Another Dell Survey
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| bigg Mar 13, 2007 9:29 AM EDT |
Dell has a Linux survey: http://www.dell.com/linuxsurvey Apparently they WILL be offering Linux. The blog entry is here: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/13/7985.aspx |
| swbrown Mar 13, 2007 10:50 AM EDT |
Nice - everyone should be sure to fill the thing out! Unfortunately, the results aren't immediately displayed like on IdeaStorm, so they could BS on what the results are, but at the very least it'll be a strong signal. If Inspiron laptops and XPS desktops weren't such a bitch to install due to hardware incompatibility, it'd be great. The Inspirons often have misbehaving video, both requiring kernel boot params in some cases, to the M300 not working with the Free Software driver (locks up frequently). The XPS desktops have onboard sound stripped out, so the only sound option is the X-Fi (they don't let you choose onboard sound anymore last I checked), which has no Linux drivers, so XPS desktops are 100% mute in Linux at the moment. |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 13, 2007 12:37 PM EDT |
The survey is DOS'ed due to it's popularity. Looks like they underestimated the demand yet again! Hahaha :-) |
| bigg Mar 13, 2007 12:46 PM EDT |
Passionate customers are a good thing. They should put up a Vista survey and see if the site gets overloaded. Wonder how much they'd have to spend on TV advertising to get that many hits? |
| jdixon Mar 13, 2007 8:04 PM EDT |
Well, it seems to be back online now. I took the survey, told them I was a home user; to prioritize their consumer line, then their business line, then the gaming line last; and I suggested Debian for their distribution. We'll see if there's any result. |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 13, 2007 11:37 PM EDT |
I did pretty much the same thing, except I switched the gaming and business line. Their business line already works pretty well with Linux. I also suggested Debian as the OS. The nice thing about supporting Debian is that they would get out-of-the-box support for a whole slew of Debian derivatives, such as Ubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, etcetera. |
| jdixon Mar 14, 2007 2:44 AM EDT |
> The nice thing about supporting Debian is that they would get out-of-the-box support for a whole slew of Debian derivatives, such as Ubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, etcetera. That was my thought too. Why bother supporting Ubuntu, when if you support Debian, Ubuntu support is automatic? And Debian has the largest number of derivatives. |
| techiem2 Mar 14, 2007 6:16 AM EDT |
hehe. I said debian and gentoo. |
| jdixon Mar 14, 2007 6:39 AM EDT |
> I said debian and gentoo. Unfortunately, I suspect that Gentoo and Slackware are lost causes with Dell. I thought there was some hope of getting them to support Debian. And if they do do support Debian, then it should be possible to port whatever they offer to Gentoo and Slackware. |
| dcparris Mar 14, 2007 6:42 AM EDT |
Debian is apparently widely supported by HP - at least their hardware is known for working well with Debian. Debian would be a logical choice for Dell. |
| hackmeister Mar 14, 2007 6:51 AM EDT |
If I had to guess what they'll support:
Ubuntu or OpenSuse If they offer one I would be happy. |
| bigg Mar 14, 2007 7:28 AM EDT |
> I suspect that Gentoo and Slackware are lost causes with Dell. Would it really make sense to offer pre-installed Gentoo? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of Gentoo? |
| Abe Mar 14, 2007 8:08 AM EDT |
I think they will go with Novell Suse for various reasons: - Primarily that is what MS will tell them to do. - They will enter into a covenant agreement with MS to cover any IP. Dell will make money in the process. - Novell will give them a huge discount and support will be available from Novell With that in mind, and considering that HP already sells NO OS, and started positioning itself to pre-install Linux on enterprise desktops, I am not sure we need Dell involved any more especially after their record of flip flopping. |
| hkwint Mar 14, 2007 8:09 AM EDT |
Quoting:Would it really make sense to offer pre-installed Gentoo? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of Gentoo? It definitely would. Moreover, you'd have to re-install (re-compile) more than 80% the next three months. Therefore, I will 'bend' and be pragmatic, and also vote for Debian, though I'd rather use Gentoo since I find Debian really outdated, and it lacks some other stuff too. But see it like this: If Debian works on Dell, so will Gentoo. Therefore, I'm calling all Gentoo-fans to vote for Debian, since this makes more sense, at least to me, and if you're fed up with compiling, it may be rather easy to switch. BTW, I wasn't going to buy a Dell probably, but as long as Dell believes I'm interested, everything should be fine. |
| galeru Mar 14, 2007 8:48 AM EDT |
@hkwint I doubt Debian would end up pre-installed on Dell's computers. I think that Ubuntu will end up with it, along with Linspire's ability to have non-free codecs installed. Without that, I believe the masses of Windows kids who would switch to Linux because it's supposedly cheaper would complain, loudly I might add, to Dell. Of course, I would much prefer Debian to that, but I'm just a crazy young'in with my head in the clouds. |
| DarrenR114 Mar 14, 2007 8:48 AM EDT |
Considering the politics that seems to overshadow at Debian, and the lack of an immediate response support network, I went with suggesting RHEL or SUSE - since both are already in the "end-user support" game and both are more oriented toward the "ignorant consumer" than Debian or its derivitives. |
| vainrveenr Mar 14, 2007 9:40 AM EDT |
Let's see; from the DistroWatch.com site http://www.distrowatch.com, here are the top dozen distros based upon H.P.D's per quarter (3mos) :
Data span: Last 3 months
Rank Distribution H.P.D
1 Ubuntu 2711>
2 openSUSE 2073<
3 PCLinuxOS 1575>
4 Fedora 1424>
5 MEPIS 1334>
6 Debian 1056<
7 Mandriva 965=
8 Sabayon 900<
9 Damn Small 779<
10 KNOPPIX 684>
11 Mint 634>
12 Zenwalk 625
As of today's 7day DistroWatch.com H.P.D. list, Linspire's Freespire is at number 11, and Freespire or other Debian-derived distros could easily wind up further near the top of the list.
