Dell Teams Up With SUSE

good news by dns_server · 2004-10-29 00:07 · Score: 5, Interesting

things are starting to look good for linux, we now have a veriety of different companys that are starting to support linux. hopefully this will mean drivers will be better supported (atleast for the hardware provided).

Re:good news by Methuseus · 2004-10-29 01:14 · Score: 4, Interesting

I actually have a couple dells, 6 and 8 years old, still running on all the original hardware. They may be pretty slow compared to newer computers, but they still run. Now, a Dell from 2-3 years ago is probably not running anymore unless the person got the extended warranty, since Dell's quality went to shit in the past 4 years.

I agree that I largely hate Dell machines, but when you get them free you generally don't argue. I also hate most other machines, but lately Gateway and eMachines have had good quality. The only problems I've seen with *them* in the past 2 years have been user error. You are correct about NEC and IBM being probably the most stable prefabs, however.

You also don't tell us how old you are, just that you have been building computers since you were 11. You could be 13 now for all we know. (at least for what the average user knows)

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
Re:good news by BlackHawk-666 · 2004-10-29 02:40 · Score: 4, Interesting

I used to work for a company that supplied Dell servers for the web sites we created. We had maybe 20 of these machines, and at least five of them had major issues in the first few years. One broke down so many times that eventually every single part of it had been replaced several times except the case, which I was threatening to smash in order to force them to replace this awful machine. And yeh, it was a critical production machine.
When I got a new workstation from Dell it took them 56 days to get a working one delivered to me after I told them the one they first delivered was broken. That's two fucking months!!! The reason it was broken, for the curious, is because they put the heatsink on top of the CPU but didn't strap it into place, so it wasn't doing any heat sinking at all.
I'm sure there are people out there who haven't had trouble with Dell, but for me it's always going to be a reputable company like IBM or HP in future, Dell is cheap (but costly) rubbish.

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All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Re:good news by Scumbumbo · 2004-10-29 02:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

Dell's hardware (at least on the server side) has always been well supported in Linux thanks to their work with Red Hat. I'm hoping this latest move makes their management utilities work better with SuSE.

A few months back I mentioned to our Sr. Dell rep that I wished they supported SuSE (preferably by releasing tarballed sources) with their management utilities. The "Red Hat only" afacli RAID management RPM installs and runs great on SuSE, but installing the other management stuff (specifically for the DRAC management) is a pain in the arse. She seemed really interested in my comment and kept asking me questions regarding my experiences with SuSE on Dell. Makes me wonder if she either knew something was coming down the pipe or if she was actually high-level enough at Dell to be one of the instigators of this.

Future partnerships... by jmcmunn · 2004-10-29 00:08 · Score: 4, Interesting

If we keep seeing these types of partnerships, perhaps more PC manufacturers will jump on board and start shipping Linux PC's as well. Even if it is just a Linux Live CD for someone to play with, at least then they can get their feet wet.

Re:Future partnerships... by treval · 2004-10-29 00:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

It may be just me but I think that Redhat has totally lost the plot since they stopped producing a desktop distribution.

Suse certainly seem to be gaining ground quickly and I think one of the main reasons may be the complete range of products from Suse Personal through to Enterprise and without the restrictive licencing that RH have tried to impose.

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Your attitude is infectious...
Re:Future partnerships... by treval · 2004-10-29 00:31 · Score: 5, Insightful

You are probably right however the real volume market is on the desktop. The desktop is what drives the user applications and it's user apps sold in bulk that generate major revenues.

Just ask Billy G...

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Your attitude is infectious...

Windows XP? by darkmeridian · 2004-10-29 00:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'm sorry, but why does the top of that article say, "Dell recommends Windows XP Professional"?

What kind of mixed messages are they sending there?

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A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/

Re:Windows XP? by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · 2004-10-29 00:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's an ad that's always amused me: Dell recommendsWindows XP Professional, but supplies Windows XP Home (unless you choose to "upgrade").

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This is where the serious fun begins.

But! by koi88 · 2004-10-29 00:10 · Score: 4, Funny

But don't they know the TCO of Windows is much lower than Linux' TCO?
The customers don't want Linux. And it's unsafe. Only hippies would use it. Dammit.
Guess I have to send over Stevie B...

Bill G.

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I don't need a signature.

mirrordot link and content by buro9 · 2004-10-29 00:12 · Score: 4, Informative

I hate karma-whoring, but then I couldn't get to the Dell blog... so here's the mirrordot link: http://mirrordot.org/stories/086e42b3190e9dadcda31 da9fcc5515e/index.html

Don't worry about the text, they merely point here: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx /corp/pressoffice/en/2004/2004_10_27_rrwa_000

Which is mirrored here: http://mirrordot.org/stories/c6067beb11e039d913a6d cb073ee1d71/index.html

I wonder by Moby+Cock · 2004-10-29 00:12 · Score: 4, Interesting

I could not RTFA, the thing is /.ed already. However, I wonder if the move with SuSE is an attempt to move into some bigger European markets. SuSE is the de facto linux standard over there (as opposed to RHEL in NA) and I wonder if Dell is trying to squeeze into some business operations on the continent.

