OT: Dell to offer linux pre-installed on desktops

D. Hugh Redelmeier hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org
Tue Apr 3 05:16:43 UTC 2007


| Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:37:44 -0400
| From: Alex Beamish <talexb-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| On 3/29/07, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:

| > Still amazing to see Dell go from pure Wintel, to their current state.
| 
| I don't see it as amazing at all -- maybe I'm missing something key in this
| whole discussion.
| 
| If Dell customers want something that's not a Windows OS on their hardware,
| ...

Up until last year, Dell did not ship anything with AMD processors*.
On the surface, this was a silly choice: AMD had better
price/performance and even just performance in a number of important
areas.  Compounding the mystery, they switched to supporting AMD just
when AMD no longer was the performance leader.

There must have been some kind of sweet secret deal between Dell and
Intel that kept AMD out.  Perhaps this deal broke down when AMD sued
Intel over just this kind of thing.  Or perhaps the performance gap
got to hard to ignore.

Apple switched from PPC to x86 roughly the same time.  They said they
were going to Intel when AMD had the best x86.  But they knew that
Intel was going to pull ahead at the time Apple would start to ship
x86 boxes.  I think Apple got to ship some of the first systems with
Intel Core.  It also sounded as if Apple made some kind of sweet deal
with Intel.

So Dell should have known that they could have ignored AMD for a few
more months and been out of the woods on performance.  But on price, I
think AMD beats Intel, even now.  They have to.  And they clearly gave
an extraordinary deal to get Dell -- AMD were so hungry for it.

It appears that Intel has managed to market a bait-and-switch.
Current gen Intel chips are better than current gen AMD chips.  But if
you want them at a low price, Intel will sell you last-gen chips (P4)
which are inferior to AMD chips.  Maybe the P4 stuff will be phased
out soon.

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/dt_basic?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs
"Basic Desktops":
$369 Dell E521 Semperon (cost reduced Athlon; includes x86-64)
$479 Dell E520 Celeron D (cost reduced P4; no x86-64 AFAIK)

"Mainstream Desktops":
$579  E520 Pentium D
$489  E521 Athlon 64

"Performance Desktops"
Only Intel chips, some of which are P4.

In each pair, the CPUs are close enough to being equal (to consumers,
not fans).  The AMDs are considerably cheaper.  I worry that AMD will
(again) get a stigma of being cheap, not just inexpensive.

I've not laid out the complete set of choices.  Dell makes it very
hard to figure them out (definitely not orthogonal).  This is part of
their method of price differentiation.

(* They did have a SKU for AMD CPU chips; I could never figure out
why.)

================================================================

I don't care much if Dell offers to sell a few models with Linux
pre-installed.  The vendors that do this have traditionally charged
more for those systems than ones with MS Windows pre-loaded.

I want Dell to certify configurations as being suitable for Linux:
having open-source drivers.  I'm willing to load the Linux, the pain
is not knowing, when I order a box, whether it will have some stupid
Linux support gotcha.

As an example, the E521 didn't run Linux when it came out.  Some USB /
keyboard problem, if I remember correctly.  That's a real annoyance to
bump into.  It is worst on laptops.

I want them to provide a reference Linux that can be downloaded.  All
GPLed.  (Wishful thinking when it comes to video cards and wireless.)

I want this for all their lines, not just selected high-cost
configurations.  I'll settle for "reasonable" exclusions (e.g. having
to pay for a more expensive wireless card).

I want them to have Linux available when each model is released, not
months later.  Currently, Linux users start working through barriers
after they get the machine.  It often takes time before the kinks are
sorted.
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