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Dell to choose Ubuntu
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Comments (26)
Sensitive Subject
If the SJVN report is true, then Shuttleworth and Dell were talking at the same time that Shuttleworth wrote on his blog that it wouldn't make sense for Dell to sell anything but Windows.
I guess they don't want to allow speculation about a deal that's in progress. I'm no fan of Mark Shuttleworth, and my view of him as a dictator appears to be more than a little bit true. If they don't want the news to get out why did Michael Dell make such a big deal about his new laptop?
I guess they don't want to allow speculation about a deal that's in progress. I'm no fan of Mark Shuttleworth, and my view of him as a dictator appears to be more than a little bit true. If they don't want the news to get out why did Michael Dell make such a big deal about his new laptop?
What’s even more lame is that the post was linked to by Boing Boing. So, there’s 20k Unique visitors an hour for about 8 hours that won’t know what the hell is going on.
What a great message to send to people and an excellent way to build momentum toward an announcement.
Just like the blog post you link to above richo123, I think it's lame that they had to censor the community. Censor canonical employee's you bet...community? Lame!
What a great message to send to people and an excellent way to build momentum toward an announcement.
Just like the blog post you link to above richo123, I think it's lame that they had to censor the community. Censor canonical employee's you bet...community? Lame!
Looks like it is real:
[url=http://news.com.com/Dell picks Ubuntu for Linux PCs/2100-7344_3-6180419.html?tag=nefd.lede]http://news.com.com/Dell picks Ubuntu for Linux PCs/2100-734...[/url]
"Canonical wouldn't reveal financial terms of the deal.
"It's a very significant deal for us, in terms of evolution of the company," Silber said. "How big a deal depends, to a large extent, on how many machines are sold. We think that'll be a high number." "
[url=http://news.com.com/Dell picks Ubuntu for Linux PCs/2100-7344_3-6180419.html?tag=nefd.lede]http://news.com.com/Dell picks Ubuntu for Linux PCs/2100-734...[/url]
"Canonical wouldn't reveal financial terms of the deal.
"It's a very significant deal for us, in terms of evolution of the company," Silber said. "How big a deal depends, to a large extent, on how many machines are sold. We think that'll be a high number." "
Dell threatening to sell Linux pre-loaded is just the ammunition Michael Dell needs to let him sell Windows XP pre-loaded.
Huh?
Dell may or may not be serious about Linux. The company and the man have had a spotty record. I'm sure they will sell whatever makes money for them, and right now in the desktop market I would guess that Dell sees the most demand for windows XP. Dell is selling Linux in the server area, so we know they will sell Linux. So what keeps them from promoting Linux?
Michael has to be concerned about pressure from Bill G. and Microsoft. Making a big stink about Linux. Lots of 'leaks' to the press. Then, a week or two later, Dell starts shipping XP again? Sales of Vista licenses have been good in Redmond, but how is Vista driving sales at Dell and other vendors? MS is counting licenses sold to vendors, but how have sales to actual customers been going? Why doesn't Microsoft tell us how many copies of Vista have been activated since it was released?
Vista must be especially hard on vendors who supply business desktops. When compared to XP, Vista does not offer any features that appeal to the companies that want to put 4000 PC's on their worker's desktops . XP is just fine, and the lesser hardware requirements and lack of re-training make it even more appealing.
My best guess is that about 90% of Dell's recent Linux rumors have been to put pressure on Redmond to let Dell keep shipping XP and not have to be lock step with Redmond on the Vista death march. Dell will be able to, once again, not live up to its rumors of Linux support, and get Redmond to let Dell keep shipping XP.
Of course, I'm probably wrong. Completely wrong.
I hope they do start promoting Linux on the desktop.
Huh?
Dell may or may not be serious about Linux. The company and the man have had a spotty record. I'm sure they will sell whatever makes money for them, and right now in the desktop market I would guess that Dell sees the most demand for windows XP. Dell is selling Linux in the server area, so we know they will sell Linux. So what keeps them from promoting Linux?
Michael has to be concerned about pressure from Bill G. and Microsoft. Making a big stink about Linux. Lots of 'leaks' to the press. Then, a week or two later, Dell starts shipping XP again? Sales of Vista licenses have been good in Redmond, but how is Vista driving sales at Dell and other vendors? MS is counting licenses sold to vendors, but how have sales to actual customers been going? Why doesn't Microsoft tell us how many copies of Vista have been activated since it was released?
Vista must be especially hard on vendors who supply business desktops. When compared to XP, Vista does not offer any features that appeal to the companies that want to put 4000 PC's on their worker's desktops . XP is just fine, and the lesser hardware requirements and lack of re-training make it even more appealing.
