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Dell to Ship Linux Desktops in Europe
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. "
So are they gonna be $150 cheaper?
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?
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.
Sig changed for readability by G.W.
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.
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.
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.
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?