A very Good Start
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Abe May 21, 2007 9:29 AM EDT |
I don't see anything wrong with this list. Actually, it includes almost all what the community is asking for.
Some of them are promises, but hay, it is a good start. |
| Sander_Marechal May 21, 2007 12:11 PM EDT |
Yup. Looks like Broadcom is gone and Intel is in for wireless. That's good. I'm still waiting to see their graphics options, but I guess it's a toss up between "Intel embedded or Nvidia -- user choice" or "Intel embedded, Nvidia or ATI -- user choice". It depends on how Dell's trials with the ATI drivers went :-) |
| bigg May 21, 2007 9:01 PM EDT |
If you read the comments, Matt Domsch said, "With the exception of the modem in the notebooks for which no open driver is available, all the systems can be configured with components with only Free drivers." That is what I had been hoping to hear. |
| Aladdin_Sane May 21, 2007 10:02 PM EDT |
bigg: Yabut, there is nothing I saw that says you'll get 3D graphics support with the open source video driver. I think that's a biggie for most. |
| Sander_Marechal May 22, 2007 12:29 AM EDT |
Aladdin Sane: All models, except the XPS, come with a choice of Intel, Nvidia or ATI graphics. The only question is what options will be offered in combination with Ubuntu. I think the answer will be Intel+Nvidia or Intel+Nvidia+ATI. We'll see on thursday. |
| Aladdin_Sane May 22, 2007 10:47 AM EDT |
sander: I'm aware. But the issue is 2d open source v 3d closed source video drivers. That I know of, Intel is the only one so far that does not have the 2d v 3d "issue." If you cannot use the hardware, saying "it works" is a charade. I learned that from Dell's customers. |
| Aladdin_Sane May 22, 2007 11:05 AM EDT |
This critique is meant as constructive criticism. But I wrote it before Kingsley-Hughes blog post http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=423 and saved it without posting, waited 24 hours to make sure I was not totally out of my mind. Kingsley-Hughes post proves I am not. I apologize for my long-windedness, as usual. Abe: Not to criticize the author of the article (John's one the world's best bosses), do not mistake promises and expectations. That would be a mistake. Allow me an attempt to explain. As an example, when I was in Dell's tech support dept I wished I could answer the phone, "Thank's for calling Dell's Lowered Expectations dept. How can I lower your expectations today?" In every case of annoyed/irate customer it is because they were given a higher expectation than what was delivered. Great example: Ask anybody if Dell has next day service. Universally the answer is "yes." Yet for normal consumer/client systems that expectation is false. I have combed Dell's printed advertising as far back as 1995 to see if Dell ever said that. I cannot find a single case. Dell's client/consumer next business day service has some severe constraints: If you call a tech (me, from 2000-2002) after 4:00pm your time on Thursday, and Friday is a holiday, you get service on the next Tuesday. How? 1) COB Thurs is 4:00, 2) Fri-Sun not business days, 3) makes Mon the first business day. The next business day is Tue, your service day. So Thurs evening your calling, it is not true that "you'll have service Fri", instead "you'll have service Tue." The next business day is 5 calendar days away from your call. I always worked holidays for the overtime: I took those Friday callbacks from calls from less experienced techs who set the wrong customer expectation. (It is up to the phone tech to disabuse the caller of "next day" service.) (This *was* trained at Dell (the expectation idea). Technical stuff like what hardware has a high failure rate & why was not.) The idea of "underpromise and overdeliver" was trained in new employee seminars back in 2000 when I started. Lately, that philosophy has waned. So has Dell. (That last is a reference to the corporate culture, stock price and market cap, not aimed at the people who make up Dell.) Look, we all know from past experience that some hardware will get orphaned. I had a FAX with a proprietary computer interface for years that I did not use, because the company *only* supported Win95. It happens. This does not excuse Dell or its suppliers for not supporting common hardware with common software at the time both are popular. I've more to say of course, but I'll end here for now and let others take the podium. |
Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]
Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!