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OK Here's the dells without windows bundled.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/ desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Otherwise insightful but:

Dell without OS:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx /byo_xpsdt_700?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

OK not 100% there but still.

Or if you simply screw together your own PC otherwise you can buy the retail version of XP which allows you to move your license from machine to machine.

Hmm strange... Check this out:
Rack mounting rails in the Netherlands: EUR. 20,-
Rack mounting rails in the USA: from $99 to $129

That's a pretty bad difference. Caused by pure pricing strategy or am I overlooking something?

Hmm strange... Check this out:
Rack mounting rails in the Netherlands: EUR. 20,-
Rack mounting rails in the USA: from $99 to $129

That's a pretty bad difference. Caused by pure pricing strategy or am I overlooking something?

are getting old and bordering on FUD and trolling. Dell has issued recalls for batteries that might cause this problem (and power supplies but those haven't been the problems in the reported cases). Remember, keep your laptops cool by not blocking the ventilation holes, the things are already hot enough...if you haven't checked your Dell battery then please do so here and avoid a disaster like this.

Honestly would you rather have your boxy OEM loud-as-hell and not very sleek Dell or a shiny iMac or Mac Mini/Cinema Display out in the living room? The one in the common living space is going to get the most use.

It's why the sunflower iMac G4 did so well; people didn't mind it out where it could be seen.

You've probably not looked at the current batch of Dell XPS computers.

money for all the productivity software, anti-virus software and utilities you need

Somewhat amusingly, you mention this as a downside to "HP/Dell", as compared to Mac. Amusingly because you go to http://www.hp.com/ or http://www.dell.com/ and you see their offerings bundled with things like Paint Shop Pro, DVD burning software, office suites, home finance packages.

Last time I checked, you couldn't even unpack a ZIP file out-of-the box on Windows.

2001 called, it wants your out of date FUD back. Integrated ZIP support has been in Windows XP since release.

• 2.0 GHz Core Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 120GB HDD
• 1440x900 14"
• 9-cell battery
• XP MCE, which'll be relegated to a 5GB partition. The rest will be Ubuntu.

The lowest end entry level PC on the site, the Dimension B110 goes for $299. That means that the cost of a reasonable, mainstream gaming PC, more than capable of running this game,

From Dell's Website, I found that the Dimension B110 comes with 256 megs of RAM (half the minimum) and an Intel Integrated card. If you think you can run any Doom III engine game on that card, with a vaguely playable framerate, the world would love to know.

So no, you can't get a $300 dollar PC and compete with an XBox360. Get over it, your manhood does not depend upon the superiority of the PC platform.

Are you sure about this? I clicked "Configure" on one of Dell's consumer laptops, and it pretty clearly states that you options for "Operating System" are your choice of "Windows® XP Home Edition [Included in Price]" or "Windows® XP Professional [add $149 or $4/month]". See this page, although I'm not sure if the link is stable.

There is no mention made, nor selectable option for, FreeDOS, RHEL, or anything else besides Windows.

Are those special "business" options? Because if that's the case, it's a lot less significant, since most people will never see them.

Until Linux is on the list of options right next to Windows, it's still going to be a 'hack' to most people; something the computer wasn't 'designed for.'

Heck, right now you can even get a 1.8Ghz Intel Core Due for less than what R^3 wants for the 1.53 Ghz Celeron M. You can't even get an Intel Core Duo on the R^3 model.

Screw that.

Not trolling here, but the price does seem high... almost as if the MS tax in in there somewhere. Is there such thing as a Linux tax? Consider the Dell XPS M1210 for $1200.

It looks like Windows will be faster on an Apple machine than on any other factory-built desktops.

What makes you think that? Workstation grade desktops have been using dual Xeons for years. For example you can buy a Dell Precision Workstation 690 with dual 5100 series Xeon processors (total of 4cores). You can even get dual Quadro FX4500 cards in SLI for 3D modeling goodness. And this is available now, not speculation on future configurations of the Mac Pro.

There's no such things as FreeDOS nowadays, which was developped to late to be anything useful, specially it's not used by many people (including hardware manufacturer and corporate IT staff) to build bootdisks used to flash and upgrade firmwares and BIOSes(1). Neither is it used by computer manufacturer who signed an agreement with a popular OS company that forbids them to sell a computer without an OS.

