Dell Releases First Consumer Product with Mandriva

WindozeSux writes "Dell Laptops(Latitude 110L) are now shipping with Mandriva Linux pre-installed. Mandriva says this represents a milestone to make Linux more available to consumers. From the article:"This product shows the world that Mandriva is today ready for the consumer market. We've been developing products for the corporate and enthusiast markets for years. Addressing the needs of the consumer market is a different challenge, because it is all the more difficult, as you don't have a system admin or professional technician at home", said François Bancilhon, Mandriva CEO"

Comments

Available in USA or just France?

[baomike]

Can the machines be purchased in the USA?

Sadly...

[Dankling]

Sadly I don't think the availability of Linux systems that is holding the average consumer or business person from buying one. If the IT guy of a company wants the employees to have Linux, they get Linux - no matter how easy or hard it is made.

then the average consumer... of course "line-ux?"

So we know how it all works then ....

[Alain Williams]

One of the big pains with a laptop is getting everything to work, ie include power management& stuff. Dell would have made sure that this all works, so pretty soon $YourFavouriteDistro will support everything on these Dell machines.

Whatever you think of Dell, this is good for Linux.

Re:This is irritating

[rm69990]

Actually, no, there is no goal in Linux that says that all providers have to provide their products for free. Perhaps you should retake GPL 101. Actually, since you are cheap, just skip the course (doesn't really exist btw) and read the GPL.

If this really was the goal of Linux, perhaps releasing it under a license that specifically allows you to charge money for the software wasn't such a good idea, no?

Oh, and just to let you know, Red Hat and Mandriva do in-fact provide full source code for every open source component in their products, as they are required to by copyright law (they cannot distribute others code unless adhering to the attached license).

It really disgusts me some people around here. Half of you that bitch about Red Hat are sitting there running kernels and other Open Source packages that contain code that Red Hat paid to have contributed to these projects so you could use them FOR FREE, yet you get in a huff when these companies try to make some money. Quit being so fucking selfish I say. Don't want to pay for something...great I say...Red Hat could care less. Let all of the companies and enterprises that do value Red Hat's value-add pay for their services. If I were you, I'd be happy Red Hat is doing this. It lets them continue to pay people to improve code you are using.

Oh, and one last thing. You can download Mandriva x86_64 edition for free.

PS I'm not saying you HAVE to pay for Linux....I am running a free distro myself, one that is based extremely heavily on Red Hat's products (CentOS). But to use their code and complain when they try to make money is really low.

Maybe desktop Linux will just always be niche

[cgenman]

I don't mean this to troll, but why does Linux have to dethrone desktop Windows to be considered successful as an operating system? Why can't it just live happily as a rock-solid server OS with a desktop component that some advanced users use?

Re:Must be Vista OEM pricing time.

[heffel]

I've said it before, It doesn't really matter if Dell is doing this to get a discount from Microsoft.

If this is really the reason they are doing this, it is because it is an effective strategy to get those discounts. The fact that it is an effective strategy is reason enough to celebrate.