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Yeah, I've read that, too. But if that's the case, why does the Apple have a 23" diagonal viewable area and the Dell has a 24" diagonal viewable area?

Dell is selling the 2407, but only in Japan.

superid:

This is a known problem with the 2005FPW. I suffered a similar problem.
It is due to the EDID (internal memory of some sort) getting corrupted. I presume you have an nVidia card? AFAIK, the serious problem only really exists with nVidia cards.

There is an app which Dell provide called "DVI_RECOVER" (or "DVI RECOVER") and this aims to fix the EDID.

See http://forum.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/messa ge?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721&view=by_d ate_ascending&page=1

I ran the fix program and then ensured I only used up to date nVidia drivers. I have had no problems since.

chording keys to get to the second button is much, much better because you get the second button exactly when you want it.

unless you're one of the few users that finds it practical to do anything other than passively soak up multimedia content whilst relaxing on the couch.

Ever since I got a bright, hi-rez projector (Dell 5100MP 1440x1050), my couch is where I do everything except programming. It is great for email, web-browsing, IM, video-phone, games and yes, even the occasional TV show or DVD.

I highly recommend using an 8 foot wide screen with a wireless keyboard - it is amazingly comfortable to sit back in the laz-e-boy and use the entire wall as a monitor.

Ok, Ok, I know dell buys it from someone else, like they buy their fibrechannel SANs from EMC... but, we just bought one of these for the Computer Science department at Virginia Tech. Without the additional library component, it's i think 5U's, and holds 20 or 24 tapes. We are using 400GB/800GB LTO-type tapes. We back up to a gateway SAS (Scsi Attached Storage) array (it's slick - 2U, 12x500GB SATA drives, SCSI320 interfaces in back, manages all raid onboard), and flush from there to tape. We bought 75 tapes, so in theory that's 60TB of storage.

The machine its self keeps track of the tapes - it comes with a set of stick on / color coded bar codes, and it scans the tapes you pop in with a barcode reader.

It's cool. It may not be enough for your setup, but it was only like $50k for the autoloader and tapes.

~W

"We have an entirely different market than anything Dell does"

Oh really? Then what is this $10,000 system they just started selling yesterday with quad sli?

http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/renegade/rene gade.html

Dell PowerEdge 6800 $101,000 fully loaded.
Oh yea, and Dell has fanboys (like me :) )

And everyone who bought an Alienware computer is what, precisely? I'm going to go with either ignorant or fanboy (well, most likely both). Not all fanboys are geeks, even if most geeks are fanboys. I'm just glad we haven't PC'd "fanboy" yet, but knowing the male:female ratio among geeks, it's not too big of a problem yet. In fact I don't even hate Dell... I'd never buy one of their PCs again (oh the days before knowing about Newegg were sad indeed), but their LCDs are top-notch and they can beat even the stingiest DIY'er in the value segment. Now as for high-end systems and whatnot, they've now overtaken even Alienware (wait, does this mean they overtook themselves?) in the overpriced systems - the limited edition Quad-SLI rigs are running cardholders a cool $9930. Even with the 30" LCD, PPU, quartet of 7900's and custom airbrushed paintjob, that's still about $3500 too much. Nevermind the fact that it uses a PEE965 instead of an FX-60. What I really don't get about that beast is why they don't offer the wallpaper in the 2560x1600 resolution that the included screen would be using.

Sounds like you're trying to sell the ultimate Dell game pc.

Yes, but i can't afford to have 2 computers (Or I don't want to take up the space, or some other excuse), and since I need windows sometimes,

These excuses are next to ridiculous for the vast majority of Mac users.

Seriously. First off, if you can afford a Mac and all of its very expensive accessories (compare even 'inexpensive' items like mice and keyboards with even the likes of Dell), then you can probably afford a cheap Windows PC, which these days, can be had for as little as $300 (less if you are skillful in building your own machine).

If space is your concern, get a MiniITX box or better yet a notebook. Even these are cheap as heck these days.

My point: why run two operating systems on the same box? Just get another PC. They're cheap these days. Buy two.

Yes, but i can't afford to have 2 computers (Or I don't want to take up the space, or some other excuse), and since I need windows sometimes,

These excuses are next to ridiculous for the vast majority of Mac users.

Seriously. First off, if you can afford a Mac and all of its very expensive accessories (compare even 'inexpensive' items like mice and keyboards with even the likes of Dell), then you can probably afford a cheap Windows PC, which these days, can be had for as little as $300 (less if you are skillful in building your own machine).

If space is your concern, get a MiniITX box or better yet a notebook. Even these are cheap as heck these days.

My point: why run two operating systems on the same box? Just get another PC. They're cheap these days. Buy two.