Whith such an exemple of another old system, we can be sure that nobody will find whatever use for ReactOS, given the fact that Windows Vista will retain no compatibility with a legacy of win32 APPs and has nothing to do with the NT family which is emulated by ReactOS and Wine. And ReactOS and Wine have stated that they will never, I mean really never try to implement more modern API like Win64 and thus won't be able to run all the huge amount of 64bit apps that are seen everywhere (and of which most aren't open-source anyway and aren't ported to linux either (2) ).

ReactOS is likely to die and go the Linux/BSD way. Netcraft is confirming it in Soviet Russia. In Korea, only old people find usefulness to free and open alternatives that retain compatibility to commercial versions.

Har, har, har.

1 - bootdisks and -CD are specially popular in big places where you need to quickly upgrade BIOSes and Firmware non-interactively just by pluging a disc. The same can't be achieved from windows yet (there are windows-based flasher, but they can't be deployed thru usual network channels as software update)
2 - Windows 64bits is once again a proof of the supperiority of open-source. The first softwares that was the most easily ported to Win64 API were the open-source one, were the developpement is much easier because of source code availability : 7Zip, Blender&Yafray, Mame, FireFox, PuTTY, POV, VirtualDub, and many other. Where as only a couple of commercial games (because they make nice tech demos in booths) were ported, and almost no commercial multimedia package (although multimedia was supposed to benefit the most from the increased memory address space and was hoped to be among the first ported to Win64).

Yup. Here's a link to their list of officially supported operating systems. Includes three flavors of Windows, two flavors of Linux, and VMware.

To test the .Net stack, we ran Windows Server 2003 R2, SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Across the board, this configuration performed very well, with the top overall average throughput (by far) at 4.59M bps.

Quick check.....
$2,792.00 (Froogle Directron) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise, 25 Clients
$5,489.18 (Froogle Non Academic) SQL Server 2005 Complete
$5,619.00 (MS Website Retail) SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Server License with 5 CALs

$1,124.00 (Dell) Suse Enterprise Linux 9 With Server Hardware
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx ?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1580&s=biz Couldn't find Suse Enterprise 10 Integrated LAMP Stackhttp://www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpris eserver/lamp.html

Hmmm, Could train a couple of Windows Admins with $11,000. Better yet just Hire a good Linux Admin.

To a large degree, we credit this strong showing to the high level of integration that exists among the components of this stack. While most of the open-source and Java systems are developed independently of each other, each of the .Net components is designed specifically to integrate and perform well together. Even if the .Net stack had bombed convincingly in these tests, it would probably still maintain popularity in many companies.

Some people (PHBs) will never come around.

But its strong showing should give companies confidence that the .Net stack will handle most high-level enterprise needs.

For more than $12Grand it better blow away the Free Alternatives and configure itself and require zero admin.

I know I will get slammed for not using TCO but I don't believe those numbers at all. In my experience it takes the same amount of time for day to day maintenance. And when there is a problem (and there will be, no matter which one you choose) It costs me less time and therefore money to bring back up the Linux box.

Cost is not the only factor in a buying decision but is a factor, and if performance is arguably equal than it is a huge factor.

So, for $1,100 you can have a slow, short battery life, and expensive laptop PC. Or for $600, you can give up the touch screen, get a faster CPU, faster hard drive and a bigger, higher resolution screen and get a basic notebook computer. Too much price for too little bang.

I could just get a PDA for that price and read all the ebooks I want + 802.11b + email + web + bluetooth + GPS.

Try again iRex.

(No, I'm not a shill I just want one...and can't afford it...but it'd get it over this e-ink crap)

As others have already mentioned Dell has had their C-Dock, and D-Dock docking stations with half height PCI slots for years now. I used to have a C610 and used a C-Dock with a nice sound card a few years ago and it worked well. At the time the support for using PCI video cards was available in the BIOS but it never worked very well.

The M1710 may have a dock connector on it but I doubt it is anything of a quantum leap beyond what they have on their Latitude models. It would make more sense for them to roll out a new dock that would allow upgraded video cards on their M90 or a new professional series laptop. Then move it down into their consumer line. I'm no expert but to try and get a PCIe 1x or 16x to work in a dock you're going to have to design how it will supply power to cards that may draw as much as the laptop, keep the video card cool, and play well with the laptop. The pathway between the laptop and the dock is going to have to be beefed up to and all I can see is headaches with crazy PCI bridges everywhere causing trouble. Think of how much time and effort would be going into a dock which would cost at least $300.00 so that users can install a $300.00 video card in it. This would be a waste of time for Dell.