My best guess is that about 90% of Dell's recent Linux rumors have been to put pressure on Redmond to let Dell keep shipping XP and not have to be lock step with Redmond on the Vista death march. Dell will be able to, once again, not live up to its rumors of Linux support, and get Redmond to let Dell keep shipping XP.
Of course, I'm probably wrong. Completely wrong.
I hope they do start promoting Linux on the desktop.
> Of course, I'm probably wrong. Completely wrong.
I wouldn't go so far as to say probably. Possibly, more likely.
In any case, there's no reason you can't be right about the reason Dell is willing to offer Linux. They could very well be using Linux to put pressure on Microsoft and have no real intention of promoting Linux. There's a big gap between "offering" and "promoting".
If the link to the Linux machines is as carefully hidden as the no-OS option has been, and they charge the same price for the Ubuntu machine as they do for a Vista machine, then Dell would be keeping their word to "offer" Linux. They would then have significant leverage with Microsoft, as they could always move them to the front page and offer discounts at any time, especially if demand proves to be what they expect.
And who knows, the Linux machines may be a complete success, and Dell may sell several hundred thousand of them in the first months. At that point, they'll have some really difficult decisions to make. I'm waiting to see what happens, but if what's projected comes to pass, I'll undoubtedly be buying one, just to do my part to make those difficult decisons necessary. :)
I wouldn't go so far as to say probably. Possibly, more likely.
In any case, there's no reason you can't be right about the reason Dell is willing to offer Linux. They could very well be using Linux to put pressure on Microsoft and have no real intention of promoting Linux. There's a big gap between "offering" and "promoting".
If the link to the Linux machines is as carefully hidden as the no-OS option has been, and they charge the same price for the Ubuntu machine as they do for a Vista machine, then Dell would be keeping their word to "offer" Linux. They would then have significant leverage with Microsoft, as they could always move them to the front page and offer discounts at any time, especially if demand proves to be what they expect.
And who knows, the Linux machines may be a complete success, and Dell may sell several hundred thousand of them in the first months. At that point, they'll have some really difficult decisions to make. I'm waiting to see what happens, but if what's projected comes to pass, I'll undoubtedly be buying one, just to do my part to make those difficult decisons necessary. :)
The models SJVN pointed to generally have nvidia graphics and the Dell 1390 wireless. If this is what they are really planning, it won't help Linux users much, because we'll still have the same hardware incompatibility problems we've always had. What nearly all the comments said was to provide Linux compatible hardware and don't worry about the distribution.
What's funny is that the laptops all use Dell 1390 wireless cards, which give Feisty more problems than anything else.
I want to see what actually happens. They did make a promise earlier to use hardware with open drivers when possible, so we'll see.
What's funny is that the laptops all use Dell 1390 wireless cards, which give Feisty more problems than anything else.
I want to see what actually happens. They did make a promise earlier to use hardware with open drivers when possible, so we'll see.
I've just posted a newswire story giving links to Dell's Ideastorm and Direct2dell sites with confirmation that it's Ubuntu. I have no idea how long it will take for it to show up or if someone else beat me to it.
windows tax?
Soooo...will Dell's Ubuntu customers still be paying the Windows tax?
> ...will Dell's Ubuntu customers still be paying the Windows tax?
That is the $64000 question, isn't it?
That is the $64000 question, isn't it?
...or the Ubuntu tax?
Quoting:...or the Ubuntu tax?
Is that the one that comes with your official "Ubuntu Fanboi" card?
Probably will. Per-proc agreements, if they exist...
It looks as though the tax is where it belongs, on the Windows machines:
740n is $372 and 740 is $725
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=5...
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c...
Maybe Dell has figured out that folks willing to pay for Windows do not mind paying a lot. On the other had people wanting free (beer and lunch) software want to see the difference.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=5...
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c...
Maybe Dell has figured out that folks willing to pay for Windows do not mind paying a lot. On the other had people wanting free (beer and lunch) software want to see the difference.
Where's the catch?
> 740n is $372 and 740 is $725
I've gone over the two links, and it looks like you're right. But it's unprecedented.
The only apples-oranges problem I saw is that the 740n has *no* optical drive by default: From my technical point of view, offering a system with no exposed drive whatsoever is a config mistake, but only adds $40 to the price to get one.
> 740n is $372 and 740 is $725
I've gone over the two links, and it looks like you're right. But it's unprecedented.
The only apples-oranges problem I saw is that the 740n has *no* optical drive by default: From my technical point of view, offering a system with no exposed drive whatsoever is a config mistake, but only adds $40 to the price to get one.
> ...But it's unprecedented.