I've also taken to using bookmarklets like "Clean Read" to make news articles legible on overcrowded sites: http://www.smokinggun.com/code/bookmarklets.php

Here's an example of what being certified does. Powervault Tape Juke gets stuck tape. With top level support contract I call Dell and tech here today if possible or I spend 15 minutes I don't have on phone with Tier3 tech support who we always get to call first. But by being certified I just call Dell parts and say 'I need this, ship it.' It comes overnight with prepaid return box.

Also, our low level techs out in field say 'box won't power up, what next?' I talk them through steps, decide its the power supply, and order the part, which comes next day. Nobody has to talk to Dell tech support if we feel we are sure we know the problem.

It does especially pay because of our installed volume keeping us off the phone with Dell all day long. It really speeds up things if you can save 15 minutes per failure keeping it in house.

How to get this? Go to https://warrantypartsdirect.dell.com/us/members/in dex.asp

It's a shame, because I was interested in the Dell Latitute X1, but I couldn't find it from a 3rd party vendor, and their Dead Pixel Policy stinks.

Dell has started offering it on their website, maybe it will catch on. People need to be able to try before they buy, so they can see how it works, then it might catch on. There is a link to do this, but most people would rather not have to install it to try it.

I don't know where you can try Linux in a retail outlet, but it would help convince people to buy it if they could, IMHO.

I've bought brand name computer systems from HP, Dell, Sun, and Apple. And _none_ of them came with a 90-day NAV or McAfee trial version. I've bought something like 200 or so of these machines, and, again, none of them came with this stuff.

It seems like not paying the 59.99 option is the best.

And I need that for what?

OK, so only morons need to buy the stuff, and even then morons can still get their computers "sick". Hmm.

As far as Windows goes, yes, I'm an incompetent boob.

I really haven't had the need personally or professionally to use a Windows machine since 2001.

Ouch. A funny thing is that when I took a personality class from the psychology department, the teacher asked if there were any personalities that were missing from the book. I raised my hand, and said, "Asshole!". That must of been a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Does an anti-virus subscription get rid of assholes?

I assume you mean Linux and not Dell Unix. Dell hasn't sold Dell Unix since '95 or something.

  The answer yeah its no problem to order them. They have the N series which is their cheap desktop with FreeDos and the Precession series which comes with RedHat Enterprise preinstalled. Then as you go up you get to the Poweredge.... but I'll assume that's outside of our discussion.

Who want that? Seriously who actually wants that? I'm hard pressed to think of anybody I've ever met who would be too scared to buy a system from penguin (been in business now what about 12 years), or even sub300 but is OK running a totally non mainstream OS, which doesn't support any mainsteam application.. Sheesh yourself, your hypothesis makes no sense at all.

If you want to buy from Dell. They already sell that that's the N series desktops which are Linux certified hardware. Since there is a techie involved he can handle the install for them. If they want Dell to install If you want a Linux preinstalled they offer the precession series which at the low end runs about $700.

So can you find me even one American (much less hundreds of thousands) that are like,
"I really want to run this obscure OS whose target market is software developers; I'm not willing to pay more than a few hundred dollars for my system, I don't know anybody who can help me install my OS oh and I'm not willing to use any company with revenues under $5b per year".

Yeah, Sheesh, I guess I'm a real idiot for not seeing that one.

For a company which has been supplying $300 low end machines with scrap hardware and shady driver, this doesn't make much sense to me. Even with failed venture in Linux market with Red Hat back in 2001, I don't ever recall Dell ever putting any effort in supporting customers half way decent.

Even today, Michael Dell either can't see it or is too naive. One would think, Dell had learned their lesson and support Linux kernel developement and community and not "leading or highly preferred version" distros. However this goes to show, Dell didn't.

The parent post is on-target. And it is not like Dell is not supporting Linux at all. Plus, they offer a lot of resources for those machines that do not come with Linux installed: http://linux.dell.com/

why, because they sell a leather case for an MP3 player? Or because they sell a speaker system ( let's face it, the boom box is not so much a boom box as an amplifier and set of speakers ) for that same player ?

Which of Apple's products has nothing to do with technology ? Granted, their products do place an emphasis on style, which in some usages can be a synonym for fashion. Still, they're about fashionable technology. In this case fashion is an adjective to describe the technology product, not a noun that signifies the type of company it is.

Did HP become a fashion company when they made printable iPod skins? Is Dell a fashion company because they sell... OK, what the hell. Dell sells a "Women in Business Liberator Executive Black Fashion Notebook", maybe Dell is now a fashion company. ( Seriously, they sell what now? I expected to find something silly, but that's a PURSE !! )

In all seriousness, I think you just are looking for a way to dislike Apple, or you're trolling, or both.