SuSE on the Desktop, please ! by InodoroPereyra · 2004-10-29 00:27 · Score: 4, Interesting

I would bet that with the gaining momentum of Linux as a corporate/govenrment desktop environment, teaming up with SuSE could be a good idea for Dell. Not that RedHat is horrible unusable or anything, but SuSE is more polished and integrated for the end user, and they are in a position of offering top of the line KDE, GNOME or a combination of both.

The power of the US by peterprior · 2004-10-29 00:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm not really suprised. Now that Novell has bought SUSE, they are dealing with a nice big US corporation which must be very familiar to them.

Before Novell bought them, SUSE was seen as this oddball German company who probably seemed a world apart from a US Corp like Dell.

Bad news for Red Hat... by Thaidog · 2004-10-29 00:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

Now that novell has bought SuSE, major fundage means major comp now for Red Hat. Personally I think SuSE is more user friendly than Red Hat is now... with YAST playing a major role in that. Easy to configure, even for an end user to get a basic server up and running or whatever else. I see this hittin the lowend workstation level big time as well since most of the hardware cerifications Red Hat has SuSE has too (too a point).

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||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

Dell Laptops? by Manip · 2004-10-29 00:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

I love Dell, and I am pleased with this new deal (advancement of Linux is always good news). The question I really want answered is when will I be able to guy a laptop from Dell (or anyone else) with Linux pre-installed?

I just don't like the idea of paying £30 more for a copy of XP home or 2k which I will be removing and replacement with my fav distro .. Seems silly to me that so few DO offer a Linux alternative.

Re:Old storie by B2382F29 · 2004-10-29 00:42 · Score: 4, Funny

Wait another 2 days and we have it again as a dupe on slashdot..

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Move Sig. For great justice.

No such thing as bad news. by numbski · 2004-10-29 00:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

I really think everyone is looking at this wrong.

There is no such thing as bad news when it comes to Linux distros being picked up, not even from a corporate point of view.

I get this a lot with wireless broadband. If a 'competitor' springs up across town and starts covering areas that I also service, if we cooperate, we'll both get more customers. If we in-fight, people will get the idea that wireless broadband is unreliable. When people work together, provide excellent service, everyone benefits. There's plenty of market terrain out there to be had, and no everyone needs to become a huge mega-comglomerate.

No one linux shop needs to become the next M$ or Apple. Sure, they could, but they don't need to in order to prosper. There's still plenty of Linux territory to be had. I'd say this is as good a news to Red Hat as any, so long as both RH and SuSE are commited to excellence.

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Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

Nonsense by YrWrstNtmr · 2004-10-29 00:47 · Score: 5, Informative

Try ordering a Dimension series without Windows, for instance. Not possible!

3 clicks
Dell|Small Business|Desktops
"Dell Alternative Operating System Desktops" is listed right there with the others. 'N Series' Dimension, Optiplex, or Precision. Either RH or no OS (FreeDOS in the box).

The Dimension N starts at $319

Ah, I think I get it. by RealProgrammer · 2004-10-29 00:55 · Score: 4, Funny

For $175 per single-CPU server annual maintenance subscription and $269 for a dual CPU subscription, Dell and Novell offer Linux customers additional choice on Dell's award-winning PowerEdge 1850, 2800 and 2850 servers.

I'm not sure understand the reasoning there. It'll cost Dell 54% more to support a dual-CPU box, is that it?

Oh, I see. Dual support desks, dual techs, dual phone bills (to India and Utah).

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sigs, as if you care.

Re:how much tweaking... by jimicus · 2004-10-29 00:58 · Score: 4, Interesting

What does it mean when Dell and Suse or IBM and ??? (RedHat?, Debian?, Knoppix?, all three and more?) deliver a server with 'certified' linux?

Has anyone bought one of these for work and taken a good look at the install?

Yes. My former employer was an IBM shop, had 250 Linux servers and around 1,200 desktops.

We bought servers without an operating system. Some (not all) models arrived in parts - disks, memory processors and rack-mounting kit were all shipped in separate boxes and you fitted them yourself. My understanding was "every bit of hardware here works under Linux".

Experience demonstrated that this was indeed the case, only you sometimes had to download kernel patches (which were generally open source, they just hadn't made it to the mainstream kernel).

I don't know whether or not the pre-built servers had these patches pre-installed - I'd imagine so.

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