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

This is a Good Thing

[poofyhairguy82]

Desktop Linux needs support from the big computer makers more than anything to succeed. Its interesting that Dell is pushing Mandriva with its laptops and HP recently began doing the same thing with its laptops and Ubuntu. I know from experiance that Linux on laptops can be tough, but mostly thats because the hardware won't work. If I can buy an Dell or an HP laptop with some distro of Linux on it that works with wireless and suspend hardware that works with Linux, then it really doesn't matter which one is on it when its shipped to me. I can put whatever I choose....avoiding the biggest problems with laptops and Linux!

I say bring them on Dell, HP. You might have found a way to make me (and many other geeks) customers again.

Re:This is a Good Thing

[MichaelSmith]

I know from experiance that Linux on laptops can be tough

I previously ran Mandrake 10 on my HP nx9010 laptop. Hardware support was not the best. Power and sound did not work correctly.

I recently installed Ubuntu and hardware support is now much better. This makes me wonder if HP have been directly helping the debian/ubuntu people with ther drivers.

proper market segment

[magarity]

you don't have a system admin or professional technician
 
This, and the article says it's being sold direct to students. I went back to school for another degree last year and the specs for the required notebook said Windows XP Pro or 2000 ONLY. The networking people won't let you connect to the school LAN with anything else. I suspect other schools have similar policies. Linux preinstalled systems should be the high end models for hard core technical users, not the nearly bare bones Celeron student models, IMNSHO.

How is this news?

[keosak]

I don't see, why should it be called "a milestone". In my country (Czech Republic) almost all PC vendors let user choose whick OS he/she wants. Besides Windows and Linux they also provide FreeDOS. I think there is a law forbidding selling computer set without operating system, so this is a way to go for people who want to install they own system and dont't want to pay for Windows. I don't know what is usual in USA but I would expect the same. Can someone explain it to me, please?

Must be Vista OEM pricing time.

[PAPPP]

Having seen dell in action "considering" AMD in hopes of squeezing more discounts out of Intel, and seeing as Microsoft has a new version of Windows coming along, my guess is that this is just posturing to squeeze better discounts out of Microsoft on Vista OEM pricing.
It's a nice thought, but probably just a ploy.

Comment and Question

[RAMMS EIN]

``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''

With a good Linux distro, there's less of a need to. Less computer expertise is needed to keep the system free of malware, and if it works now, it will still work years down the road (barring hardware failures). Also, desktop distros can and do include lots of drivers for various pieces of hardware, so that you can just plug in your device and start using it. YMMV, but I've had more success with this on Linux than what I see in the Windows world.

Now for the question: how good is Mandriva Linux these days? My experience with Mandrake wasn't particularly good, and I'd hate to see Linux get more bad rap because Dell chose to ship with an inferior distro. I assume polish won't be a problem, but what about package management? Does dependency resolution work? Do all packages work? Is the collection of available packages large enough? What about the software that comes pre-installed? Does it cover most users' needs, or would most people have to install extra software first thing when they get the machine? To what extent are Linux skills transferable to and from other distros (proprietary configuration tools, heavily customized desktops, etc)?