Honestly, WTF, Dell sells a friggin' women's handbag, and you're dissing Apple as a fashion company, why exactly? Because people actually like Apple's designs and hold them up as good examples ? You prefer your tech products to be clunky, unesthetic, and hard to use, so only l33t ubergeeks can master them ? You're going to penalize Apple for selling iPod accessories with a high markup ? Perhaps you should explain your thinking, unless it embarasses you to do so.

That's called misinformation. It's a tactic used in the "free market" to create force that appears desirable. Even IBM has succumbed to this to sell off their PCD to Lenovo. What was the highest in quality is now in the hands of one of the CEOs from the Cursed Brand of Abysmal Quality. It's something to think about when let quality fall by the wayside, knowing that it affects your job as well by supporting an unsustainable practice such as offshoring.

Disclaimer: it was a warranty replacement, so I don't know whether or not it's easy to get these from Dell, but here's documentation that it's a replaceable, upgradeable component. On that laptop chassis, which consists of the Inspiron 8500, 8600, the Precision M60, and some others... D810 I think, M10... There are a few optional video cards you can order with the machine. More on the procedure here.

"every single page on the Dell website (other than, as you spotted, the homepage itself)"

Not on http://www.dell.com/linux either. Nor http://support.dell.com/ nor the Medium/Large Business page.

"every single page on the Dell website (other than, as you spotted, the homepage itself)"

Not on http://www.dell.com/linux either. Nor http://support.dell.com/ nor the Medium/Large Business page.

You might want to check this -> http://linux.dell.com as well!

Maybe that means a couple percents in benchmarks, but they're basically identical.

I have a 3 year old laptop with a Pentium-M 1.5Ghz CPU, and that was a lower-end model at the time. In otherwords, pretending that the bottom Mini model is bleeding edge in anyway is false.

I meant to emphasize the component price differences between a (1.5GHz Pentium M + 915GM + wireless b/g) bundle and a (Core Solo + 945GM + wireless a/b/g) bundle. However, I'm probably wrong on that point. According to Intel's Jan 2 pricelist, the former costs $272 (1.6GHz Pentium M) and the latter costs $278. Still, Dell's just-announced "cheap" Core Solo Inspiron starts at $929 ($729 for a limited time).

However, the catch is that ALL ADS, bar none, must have this logo.

Fortunately, the "Dell recommends Windows® XP Professional" whoring is absent from the Linux Workstation page.

I don't see this as an actual barrier to promoting their Linux offerings. It may look odd, but if it sways anyone, they're just as likely to sell a Windows system instead. The question still remains: Do they think they won't sell a lot of these things, or do they not want to sell a lot of them for some reason?

Dell just released a new laptop featuring a 15" screen with similar graphics you can buy for nearly the same price as the mini

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx ?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=E1505S2&s=dhs

Whether or not it functions as advertised is almost beside the point. The fact is, low-level features don't sell in the first place. No one cares. Every Solaris junkie loves dtrace but that isn't keeping SUNW from looking like SGI these days. Faster application launches? Great! That won't sell any copies. If security sold, then 1997 (bad Windows viruses start becoming common) through 2004 (the year prior to the introduction of XP SP2, which *finally* had most of Windows' security holes plugged by default) would have been the years of Linux on the Desktop. Windows Vista exists primarily so Microsoft has something new to sell, and it will primarily be sold to OEMs. Most people who possess Windows Vista will do so because it came on the computer they bought--same as was the case with WinME.

Since Win2K wasn't readily available as a home operating system, there were lots of people who went from Win98 or ME to XP. Going from 9x to the NT kernel really was a big jump in stability (definitely) and security (eventually). Even so, most people made the move to XP because some game or program they liked required it. But the move from XP to Vista is more like the move from 95 to 98--a few new features that eventually become compelling (like USB and wireless) and eventually make the upgrade worthwhile but really, most people with XP will not move to Vista until "Requires Windows Vista" starts appearing on game boxes.

The interesting thing to me will be economics. XP was released over 4 years ago but it only really became common in the last 2. In that time, computers went from a low of around $500 to less than $300. I wonder where computers will be when Vista is a) released and b) common?

Why Optiplex

OptiPlex Desktops are designed to make deployment and management simple by taking the worry out of managing your computing environments. What makes OptiPlex the stable desktop choice?

• Extended purchase availability and managed product transitions help minimize costs and headaches. Over the past 7 years, OptiPlex desktops have averaged a 15 month lifecycle.
• Dell ImageWatchTM image management tool helps ensure system changes and updates will never be a surprise. You will be notified months before changes happen.
  ...
  
• Dell's Stable Image Assurance Program is designed to lower ownership costs by taking away the worry and inconvenience associated with required hard drive image changes.

try http://www.dell.com/vista/ and you get a page titled 'Microsoft Clarity. Dell's Vision.'

