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Dell to Ship Linux Desktops in Europe

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the somebody-stop-the-insanity dept.

Anglophile writes "Looks like Dell has launched a new line of desktop computers. The Dell Optiplexes will be sold in Europe, come with the Linspire operating system and include a one year free membership to their download warehouse. "

22 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Less is more? by xOleanderx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So are they gonna be $150 cheaper?

    1. Re:Less is more? by Anonymous+Bullard · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Some more details has emerged

      From another news article:

      Starting at about $575, the systems will be targeted at businesses, schools and consumers.

      The Dell OptiPlex systems loaded with Linspire are available only through Questar. Dell was not offering any Linspire-based systems on its Web site.

      Dell spokesman Jeremy Bolen said Questar purchases the computers from the PC giant and then resells them to its customers. He said Questar is a direct customer of Dell and not a partner.
      "That's the extent of their relationship with us," he said.

      The basic Questar system ships with an Intel Celeron processor, 256 megabytes of memory and a 40- gigabyte hard drive.

      No similar configurations are shown at Dell's U.S. Web site, though a low-end OptiPlex PC running a Pentium 4 with Windows starts at about $400.

      Executive summary:

      • Dell isn't offering any Linux preloads.
      • Some Dell customer (Questar) buys boxes from Dell, installs Linspire and charges hefty premium.
      • These boxes would appear to be at least $150 more expensive than Dell's own low-end MS boxes.
      • Dell wants to distance themselves from this outrageous Linux offering.
      • The Redmond Overlords most probably get their usual cut as it is nigh impossible to get Dell to ship anything without a pre-paid Microsoft licence.
      • Linux customers should consider patronizing vendors with bona fide Linux support instead.
      --

      Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?

  2. I wonder... by cbrocious · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When will we see the same thing for Xandros?

    --
    Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
  3. One year free? by GICodeWarrior · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sounds like a scam...

  4. Makes sense. by Future+Man+3000 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    In an office environment where the servers and workstations are Linux (as they are in increasing numbers throughout Europe) the secretaries might as well operate in parity. The cost efficiency of these machines and the number of 'low-end' systems that tend to be deployed in a business environment make these a good solution for places that desire something a little better/easier to implement than a dumb terminal.

    I'm surprised Dell hasn't done this sooner. But then again, Linspire is of recent vintage and was the first to make desktop Linux feasible on the large scale. Now people can obtain an entirely-Linux solution from Dell -- from the server to the desktop -- and all I can say is it's about time.

    --

    I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
    -- W.C. Fields

  5. Linspire!?!!??? by Moby+Cock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why Linspire? Why not use a bigger, (dare I say it) better distro. SuSe 9.1 is Europe's biggest distro, why not that? Is there some anger between Novell and Dell?

  6. They used to... by mustangsal66 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So Dell returns home to Linux...

    I bought several PC's from Dell in 2001 with RedHat preinstalled... They shipped with driver disks too...

    --
    Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed "nucular" accelerator on his back.
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  7. Trickle-down economics by dankney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Finally there's a version of the trickle-down theory that actually works.

    I'd bet that Dell made this decision because there are many large users (Munich decision, with many more considering) who will be switching over in the work-place.

    Many non-techie employees of those organizations will want to have the same environment at home as at work -- two OSs is simply too "confusing" for point-and-click types.

    And as more and more large institutions move to Linux whatever reason (there are many), I think we will see more and more pre-packaged systems available on a retail level.

  8. Re:Download Warehouse? by mustangsal66 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously,

    The only way to get my mother off windows was to get her onto (then Lindows). She didn't trust that 'free' stuff. She felt comfortable paying a few dollars for it, and the 'support' behind it.

    --
    Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed "nucular" accelerator on his back.
    Sig changed for readability by G.W.
  9. Can I license to ship with Dell too? by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe Dell can work out a deal where anyone can sell their machines with any o/s preloaded as a ghosted image, provided you send them the CD and you're liable if the image is crap... that would be sweet! Then we could all compete with our favorite o/s's and with wal-mart (to some tiny degree)

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    stuff |
  10. Europe is more receptive to progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Reminds me of radial tires. Europe used radial design tires for decades before they were adopted in the USA, despite the superiority of radials. The USA limped along on clunky bias ply tires for what seems like forever.

    If adoption of tire design is any clue, it will be a few more decades before we see Linux take its rightful place on the USA desktop.

  11. Re:great by igrp · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I guess - and I am only assuming here - that a big distributor could get away with a lot more with a small distro.

    The big distributions aren't exactly operations run out of a garage any more. Redhat has some (serious) money. SuSe is backed by Novell. The Debian folks probably wouldn't exactly be too thrilled to budge to Debian's demands (well, let's say requirements) and customize a distro. They simply don't really need the money that bad. A lot of the other distros either have their own agenda or niche or simply are too specialized (e.g. Gentoo).

    Things are different if you're running a small distro though. There are bills to pay and contributions are always more than welcome. A company like Dell could therefore easily push some changes they deem necessary through. That way, they don't have to put their own people on it and, effectively, save a whole bunch of money.

