Which Linux will Dell offer?

As long as they don't install SLED, I'm fine.

Quoting:Actually I think it does matter

Quoting:It will matter if the installed system includes any proprietary drivers to get some of the hardware to work.

I personally don't care or have to worry about it, Dell won't be in my consideration to buy hardware from.

> I personally don't care or have to worry about it, Dell won't be in my consideration to buy hardware from.

Well, me neither. I really don't think much of their hardware at all. I even find the Idea of Dell pushing Linux loaded boxes to new users, as they did for MS, a bit bizarre. Maybe they can also supply some of the support, which will be sadly needed, for that swarm.

Well if it happens to be Ubuntu, and I think it will be, Ubuntu is free, no charge. Unless DELL go with one of the commercial editions of any Distro, and I don't think they will - it would add an extra price tag - I don't see a problem. My guess is they will go with a free as in beer edition, and offer commercial support packages and or upgrades to commercial editions.

As for Proprietary drivers, that's one of the reasons why I use the Powerpack edition of Mandriva.... it has the drivers I need and should I choose to use the pripietary ones I can. As much as I'd like there to be free drivers for all hardware, I have to live in the real world, and shoulda, coulda, woulda doesn't help one bit. If DELL supply free drivers, no problem, if DELL use Intel components, no problem... Intel for video and ausio is always my first choice anyway, no problem. But if it's a choice between having a usable computer and one that isn't, I'll use the proprietary drivers supplied. Up until now that hasn't been an issue for me, all my computers, from laptops to desktops use Intel video and audio components.

I think that Dell, if they're actually going to do this and not just play another round of Lucy-holding-the-football-for-Charlie-Brown, will go for a supported distribution, rather than a free-of-cost one. Support costs are the killers, so I'm thinking they'll want to offload that, just like they do with their server Linux boxes. So, for the sake of discussion, if they go with Ubuntu it will cost some bucks, and that will entitle the purchaser to a certain amount of support from Canonical.

M. Shuttleworth has long said that Canonical would make money from selling support. Getting an in with a Tier 1 vendor would be the path to a lot of sales.

At the end of the day, it's an awful lot of fuss over a minor problem: how to sell preinstalled Linux PCs. Sheesh, small-time mom n pop shops have been doing it for years. I think Dell's official company motto is "When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout."

I still don't think they will do it. It will be Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.

I think if they do, it will be Novell. Just because of the recent "set up" done to Novell by Microsoft.

Quoting:I think if they do, it will be Novell. Just because of the recent "set up" done to Novell by Microsoft.

I agree, there is a very high chance that they go with Novel just to keep MS happy.

They might instead go with K/Ubuntu, because of its popularity and its good support community, and sign their own agreement with MS.

I doubt they will go with any small one person distro unless they eventually want to have their own Linux, which I doubt.

My bet is Ubuntu because of the huge hype wave that it has at present. Nothing like using other people's propaganda especially when introducing a new product. Plus Canonical are set up to do the support. The licensing "issues" with M$ can be dealt with with the same deal as Novell if needed (which I doubt since Ballmer is rapidly turning into a vacant buffoon).

Those are my reasons for why I believe that DEL will go with Ubuntu, yes Cannonical do have the means to support their distro pretty well mapped out. In fact, in my opinion they have been quietly building the necessary infrastructure to take advantage of a deal like the one that DELL could offer them.

Re: Ballmer the vacant buffoon - never underestimate your enemy, even when your enemy seems to be acting irrationally (especially when your enemy seems to be acting irrationally, and especially when your enemy is an 800 pound gorilla)

I still hope that Dell will use Debian for their hardware complience testing. If the hardware can run Debian out of the box, it can run pretty much any distro except for possibly Fedora and gNewSense. They can offer Ubuntu for all I care but I want to be sure it can run Debian.

For Dell to be very successful in their first attempt to release pre-installed Linux, they should use either PCLinuxOS or Mepis. These are the most complete, polished, easiest and most reliable for deskop Linux. In either case, Dell has to spend some money (not much) for support by PCLinuxOS & Mepis and to help them become, like they ought to be, more than just a one person distros. I believe this is their best bet (Dell & Distros) to gain wide acceptance from Window's converts.

As long as we're speculating, if the goal is to make an easy transition for windows users, I vote for Xandros. It's polished and dependable, and comes with Crossover Office and other 'doze compatibility tools. So it's chock-full of not-free stuff, but for someone transitioning from windows it's a very nice option. And it has a real company behind it with a support and reseller infrastructure, unlike Mepis which has the GPL-whiny Warren Medford, or PCLinuxOS which is a great distribution, but nothing in the way of an infrastructure capable of supporting large numbers of users.

If I were betting money, I would bet on a Dell + Ubuntu partnership. Two billionaires buddying up, plus it gives Dell a lever to negotiate better deals from SuSE and Red Hat.

> Two billionaires buddying up, plus it gives Dell a lever to negotiate better deals from SuSE and Red Hat.

You sure you're not a closet financial analyst TC? That's a perfect analysis, worthy of Barron's or the WSJ.

Another problem with both Mepis and PCLinuxOS is that they come with software that has potential legal problems. They'd have to put together their own version, which I don't think is what they're after. It will almost certainly be a distribution that is free of gray area codecs or anything else that would require a license.

No licenses and open drivers are the only way for them to go from a business standpoint.

Quoting:That's a perfect analysis

Except, the high cost of Xandros wasn't considered.

It might not be attractive enough since Dell expects to make some money to substitute for the revenue they are getting from MS for Windows.

Quoting:unlike Mepis which has the GPL-whiny Warren Medford

True but Dell doesn't care about that. they don't have to worry about it either since they are going to have a contract with MS any way no matter what distro they use.

PCLinuxOS is a good distro but does need help to build its infrastructure. That is something Dell would participate in, help and influence for their own benefit.

Then again, we all are speculating. Who knows, they might end up supporting couple distros instead or none at all.

> Except, the high cost of Xandros wasn't considered.

I was referring to the section I quoted.

> Who knows, they might end up supporting couple distros instead or none at all.

Based solely on the rumblings from around the net, if Linux machines are forthcoming, I expect to see three distro's supported: SuSE, Red Hat, and either Ubuntu or Debian. Whether it will be OpenSuSE and Fedora with community support or their commercial brethren I don't know. As you said, we're speculating. And all questions will be answered soon enough, one way or the other.

Quoting:True but Dell doesn't care about that. they don't have to worry about it either since they are going to have a contract with MS any way no matter what distro they use.

Uh? I wasn't aware that MS holds all the copyrights to the Linux kernel and the applications sitting on top of it. You see, only the copyright holder van wave a GPL violation.

Let's see, some of the major factors mentioned above for speculation on Dell's choices for one or two Linux distros are popularity, cost, proprietary/IP concerns, and vendor/community support.

A recent speculation to throw into this distro mix, is that Dell could offer either Red Hat alone, or offer Red Hat together with Ubuntu. As the intriguing-titled article at http://techiqmag.com/2007/04/23/dell-red-hat-discussing-desk... describes, 'Dell, Red Hat: Discussing Desktop Deal?'

Interestingly, Red Hat is at long last using those two little words it has avoided like poison for so long: "Desk top" http://www.redhat.com/rhel/

After moving to RHEL, they used to deny even thinking about having a desktop Red Hat, presumably to avoid drawing the Eye of Sauron in their direction. Oh sure, you could get a Workstation edition. But that's not a Desktop. (yeah whatever.) Now they blatantly confess to offering a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop. It's getting interesting. Maybe like Dino said in another thread- fear of the 800-lb gorilla is waning.