Or for $779 you can get a computer which also includes a keyboard, a trackpad, and even a widescreen LCD display

In facts, it's even a notebook at the same time, and it comes with Windows XP Media Center.

You get the same Core Duo CPU, 512 MB RAM, the same video card, but an upgradable 40GB SATA hard drive.

I think it worth its extra $180 over the Core Duo Mac Mini

Go here to configure one of those linux machines and scroll down to "DIGITAL VIDEO AND CONTENT CREATION OPTIONS." There, you can choose from an array of Windows software for your linux machine. I wonder if they preinstall it...

http://www.dell.com/linux/ and http://linux.dell.com/

http://www.dell.com/linux/ and http://linux.dell.com/

Dells Linux URLS are http://www.dell.com/linux and http://linux.dell.com/

Dells Linux URLS are http://www.dell.com/linux and http://linux.dell.com/

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.a spx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

... and supported. Here are the Dell Open-Source Desktops. But, as you read the fine print you learn that there is nothing "Open-Source" about these desktops except the included FreeDOS media kit.

http://www.dell.com/linux

So, who's stupid?

I figured that I would give http://linux.dell.com/ a shot and see if I got anything. And indeed, it led me to the Dell Linux Community Web. Check it out.

Our customers in some cases demand Dell hardware. In some other cases they require three years of next-business-day hardware support, and about the only manufacturer from which this is available at a reasonable price (in places like downtown Bangalore, for instance) is Dell.

Dell have been extremely unhelpful when it comes to supplying systems with linux preinstalled. For an example, see Exhibit A showing various Dell Precision systems, clearly showing a choice of operating systems. Then click on the Precision 380 (Exhibit B) which conveniently removes the choice.

Should you actually want to customise and buy a system, you get a screen looking like Exhibit C clearly providing you a choice between 'Genuine Windows(R) XP Professional, SP2(NTFS)(+Media) [Included in Price]' and exactly the same thing installed on FAT32.

This is, perhaps, Dell UK's definition of 'Choice'.

Our customers in some cases demand Dell hardware. In some other cases they require three years of next-business-day hardware support, and about the only manufacturer from which this is available at a reasonable price (in places like downtown Bangalore, for instance) is Dell.

Dell have been extremely unhelpful when it comes to supplying systems with linux preinstalled. For an example, see Exhibit A showing various Dell Precision systems, clearly showing a choice of operating systems. Then click on the Precision 380 (Exhibit B) which conveniently removes the choice.

Should you actually want to customise and buy a system, you get a screen looking like Exhibit C clearly providing you a choice between 'Genuine Windows(R) XP Professional, SP2(NTFS)(+Media) [Included in Price]' and exactly the same thing installed on FAT32.

This is, perhaps, Dell UK's definition of 'Choice'.

Our customers in some cases demand Dell hardware. In some other cases they require three years of next-business-day hardware support, and about the only manufacturer from which this is available at a reasonable price (in places like downtown Bangalore, for instance) is Dell.

Dell have been extremely unhelpful when it comes to supplying systems with linux preinstalled. For an example, see Exhibit A showing various Dell Precision systems, clearly showing a choice of operating systems. Then click on the Precision 380 (Exhibit B) which conveniently removes the choice.

Should you actually want to customise and buy a system, you get a screen looking like Exhibit C clearly providing you a choice between 'Genuine Windows(R) XP Professional, SP2(NTFS)(+Media) [Included in Price]' and exactly the same thing installed on FAT32.

This is, perhaps, Dell UK's definition of 'Choice'.

http://www.dell.com/windows

Error: The system cannot find the file specified.

http://www.dell.com/microsoft , however, leads you to a page much like the /linux one, and says that "Dell recommends Windows XP."

http://www.dell.com/windows

Error: The system cannot find the file specified.

http://www.dell.com/microsoft , however, leads you to a page much like the /linux one, and says that "Dell recommends Windows XP."

I would really like to listen to the phone calls when a customer purchases with this link a Dell Precision Workstation With Linux and they are unable to get any of the bundled software to work.

From the mentioned website, during the configure process, you have choices of business software you would like to add to the workstation. Last time I checked, none of these ran on Linux systems yet. Choices include :

1. Avid Express DV
2. Adobe Video Collection Standard 2.5
3. Adobe Premier Pro 1.5
4. Adobe After Effects Pro 6.5
5. AutoCAD 2006 Standard
6. Avid Technology Avid Liquid 7
7. Alohabob Pc Backup
8. Alohabob Pc Essentials Suite
9. Alohabob PC Relocator Ultra

the other one is http://linux.dell.com/ .