desktoplinux.com— Michael Dell goes on the record with what Dell is doing with desktop Linux today and what it may do with it tomorrow
Mar 7, 2006View in Crawl 4
No Dell gives you cheaply made hardware that breaks within months of purchasing. Not to mention makes you buy their products for replenishment such as Ink Cartridges for their printers. Forinstance, you can not just go down to Office Depot or Staples and pick a new Ink Cartridge for your Dell printer,they altered the hardware (HP) to accept their cartridges only.So that means on top of the lovely $35.00 you also have to pay Dell to ship the Ink to you.
[unnecessary anger]I can't tell why I shouldn't listen to you... either because you like Dells, or because you spelled über wrong, what kind of a geek are you?. [/unnecessary anger]
yeah, I dugg it for the simple fact that Dell finally gave an official statement as to why they've not offered linux--widely. And the reasoning is quite sound. If Dell were to play favorites, those chosen distros-- or worse yet-- chosen distro would eventually be the only distro(s) with any chance of making it. Then Dell would be proclaimed the linux killer because through its selective support, it essentially killed off most other distros.I think what they're doing is great. However, I hope they will work closely with various common distros to ensure the best possible driver support. Lastly, I think that if you can't install an OS, you really shouldn't be messing with linux anyway-- you'll be in a world of hurt.
"Supporting Linux" is an impossible task. And since they (as he mentions) previously supported a single distribution (the only practical answer) and it didn't work out, they're sitting back for now. There's no way they could support every Linux distribution, and with no fruitful results from supporting a single one (which will always be "the wrong one"), there's just no point in them going forward with this support.If a single desktop Linux emerges, so be it. So far Dell, as a hardware maker, has been cooperating with helping Linux driver support, but not with any sort of distro evangelism or anything. That's not their place.
astrotrainMar 8, 2006
No Dell gives you cheaply made hardware that breaks within months of purchasing. Not to mention makes you buy their products for replenishment such as Ink Cartridges for their printers. Forinstance, you can not just go down to Office Depot or Staples and pick a new Ink Cartridge for your Dell printer,they altered the hardware (HP) to accept their cartridges only.So that means on top of the lovely $35.00 you also have to pay Dell to ship the Ink to you.
tylerni7Mar 8, 2006
[unnecessary anger]I can't tell why I shouldn't listen to you... either because you like Dells, or because you spelled über wrong, what kind of a geek are you?. [/unnecessary anger]
ericesqueMar 9, 2006
yeah, I dugg it for the simple fact that Dell finally gave an official statement as to why they've not offered linux--widely. And the reasoning is quite sound. If Dell were to play favorites, those chosen distros-- or worse yet-- chosen distro would eventually be the only distro(s) with any chance of making it. Then Dell would be proclaimed the linux killer because through its selective support, it essentially killed off most other distros.I think what they're doing is great. However, I hope they will work closely with various common distros to ensure the best possible driver support. Lastly, I think that if you can't install an OS, you really shouldn't be messing with linux anyway-- you'll be in a world of hurt.
zootmMar 9, 2006
"Supporting Linux" is an impossible task. And since they (as he mentions) previously supported a single distribution (the only practical answer) and it didn't work out, they're sitting back for now. There's no way they could support every Linux distribution, and with no fruitful results from supporting a single one (which will always be "the wrong one"), there's just no point in them going forward with this support.If a single desktop Linux emerges, so be it. So far Dell, as a hardware maker, has been cooperating with helping Linux driver support, but not with any sort of distro evangelism or anything. That's not their place.
dycacianMar 15, 2006
Cool that is good to know :D