OT: Dell to offer linux pre-installed on desktops

Alex Beamish talexb-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Thu Mar 29 20:37:44 UTC 2007


On 3/29/07, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2007 at 02:19:30PM -0400, Alex Beamish wrote:
> > it's certainly interesting to watch Dell twist and turn in the avalanche
> of
> > public opinion at IdeaStorm: preloading Linux (thus making sure that it
> > works) is clearly something that's in demand. Once Dell understands that
> > Linux will help them sell hardware (their mission, after all), they'll
> be
> > all over it.
> >
> > Or, you would think.
>
> Now is Dell going to avoid machines that require proprietary drivers?
> After all in the past they have claimed RedHat support for some of their
> machines but the raid card or other device would only work if you used a
> binary only driver that was only available for specific redhat kernels.
>
> 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,
and if Dell can make a business case for supporting such a configuration
(training the phone support, hiring some folks with 1337 skills to man the
support forums and IRC channels, doing some configuration management, hiring
some Linux folks to provide second and third tier support), then they should
do it, because they'll sell hardware and make money doing it.

I hate to go to the car analogy, but it's not unlike the recent fad of
running your car on vegetable oil, rather than gasoline. The response from
the manufacturer should be "Hmm, that's kinda different, but we *can* make a
car that does that, so why not?" .. rather than mumble about how no one
wants it, and anyway it's impossible. if the customer wants it, and you can
make money doing it, what else is there to decide?

-- 
Alex Beamish
Toronto, Ontario
aka talexb
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