This is just some hardware site trying to make something out of nothing. Pft.

Indeed the idea of a big docking station with a proprietary docking interface is so old it's gone out of fashion. Dell now sell a light weight USB docking station with video. Obviously it doesn't have quad GPU video performance(!)

My original thought was that this was either a Latitude D800 or D810, now I'm thinking it might be an Inspiron 5100 (there seems to be a port on the right side, similar to this).

Hoping for some suggestions for a laptop. I'm wanting to buy at 64 bit something, with nvidia (so graphics have a chance to work).

I'm willing to pay for a good machine, and I'm currently thinking of the http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productde tails.aspx/xps_m1710?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=CADHS1

If anyone has had experiences using linux on this, or on another similar beasty I'd like to know about it.

I like Apple's products, but I don't have the impression that they are ethical. They may good products and I like their business practices a little more than Microsoft's, but I don't buy them because they are socially responsible. Apple advertises itself as hip and cool, but not really environmental friendly or socially responsible (just look at the commercials). Sure, they have an environmental statement on their website, but so does Dell.

1: Are non-Windows preloaded Linux servers as easy to find as Windows 2003 Server machines?

Umm... yeah its just a radio button See http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx ?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1675&s=biz. There are actually more linux options than windows.

2: Does Dell try to convince you go buy Windows software anyway, even when you don't want it (to keep Microsoft happy)?

Some "operating system additions" but that is stuff like CALs and if you select linux and select one of those it asks you to unselect that.

3: Has Dell ever reported purchases of non-Windows based hardware to the BSA, or any other such organization (haven't heard of it myself, but it's a valid question)?

Umm yeah lets report our customers to the BSA cause they payed us upto $2700 for a supported operating system... yeah I can see that...

4: Are comparable Dell Linux machines without Windows installed truly available at a price that fully reflects the lack of the Microsoft Tax?

See above, looks about right to me.

5: Does Dell preload adware/advertising crap on their Linux boxes?

Nope.

6: Do you get the same level of customer support for a non-Windows box as you do for a Windows loaded one?

Yeah, actually better support in my experience.

You wantted the lug around game machine as a portable, you got it... but sorry its not with an Acer... Its a Dell. Yuppers thats rite... the full size keyboard, 20.1 inch monitor and surround sound, and a nice little handle to boot.. its its own case! Check it out! http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetail s.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs CheerS!

The top of the line XPS laptop has a 20.1 inch screen too, and unlike the Acer they didnt bolt on one of their other products as a screen. http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetail s.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

I think you want something like this monster...

I'd love to be able to play Oblivion at 2560x1600 with high details turned on. Don't necessarily need 16xFSAA, but it doesn't hurt.

I'm not sure that Dell still builds the PowerVaults with a proprietary *nix OS or software RAID. The Dell PowerVault 755N systems we used had MS Windows 2000 Advanced Server installed with the Microsoft Services For UNIX (SFU). Looking at the Dell site now under "Storage PowerVault NAS Server", they look to have moved to PowerEdge 8301 featuring Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 and I don't see any mention of MS SFU. If I recall though, Microsoft was offering this for free but it looks like Dell isn't supporting NAS for multiple protocols anymore.

The problem I see with the FreeNAS offering is that it is software based RAID. I've seen too many instances where the entire RAID was lost due to software failure.

Let's hope they get it right this time: http://forum.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/messa ge?board.id=si_virus&message.id=47628 (the last post is mine).

Thats because your a fucking idiot.

You don't like windows? Buy a barebones system with no os. Or buy a Linux system from Dell.

Oh wait, you were catering to the "Hey lets all bash Windows because I'm a tech geek asshole" crowd for mod points. Well shit, you suck at it kid. And looking at most of your one off posts with no responses it seems that you don't have anything intelligent to add either. Do some research before you post you fucking loser.

Yes: Dell is and has been shipping this for a while now.
            Rumor has it that Dell makes up to $1.75 for each machine shipped with the Google package. InsideGoogle
      It's been out long enough to develop a De-Crapifier

And of course, Dell's own Technical Support Document FA1094103 - "Where can I find assistance for my Google Toolbar and Google Desktop?

NO: Dell is shipping 'clean' gaming systems
          Slashdot

Dell has been offering customers who want to develop their own disk image the ImageBuilder and X-Image programs.
  Anyone using the imaging process, or having another existing contract doesn't get the extra garbage.

