OT: Dell to offer linux pre-installed on desktops

[James Knott]

Alex Beamish wrote:
> On 3/29/07, *Lennart Sorensen* <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org
> <mailto: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?
>

Not that long ago, threats from MS would have kept them from doing so. 
The MS trials have many examples of such.

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