*Note that a full half of these distros listed above are ultimately Debian-derived. Sure seems to me also, based upon this metric, that a Debian or Debian-derived distro is the way to go! |
| bigg Mar 14, 2007 9:50 AM EDT |
I don't see a lot of need to install/support a specific Linux distribution. As long as the hardware all works, particularly for low-priced laptops, that is all that matters. Certifying that it will work with gnewsense will solve any problems. And as far as support, what do they do when a 70-year old grandmother calls with spyware problems in Windows? Do they explain how to backup the registry and then make the necessary changes? |
| techiem2 Mar 14, 2007 9:55 AM EDT |
heh.
You do have to wonder about the support thing.
With *nix, they may actually get some real questions (how do I add a user? how does the firewall work? etc) that would need some real help (of course, forums work well for most of this).
With windows, most (serious, like spyware) questions are probably answered with:
1. Windows System Restore.
and if that doesn't work
2. Restore Disc Restore Or just tell them to call MS cuz it's they're problem. hehe |
| bigg Mar 14, 2007 10:01 AM EDT |
I know from friends who worked at Gateway that the first time, they were supposed to say, "We don't support software, but I'll make an exception this time." If they called a second time, they were transferred to an operator to sell them support. They would sometimes swear at the support guys. Nonetheless, they wouldn't make money offering free software support on a low-end machine, so they didn't care about losing those customers. How is this different? At least with Linux there is informed support available for free. |
| tracyanne Mar 14, 2007 3:34 PM EDT |
I suggested Mandriva, for it's ease of use and administration, but stated that I don't really care as long as they are fully supporting Linux, in which case the user can choose to replace the pre installed distro. |
| hkwint Mar 14, 2007 4:09 PM EDT |
Indeed, GNewSense certification is all Dell has to offer, but I think that may be too much for Dell at the moment. They are still recovering from the 110.000 people who actually registered and asked for Linux on Dell. They probably won't know what GNewSense is at Dell. But that's not only at Dell, I guess most Linux users won't know GNewSense neither. |
| tracyanne Mar 14, 2007 7:47 PM EDT |
I thought it was GnuSense |
| pogson Mar 18, 2007 10:52 AM EDT |
Debian makes the most sense for me because it is at the root of so many distros. I suggest, too, that Dell should support LTSP and put out a cheap reliable thin client. That is a green solution loved by tree-huggers. A fanless thin client costs less, makes less noise, uses less power and space, and lasts twice as long as a regular box. If Dell is struggling in the PC market, a change to this approach could do wonders. I know many schools do not have enough computer seats in classrooms. Thick clients are way too expensive, especially with that other OS. They could also boast that customers would not have to upgrade existing machines to use them as thin clients of some new multi-cored loaded server box. Debian Etch will has some neat LTSP tools like setting up environments for any kind of client (ppc, i386, AMD64, etc.) by script. This gives all kinds of migration paths to schools or organizations that happen to have a stock of iMacs (the server can be an AMD64 X4 and those old iMacs will seem to do magic). These folks do not want to chuck tons of working machines just to install new software. LTSP works. Debian makes it easy (so does RedHat with the K12LTSP distro, or Ubuntu with EdUbuntu). I hope Dell finds a way to migrate to selling hardware and giving away free software. It will be tricky. They have to sell two or three more thin clients to bring in the same money but they would increase sales of powerful servers to act as terminal servers. AMD could provide Geode chips for the thin clients and AMD64 X4 chips for the terminal servers. If your old market is saturated/dieing, make a new one. What would a plug and play Linux Terminal Server be worth to disillusioned Windows/Mac users when pressured to chuck dozens of working machines? Maybe Dell can add value by installing for those who do not want to learn much about Linux. |
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