This makes it really inconvenient, considering that Dell's Image Restore is kinda neat for tech support. Just have users restart and press a couple keys - 10 minutes later you have OOBE back again. Unfortunately, out-of-box includes all this crap again. I'd still like a disk for when I replace the HDD, but this has potential to save a lot of time.

It looks to me like Dell is padding the machines at the low end with a more pennies of profit.

Yes: Dell is and has been shipping this for a while now.
            Rumor has it that Dell makes up to $1.75 for each machine shipped with the Google package. InsideGoogle
      It's been out long enough to develop a De-Crapifier

And of course, Dell's own Technical Support Document FA1094103 - "Where can I find assistance for my Google Toolbar and Google Desktop?

NO: Dell is shipping 'clean' gaming systems
          Slashdot

Dell has been offering customers who want to develop their own disk image the ImageBuilder and X-Image programs.
  Anyone using the imaging process, or having another existing contract doesn't get the extra garbage.

This makes it really inconvenient, considering that Dell's Image Restore is kinda neat for tech support. Just have users restart and press a couple keys - 10 minutes later you have OOBE back again. Unfortunately, out-of-box includes all this crap again. I'd still like a disk for when I replace the HDD, but this has potential to save a lot of time.

It looks to me like Dell is padding the machines at the low end with a more pennies of profit.

Yes: Dell is and has been shipping this for a while now.
            Rumor has it that Dell makes up to $1.75 for each machine shipped with the Google package. InsideGoogle
      It's been out long enough to develop a De-Crapifier

And of course, Dell's own Technical Support Document FA1094103 - "Where can I find assistance for my Google Toolbar and Google Desktop?

NO: Dell is shipping 'clean' gaming systems
          Slashdot

Dell has been offering customers who want to develop their own disk image the ImageBuilder and X-Image programs.
  Anyone using the imaging process, or having another existing contract doesn't get the extra garbage.

This makes it really inconvenient, considering that Dell's Image Restore is kinda neat for tech support. Just have users restart and press a couple keys - 10 minutes later you have OOBE back again. Unfortunately, out-of-box includes all this crap again. I'd still like a disk for when I replace the HDD, but this has potential to save a lot of time.

It looks to me like Dell is padding the machines at the low end with a more pennies of profit.

Laptops have so much custom hardware these days that it's a Bad Idea(TM) to attempt an OS installation from anything but restore CDs.

Er?

I've installed Windows XP on all of my laptops over the past few years, and everyone else in my office does the same thing, too. Laptops come with too much cruft installed by default, and in general, it's silly for us to pay to upgrade to XP Pro when there's a site license available for next to nothing here. So wipe the drive, in goes a new installation of XP Pro, alongside Linux, typically. I've never run into a problem.

Jumping to Dell's site for the laptop I'm on now, all of the drivers are right there ready.

Now, there aren't Vista drivers. But if what he's saying is "driver support for Vista may be lacking, so you might have trouble", I don't really see that as a problem. A lot of people only have laptops nowadays, so not being able to install Vista on a laptop easily means a lot of people aren't buying Vista.

You can use device labeling (via devlabel) to avoid that: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/pow er/en/ps1q03_lerhaupt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Where did you get THAT number?

I go to Dell and check out the same model...

...you're looking at $1746 shipped.

sehryan got THAT number by choosing a base model and adding only the stuff he/she thought was needed to be comparable to the MacBook's specs. You chose a premium model, which has some non-removable features not found in the base model (or the MacBook), then you added some unnecessary features (not found in the MacBook) to make the Dell even more expensive. You also didn't mention some important features about the Dell that counters some of the MacBook "advantages" you touted. It almost looks like you did this on purpose, but I'm sure you didn't. That would be lame. You probably just rushed the configuration.

XP Pro, 100 Gig 7200 RPM drive, glossy screen,

I think you needlessly added $116 to the Dell's price by choosing Windows XP Professional over the default XP Media Center Edition. For the vast majority of buyers considering a MacBook (not "Pro") or Inspiron (from Dell's "Home & Home Office" store), XP MCE is the more appropriate OS choice. XP MCE adds more media features to XP than Front Row adds to OS X. XP MCE cannot join an Active Directory domain like XP Pro can, but how many Inspiron/MacBook buyers need this? XP MCE still has most XP Pro features like Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System.

The MacBook has a 5400rpm hard drive, but you chose a 100GB 7200rpm hard drive on the Dell (for $137 more) when the a cheaper 100GB 5400rpm drive was available.

