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Dell Pre-Installing Firefox in UK
seizer writes "Blake Ross, creator of Firefox, has confirmed on his blog that Dell are now shipping Firefox on all desktop and laptop machines in the UK. While rumours had been floating around before this, and UK buyers had been reporting that 1.0.6 came pre-installed, this is the first official confirmation of Dell's decision. Is the US next?"
Anyone seen the version? is it with a custom dell skin? just currious.
Or at the very least 1.0.7 which has been the latest 1.0.x version out for a while now.
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They can't "buck" Microsoft by installing Firefox as IE is still installed. It's just giving users an alternative version to use.
This is a carefully weighted decision based on its ease of support for Dell's staff. Hence we're more likely to see Firefox as a default install, along with iTunes, Realplayer, Winzip and goodness knows what else before we'll ever see Linux offered on the desktop. In any case 99% of prospective Dell buyers don't want Linux on it anyway, and would probably moan that it wasn't Windows if they did choose it...
perhaps the day is coming when they will openly and consistently offer Linux on their desktop machines
Well, in case Dell is listening, I am one customer for a Dell laptop with Linux pre-installed (the model that has nVidia graphics, as ATI is totally hopeless with OpenGL).
I always install my own Linux systems on desktops, but laptops are somewhat different to desktops in that they often have custom features that aren't covered well (or at all) by standard Linux distros.
A Dell Linux-based laptop with all its hardware features supported would be a very welcome product.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
If Dell does this all over the world it will have a large impact on IE browser numbers. This is the single largest reason IE/Windows has the largest install base. Think how good Firefox needed to be to get people to take the time and download, install and use over IE. Now it is there by default? Man that will be powerful.
..back in the day, computers came with Netscape and MSIE installed. You'd see infomercials saying, "This computer comes with the two leading internet browsers. Netscape and Internet Explorer, so that you can choose which you'd like to use". It will just start bringing more competition to the table for MSIE. I feel bad because I remember in those days recommending that people uninstall Netscape and use IE.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Microsoft's income based on IE is negligible if not negative. It costs them absolutely nothing for Dell to preinstall Firefox; the only cost is altering the Windows Update site to allow for both browsers--which they're doing anyway.
Eventually, MS might reach a deal with the Mozilla Foundation to bundle Firefox with Windows, saving them the expense of maintaining IE. Then everyone wins--the users get a better browser and a more secure OS; Microsoft's reputation improves all around; Firefox spreads further; and website designers get redesign their sites to support standards and nix ActiveX controls.
Where's the problem?