xyzcomputing.com — How will the Dell deal affect Ubuntu? It will be a great way to bring in a lot of new users, but things are never as simple as that. There are many unanswered questions about things logistics and support that are going to have a big impact on the deal.
May 15, 2007 View in Crawl 4
gahziniaMay 16, 2007
I think the correct question is: "Is Ubuntu bad for Dell?" Dell already supports and ships Red Hat, so to throw another distro into the mix is... well, not the best maybe. Anyways, why go with a low grade distro like Ubuntu? RHEL, Slackware, Gentoo, .... there are many better distros available. "Another issue consumers face is that of tech support. Dell could have lot of retraining in order to get their support staff ready for dealing with the problems of a second operating system and even though they won't have to worry about systems catching a virus or becoming infected with spyware, problems will inevitably come up."Read above. Dell already supports Red Hat, so there wouldn't be that much more training needed if they had gone with RHEL. *shrugs* at least they're shipping a distro. At least now when I reformat the box after getting it from Dell, I won't have put money into Bill G's pockets first.
kd5owoMay 18, 2007
I am still not huge on Dell as far as their machines go. I am happy to see they are offering Ubuntu (my distro of choice) as an option; however, it really won't affect me. I think dell could end up getting some new customers, since Ubuntu is simple for users who only really need the web and word processing (a bulk of users) these machines will be a great solution. However, this may not be true if people are really afraid to try something new, then perhaps dell won't benefit as much. We will see what happens. Bad for Ubuntu, I doubt it. gahzinia: I have used Slackware and I have found it wasn't as friendly as Ubuntu. I have never ran Gentoo but I know my friend did and he liked Ubuntu better. RHEL isn't free.
markrwatson07May 24, 2007
First, on behalf of all the linux enthusiasts out there... Thank You for delivering a non-windows system, especially a linux system!Now, in order to sell it- among other details, please disclose the price for windows vista relative to the selling price of the same unit.Because if you sell this unit for more than it's Windows Equivilent, this will be the DELL TAX on top of the WINDOWS TAX we are already forced to pay by Microsoft.DO NOT build support into your price any more than you do with the Windows box. If you do this will be the CANONICAL/{Distro name here} TAX where they are involved and/or a DELL TAX where you provide support. Leave support packs as seperate options- even giving customers the a la carte choices they need.In the future, add distributions, and even let users build custom ISOs they can send to you for their boxes. See <a class="user" href="http://www.instalinux.com/.">http://www.instalinux.com/.</a>Really show users that because they go DellLinux they get more memory, faster processors, larger screens, larger hard drives, than with vista, especially comparing vista+ms office to ubuntu with openoffice.You have a real opportunity here- do not squander it!Thanks.Mark WatsonAurora, IL