Agreed. Everytime I've tried to build an N system, I've come out with the same or greater price than a full Windows system. I wonder what's different this time, especially to give a $350 price difference.
OK, if I build a 740 from scratch, I get $402??? $75 of that is the difference between XP Home and XP Professional, but where does the other $275 come from?
Agreed. Everytime I've tried to build an N system, I've come out with the same or greater price than a full Windows system. I wonder what's different this time, especially to give a $350 price difference.
OK, if I build a 740 from scratch, I get $402??? $75 of that is the difference between XP Home and XP Professional, but where does the other $275 come from?
Quoting:but where does the other $275 come from?
Vista tax?
> Vista tax?
No, it comes with XP Professional. I'm at a loss to explain the difference.
No, it comes with XP Professional. I'm at a loss to explain the difference.
> No, it comes with XP Professional.
It is presumed, but rarely confirmed, that OEM's like Dell pay an MS tax per system sold, despite this being completely illegal, and contravening the intent of the DOJ v MS settlement.
The general idea being circumvention via other contractual methods, not really a problem in American contract law that I understand. But why the OEM's sign the contracts in this day-and-age totally mystifies me.
Without the coercive contracts, the word "tax" would not apply. Instead, like the initial 1 year warranty sold on basically all Dell systems, merely a "hidden cost."
It is presumed, but rarely confirmed, that OEM's like Dell pay an MS tax per system sold, despite this being completely illegal, and contravening the intent of the DOJ v MS settlement.
The general idea being circumvention via other contractual methods, not really a problem in American contract law that I understand. But why the OEM's sign the contracts in this day-and-age totally mystifies me.
Without the coercive contracts, the word "tax" would not apply. Instead, like the initial 1 year warranty sold on basically all Dell systems, merely a "hidden cost."
Quoting:No, it comes with XP Professional.
Doesn't matter. That's why it's called a "tax". Does it come with a Vista upgrade coupon per chance? I noticed that here in The Netherlands it's hard to find XP without the Vista coupon, and in those cases you actually pay the full Vista Ultimate or Business price for your XP disks.
> and in those cases you actually pay the full Vista Ultimate or Business price for your XP disks.
That would do it, yes, but as far as I can tell, there's no Vista upgrade included.
That would do it, yes, but as far as I can tell, there's no Vista upgrade included.
Maybe the incentives Microsoft gives for OEM's to ship its OS no longer apply to Windows XP?
It would make sense that Microsoft would only spend marketing dollars in a way that would get OEM's to switch to Vista, and create a disincentive to ship XP. Could the cost for XP be greater than the cost of Vista for the big OEM's right now?
It could also be that the machine is a vanilla business box and is not loaded with desktop craplets, so those dollars are not there to offset the cost of Windows. (There is no cost for the FreeDOS OS).
It would make sense that Microsoft would only spend marketing dollars in a way that would get OEM's to switch to Vista, and create a disincentive to ship XP. Could the cost for XP be greater than the cost of Vista for the big OEM's right now?
It could also be that the machine is a vanilla business box and is not loaded with desktop craplets, so those dollars are not there to offset the cost of Windows. (There is no cost for the FreeDOS OS).
> Could the cost for XP be greater than the cost of Vista for the big OEM's right now?
It doesn't seem to be. The test 760 box I put together for $402 is with XP Home, and XP professional is only $75 more. I can't see any reason I can put together the same box for $402 and yet his link gives $725. I'll do some more research if I have time over lunch.
It doesn't seem to be. The test 760 box I put together for $402 is with XP Home, and XP professional is only $75 more. I can't see any reason I can put together the same box for $402 and yet his link gives $725. I'll do some more research if I have time over lunch.
Hmmm....
The 740N seems to benefit from a $150 promotion at the moment, that would eat heavily into the $275. Add a PC speaker ($10), a CD driver (though a plain CD drive isn't offered) and Windows, and you've squared the deals up pretty well.
The 740N seems to benefit from a $150 promotion at the moment, that would eat heavily into the $275. Add a PC speaker ($10), a CD driver (though a plain CD drive isn't offered) and Windows, and you've squared the deals up pretty well.
Well, doing my best to duplicate the above machine on Dell's site, I come up with a cost of $527, not $725. There are a few differences: My OS code is XPPP5H while the one above is XPP232E, my system includes a resource CD, my support/warranty code is Q3YOS while that of the above system is PAD3YR, and his system includes the cost of shipping. Those are the only differences I can find.
As Dino notes, the 740N is $150 off at this time, so if the shipping is $50 that makes all the difference.
As Dino notes, the 740N is $150 off at this time, so if the shipping is $50 that makes all the difference.
How hard do you have to work to do this??
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