You chose the "glossy screen" for the Dell (many users hate the glare), but you failed to mention this screen also has a higher resolution than the MacBook (1440x900 vs 1280x800). This only added $39 to the Dell, but the higher resolution should have been mentioned for a fair comparison... and not everyone wants glossy and glarey.

This doesn't include all the great software that OS X comes with like iLife, iWork, and more.

iWork is a 30-day trial version. You also didn't mention that the Dell you configured includes Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Word 2002 (from Office XP), Works 8 (includes an iCal-comparable calendar), Money 2006, Digital Image Standard 2006 (iPhoto), Encarta Encyclopedia 2006, and Streets & Trips Essentials. The "premium" Dell that you chose also comes bundled with non-free (and non-removable) software like Sonic MyDVD Plus (iDVD), Corel PhotoAlbum Premium (iPhoto again), MusicMatch Plus (useless iTunes competitor), and a useless (but non-free) 2-year subscription to McAfee Security Center (VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal).

That leaves the Dell with inadequate free or bundled competitors to iMovie HD (Movie Maker 2 can't measure up) and GarageBand, but the Dell does give you some decent software that the MacBook doesn't like Word, Money, and Streets & Trips. I've read that iWeb 1.0 is a buggy pile of crap, but it will get better. Free Windows alternatives exist.

the Dell is 50% thicker than the Mac.

..and has a larger, higher-resolution widescreen (14.1" 1440x900) than the Mac (13.3" 1280x800). Some people would gladly give up this extra screen space/resolution for a thinnner notebook, but others would take the Dell's screen. It's only 0.3 pounds heavier, for some strange reason. Also, I'm pretty

Where did you get THAT number?

I go to Dell and check out the same model...

...you're looking at $1746 shipped.

sehryan got THAT number by choosing a base model and adding only the stuff he/she thought was needed to be comparable to the MacBook's specs. You chose a premium model, which has some non-removable features not found in the base model (or the MacBook), then you added some unnecessary features (not found in the MacBook) to make the Dell even more expensive. You also didn't mention some important features about the Dell that counters some of the MacBook "advantages" you touted. It almost looks like you did this on purpose, but I'm sure you didn't. That would be lame. You probably just rushed the configuration.

XP Pro, 100 Gig 7200 RPM drive, glossy screen,

I think you needlessly added $116 to the Dell's price by choosing Windows XP Professional over the default XP Media Center Edition. For the vast majority of buyers considering a MacBook (not "Pro") or Inspiron (from Dell's "Home & Home Office" store), XP MCE is the more appropriate OS choice. XP MCE adds more media features to XP than Front Row adds to OS X. XP MCE cannot join an Active Directory domain like XP Pro can, but how many Inspiron/MacBook buyers need this? XP MCE still has most XP Pro features like Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System.

The MacBook has a 5400rpm hard drive, but you chose a 100GB 7200rpm hard drive on the Dell (for $137 more) when the a cheaper 100GB 5400rpm drive was available.

You chose the "glossy screen" for the Dell (many users hate the glare), but you failed to mention this screen also has a higher resolution than the MacBook (1440x900 vs 1280x800). This only added $39 to the Dell, but the higher resolution should have been mentioned for a fair comparison... and not everyone wants glossy and glarey.

This doesn't include all the great software that OS X comes with like iLife, iWork, and more.

iWork is a 30-day trial version. You also didn't mention that the Dell you configured includes Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Word 2002 (from Office XP), Works 8 (includes an iCal-comparable calendar), Money 2006, Digital Image Standard 2006 (iPhoto), Encarta Encyclopedia 2006, and Streets & Trips Essentials. The "premium" Dell that you chose also comes bundled with non-free (and non-removable) software like Sonic MyDVD Plus (iDVD), Corel PhotoAlbum Premium (iPhoto again), MusicMatch Plus (useless iTunes competitor), and a useless (but non-free) 2-year subscription to McAfee Security Center (VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal).

That leaves the Dell with inadequate free or bundled competitors to iMovie HD (Movie Maker 2 can't measure up) and GarageBand, but the Dell does give you some decent software that the MacBook doesn't like Word, Money, and Streets & Trips. I've read that iWeb 1.0 is a buggy pile of crap, but it will get better. Free Windows alternatives exist.

the Dell is 50% thicker than the Mac.