  12. Re:linspire? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It was originally called Lindows. Imagine how confusing that would have been: selecting between Lindows and Windows in the OS box while config'ing your machine. Not even the screengrabs would have been a dead-give-away. "Oh, must be a typo."

    That's what Microsoft said too; that's why they sued Lindows. But of course, anyone who suggested that they might just be right about the confusion got flame broiled...

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  13. Wierd distro choice by consolidatedbord · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ..coming from a company that uses Redhat on the server side of things. I mean, I know that Linspire has been geared towards former windows users who use linux for whatever reason, and the major desktop target audience from Dell is full of windows users, but now they are going to have to widen the support level won't they?

    --
    while true ; do echo this is my sig; done
  14. Re:Econ 101 (WHY WAS THIS MODDED TROLL) by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Noooo...you see, in our world here, corporations like IBM and HP have secret meetings where they agree to only make the appearance of competing. Really, they just pool cash to buy Republicans into office (which will presumably go out of their way to legislate all of the money out of the pockets of the masses), jack up prices, and more importantly think of ways they can screw end customers out of money, even if it hurts them too.

    Please don't try to hurt what we've done here. We've brought as many brainless anti-corporate zealots together to form our own little "pretend" community, where we can spearhead a global movement against a non-existant threat. I personally would much rather consider myself a 'revolutionary' than an 'arrogant intellectial with hidden self esteem problems.'

    Posts like yours only remind us of that reality that exists upstairs where our parents are working hard to make this dream possible.

    --
    Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  15. Europe!=All of Europe by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Checks Irish Site...
    No Linux option...

    This bugs me especially considering they make the danm things right outside my back door. And yet I will always be the last customer to get bargins.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  16. The real mainstream distros by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While on Slashdot we hear endlessly about Red Hat, Debian, etc., the volume manufacturers are going with Lindows, Linspire, Thiz, and in China, Red Flag. Maybe those should get more coverage. What do the installed base figures look like?

  17. Re:linspire? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Everybody calls it Windows, not Microsoft Windows.

    Irrelevant. Everybody in the South calls a glass of Pepsi a "Coke". That doesn't mean that Pepsi should get a trademark on the word "Coke".

    To further confuse things, Microsoft has several variations of Windows like 2000, XP, Me, etc that people are familiar with. Calling it "Microsoft Windows" is not enough by a long shot, especially when compared to "Lindows.Com Lindows".

    [ ] Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
    [ ] Lindows.com Lindows

    If those two choices seem confusing to you, you've got bigger problems than choosing an OS.

    What they'd need is a big bold sentence saying "This is not the same as Windows! Watch out!"

    And yet they're supposed to read, understand and agree to abide by the 10-page EULA full of obscure legal and technical language.

    If Microsoft made a product called Winux, you all'd suddenly change sides on this issue.

    I don't see any problem at all with the name "Winux". Notice that the fact that it's not an English word makes it a good choice for a trademark name. I would encourage them to go for it, but unfortunately it seems to already be the name for an Indian Lindows-like product, as well as the name of a recent cross-platform virus.

  18. Re:No, try $25 cheaper. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    when the salesman tells him it's just as good as Windows only cheaper?

    If the salesman does that, he'll probably lose his job. I was at Best Buy yesterday...I was considering picking up VMWare and a copy of WinXP.

    They didn't have VMWare. Looking around, I noticed they didn't even have any distribution of Linux. And no software at all that runs under Linux. (Unless you count games like RTCW where you download the binaries from the website.)

    Stores aren't going to want to sell Linux machines until they can stock their shelves with software that will run on it. Which, ironically enough, is unecessary.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  19. Re:No, try $25 cheaper. by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Interesting
    They didn't have VMWare. Looking around, I noticed they didn't even have any distribution of Linux. And no software at all that runs under Linux. (Unless you count games like RTCW where you download the binaries from the website.)

    I was at a Best Buy yesterday in Emeryville. They had both RedHat WS and Suse 9.1. They also had Rekall (sorry, don't use it - don't like the company), as well as a couple of BSD app collections on CD. And trythfully, I've never seen VMWare in any store.

    I think it really depends on the store's client base whether Linux and apps are stocked or not.

  20. Re:Apt-get works and they respect copywright by Red+Alastor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was still Lindows when I tested. Some things may have change. In Lindows (the version I got anyway), apt-get simply refused to work.

    And to clarify on the GPL, I know what you can bundle or not but they should write as the other distro that many packages included comes with their own license. Instead the EULA that poped-up when I first ran it, told that *everything* was copyrighted by them.

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    Slashdot anagrams to "Sad Sloth"
  21. Re:Apt-get works and they respect copywright by aixou · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Apt-get does work. You have to uncomment some lines in /etc/apt/sources.list, and then you can apt-get to your hearts content. You don't have to use click-n-run at all if you don't want to, but if you want something reliable and that won't break, it can be a nice feature. Not to mention the fact that you get many discounts on commercial apps by being a paying subscriber.