg - mc4_a, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Here's how the business works...Microsoft pays Dell for references to Windows on their site. It has be in a certain font, size, and place for Dell to get said money. Advertising a competitors OS on such pages would result in MS not pay Dell their full fee. Dell has painted themselves in an advertisement corner, as most computing companies have.
- neoq36, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0maybe because Microsoft OS has more features to market...plus its better
At the time Linux does not appeal to the average everyday computer user
plus you can't play many games on Linux - 0Troy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0The Register did an article on this a bit ago. It was quite good... Can't find it after a search though. :-(
- ardellin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0already mentioned, but Linux is already on Dell's and has been for years
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"Do they still do that "per cpu" licensing thing?"
No.
My personal guess (just a guess) is that the overall cost for Linux vs. Windows would be about a wash. In other words, Dell can probably buy Windows (volume OEM pricing) for what it would cost to support Linux. Without any clear cut advantage or incentive for change, it won't happen. - mpeters13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0it's so easy for linux proponents to shoot down windows, because very few of them understanding the TRUE nature of the abilities of the average consumer. And don't give me that "my grandma uses ubuntu" trash. If half of my customers get frustrated when I ask them to find "start," could you imagine how difficult it would be to explain "HOW COME THIS PINBALL GAME I BOUGHT FROM WALMART DON'T WORK WITH MY 'PUTER!?" Honestly people, expose yourselves to reality before shoving linux on people. (P.S. - My ubuntu installation may run better than most linux distros, but the time it takes to google replacement applications as well as editing several config files, windows buys itself over and over.)
- zagi1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"Why would you promote an unstable and overly complicated desktop? It's there if you want it, but who wants to be associated with something that still requires you to mnaipulate text files to get it do to what you want?"
I DO! :)
Seeing the Linux trend evolve I believe that Linux is becoming more like Windows. Its only a matter of time before Linux makes an inroads on the Desktop, they already own the Server side. I see a bright future for Linux. - zeebo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Most likely because Microsoft's agreement with Dell for low OEM pricing forbids them from advertising them for desktop use. Theres really nothing to see here, Microsofts OEM agreements have always forbidden lots of things related to other operating systems.
If Dell could boost their laptop sales for instance by offering a linux laptop for desktop use, that would appeal to 3-5% of the market, don't you think they'd do it and advertise the fact as heavily as they advertise the Quad SLI machines to the 1% of the market who would buy it? - T3rry, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0nice, now i can buy a dell and put my pirated windows on it for hella cheaper :D
- tadelste, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0That's right. It's partner got caught too. But,Dell still obeys.
- playtex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0more suppression by Microsoft http://digg.com/linux_unix/Microsoft_Claims_Ownership_of_Linux_Copyright
- AJRiddle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Maybe because windows is better....
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