Dell May Offer Linux

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The one major drawback to this bit of change from Dell, is the customer support. If it starts being offered as a regular subsidary to Microsoft Windows, people may switch to it hearing good things about it.. but maybe not realizing just how advanced of an operating system it is, along with support issues for common windows applications (Processing, Database, SPreadsheets, Gaming) etc..etc..

You definatly wouldnt ever find me behind one of those tech calls for help.. It can already be frustrating enough just having someone sitting behind you watching you fix their own computer.. much less teach someone *nix over a phone ;)
 
Good point but what does Dell really care about that. Their call centers are located in India and they pay them next to nothing as it is. So no real concern for them.

Hopefully there will be a user friendly version of Linux that comes along and supports lots of stuff. Google OS anyone?

NoPeace - out

Ubuntu = user friendly :)

Not quite sure what you mean by supports lots of stuff.

I bet they use a Debian/Ubuntu like distribution. I wonder if they'd go the extra mile and create their own distribution.
 
Ubuntu = user friendly :)

Not quite sure what you mean by supports lots of stuff.

I bet they use a Debian/Ubuntu like distribution. I wonder if they'd go the extra mile and create their own distribution.

They have been offering Red Hat on their servers for years now. So most likely they'll install either Red Hat or Fedora Core.

And what I mean by supports lost of stuff is all the various apps that are written. Linux doesn't support most Windows apps that everyone uses. ;)

NoPeace - out
 
As user friendly as Unbuntu is, it is still a shadow in the dark compared to the friendliness that Windows provides, as simple as it is to double click a setup and run it from a link.. Unbuntu and most *nix programs havent quite gotten down yet.

I do love using Linux though, it is such a breaht of fresh air, running multiple desktops with little to no CPU usage, excellent resource usage, and the freedom from bluescreens. But the only reason I don't use it full time.. is that there is no reason to use it full time. I can pretty much guarentee, that for every Linux user out there, they usually have either a dual boot, or a second machine running windows ;) For myself, I run a dualboot if I can.. which I may do a format after I order up my 2x500gb WD drives and run my 320gig with a dualboot vista/linux distro, and my main 2x500's running windows xp professional or 2000, maybe do a dual boot on that depending on what I plan on running again.
 
Yeah, well most companies run red hat on their servers, its practically the standard. I'm not so sure on a desktop, Ubuntu seems to be the standard in that department.


I dunno d00d, I cant really think of many apps i cant use in linux. There are a lot of open source substitutes, you just have to look around. There are a lot of applications like games which need to be ported to linux. I wouldnt say its a fault within linux, but a fault which lyes in the devs hands. More software companies need to port their applications to linux. Sure you have wine, which can run most windows applications with ease, but an emulated windows environment will never be as good as the actual windows os. I would think software companies would be thrilled about linux, open source, you dont have to conform to Windows set API; but i dunno.
 
Correct on that, Porting is the biggest issue.. I just dont have the patience to sit down and work on that stuff myself... it really does take an AWFUL lot of time :-(

Emulated windows are good.. but watch as you run a linux program to run a windows program, and your resources go up as the windows port is loading up.. its really depressing :-(



To be honest, Mac is doing much better with having open field coders create windows environments.. I think the latest I remember seeing in use was.. Panther? Somethign like that, I could search it.. but I'm really not in the mood.. trying to watch a movie at the moment.
 
Finally! I've been looking through the Dell Facotry Outlet, and everything is WinXP/Vista. :(

I'll settle for Windows XP for now, but when the day comes that Vista is all that is available, I'll switch to Linux. No question about that.
 
Finally! I've been looking through the Dell Facotry Outlet, and everything is WinXP/Vista. :(

I'll settle for Windows XP for now, but when the day comes that Vista is all that is available, I'll switch to Linux. No question about that.

Why is that? Vista is actually a great OS.

NoPeace - out
 
Hmm, I thought Dell did this a while back, either that or they started shipping PCs with (all but) blank hard drives (they had to put FreeDOS on to avoid MS Licensing costs), so that users could then install Linux of they wanted.
 
There has been hundreds if not thousands of emails to dell/acer/compaq/etc to start preinstalling different os's, mainly so people can save a couple of hundred of buying Windows XP when they are just going to install Linux anyways.

They will probably offer FC7 (comes out april) with it.
 
Hmm, I thought Dell did this a while back, either that or they started shipping PCs with (all but) blank hard drives (they had to put FreeDOS on to avoid MS Licensing costs), so that users could then install Linux of they wanted.

They have been offering Red Hat for their server for many years now. Just not for the desktop market.

And yes they have been releasing PCs with blank drivers, but yet again that's for the Server market.

NoPeace - out
 
Well now i guess its a definite thing, they said they would listen to their customers. That being said, im sure they will run the top 3-4 Distros. Ubuntu being in first, with the Debian package manager, i would say its easier to run than windows. My grandma(most computer illiterate person on earth) runs Ubuntu with ease. About everything is configured out of the box. Installing programs is easier also, with the Debian package manager you don't have to worry about dependencies. I don't think fedora core would be such a good distro to go with. I tried it during spring break, and was kinda disappointed. The package manager didn't have nearly as much software online as a Debian based package manager. Also ran into a lot of dependency problems while using fedora core; could just be me though. Had to install a lot of the dependencies myself; which wasn't too bad, i have to do that with Slackware.


BTW new Slackware version soon; will be updated to modular x :)

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt
 
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