..and has a larger, higher-resolution widescreen (14.1" 1440x900) than the Mac (13.3" 1280x800). Some people would gladly give up this extra screen space/resolution for a thinnner notebook, but others would take the Dell's screen. It's only 0.3 pounds heavier, for some strange reason. Also, I'm pretty

E1505 Dual Core ($1,241)


* Duo processor T2500
* Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
* 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife
* FREE 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2 DIMM)
* 40GB 5400rpm SATA
* 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
* 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card
* 256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory
* Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio
* 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

2GB RAM ($173.64)


Hitachi 80GB 7200rpm ($143.38)


sell 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2 DIMM) on craigslist (-$85.96)

sell 40GB 5400rpm SATA on craigslist (-$64)

total $1408

E1505 Dual Core ($1,241) http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx ?oc=e1505s2&cs=19&dgvcode=ss&c=US&l=EN * Duo processor T2500 * Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 * 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife * FREE 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2 DIMM) * 40GB 5400rpm SATA * 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability * 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card * 256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory * Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio * 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 2GB RAM ($173.64) http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=2GB+DD R2+SDRAM+533MHz Hitachi 80GB 7200rpm ($143.38) http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=80GB+7 200rpm+SATA&c=Notebook+Drive&i=101 sell 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2 DIMM) on craigslist (-$85.96) sell 40GB 5400rpm SATA on craigslist (-$64) total $1408 with specs to blow the MacBook out of the water...

• Austin, Texas
  
• Nashville, Tennessee
  
• Eldorado do Sul, Brazil
  
• Limerick, Ireland
  
• Penang, Malaysia
  
• Xiamen, China
  

DKMS stands for Dynamic Kernel Module Support. It is designed to create a framework where kernel dependent module source can reside so that it is very easy to rebuild modules as you upgrade kernels. This will allow Linux vendors to provide driver drops without having to wait for new kernel releases while also taking out the guesswork for customers attempting to recompile modules for new kernels.

For veteran Linux users it also provides some advantages since a separate framework for driver drops will remove kernel releases as a blocking mechanism for distributing code. Instead, driver development should speed up as this separate module source tree will allow quicker testing cycles meaning better tested code can later be pushed back into the kernel at a more rapid pace. Its also nice for developers and maintainers as DKMS only requires a source tarball in conjunction with a small configuration file in order to function correctly.

The latest DKMS version is available here. Also, you can read this Linux Journal article or this more recent Power Solutions paper or this even more recent Ottawa Linux Symposium paper about DKMS for more information. You may also participate in the dkms-devel mailing list. This project is maintained by Matt Domsch, and was formerly maintained by Gary Lerhaupt.

"What kind of laptop bag do you have that can just barely carry a 19" wide server?"

Have you seen some of the laptops they are making these days? The size of these things, you might as well be carrying a 19" wide server.

You should check out the DKMS project from Dell. It allows you to build an RPM such that it can be dynamically rebuilt/installed upon reboots with new kernels. That means you don't have to visit those 75 machines individually. You can find samples by searching the Dell support site. Here's one for the NVIDIA driver.

You should check out the DKMS project from Dell. It allows you to build an RPM such that it can be dynamically rebuilt/installed upon reboots with new kernels. That means you don't have to visit those 75 machines individually. You can find samples by searching the Dell support site. Here's one for the NVIDIA driver.

Calculated on a per-gigabyte basis, tape systems are about one-fifth to one-tenth the cost of hard-disk-drive storage systems, depending on their size.

How is this any better than something like Dell's DKMS project http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml?

If vendors provided DKMS compatible packages the system will automatically rebuild the module when a newer version of the kernel is installed/booted. Then YUM, APT or YAST could be used to push out updates of the module source.

I don't know why Dell is partnering on this. They've had dkms for a while now, and it sounds like it does pretty much the same thing. I've used it in PCLinuxOS for about a year now for loading NVidia drivers without needing to compile anything, and it works fine.

A 2" height restriction is going to be almost impossible in a non-laptop form factor, and almost all laptops are bigger than the 1" you're talking about.

What Mini-ITX boxes have you looked at?

Check out Mini-ITX.com. You'll find stuff like Hoojum for lunchbox-sized computers, or you can find something like the Albatrons Viiv Nano-PC that will accomodate almost all the specs you're talking about (when it goes into production).

If nothing else, buy a laptop, then take off the keyboard and screen. I've worked on Dell laptops and it's pretty simple, I don't imagine that other models would be too difficult.