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Dell's Secret Linux Fling
Slagged writes "The Register has up an article on Linux-based Dell systems being sold in China. While Microsoft quashed an attempt by Dell to create a market for Linux PCs in the U.S., such restrictions are not the case in Asia. From the article: 'Fifteen months ago our own Ashlee Vance, who broke the news of the first break-up in 2001, proved how hard it is to buy a PC from Dell without Windows. Not pre-loaded with Linux mind you - but simply a bare bones box. But far away from the prying eyes of Steve Ballmer, romance is blossoming. An eagle-eyed reader found the fruits of the union, brazenly on display in a Beijing subway.' The article has pictures of the advertisements, which offer Dell PCs preloaded with 'Red Flag Linux'."
Well, sticking it all over the front page of one of the largest tech sites means it will get his full attention now.
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Right before Christmas, I found an awesome deal for a Dell PC in their Small Business section. I configured it, added it to my cart and obviously found out I could not de-select Windows. So I called them up and the customer service rep saw my order and promptly removed Windows for me, saving about $50. 2 weeks later my PC arrived with freedos. Seems easy enough for me. Maybe it was because it was Small Business and not home.
Would it kill them to find an original name?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Does linux offer something similar to a HOSTS file?
The HOSTS file is completely different in Linux. It's spelled with lower-case letters.
They dont use "yen" in the PRC ...
Nothing at all.
. aspx/dimen_c521?c=cn&cs=cndhs1&l=zh&s=dhs
Just look at Dell's Chinese website: there, right in the middle, amongst all those Chinese characters, you'll see the caozuo xitong ("operating system") listed in clear Roman letters: Linux.
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/features
(The stuff at the top says Dell "recommends the use of" XP Professional.)
If Dell sold Ubuntu laptops where everything (wireless, 3D accel) "just worked" I'd get those instead of the mac laptop I use today.
My desktop's Linux - all my company's servers are Linux - and as cool as BSD/Mac is I don't really need the context switch. I liked Dell hardware last time I used it - and yes, eventually I got Ubuntu running fine on it (damn wireless chips) - but no, it's not worth the effort to change. Yes, I understand for wireless and 3D it might cost as much as Windows to get the proprietary stuff licensed. But it's worth it. Yeah, I know it's not that hard to do it all yourself - I'm just not interested and would rather have something that just worked (and that's my problem with windows - it doesn't "just work" without all the antivirus/security screwing around you need to do).
Dell, if you want to get your market cap back above Apple's -- please get a real OS.
No it's not. I have one. OptiPlex GX280n. The "n" is for "no OS", it does come with a CD of FreeDOS, but other than that, you're on your own. You can see their newer versions of the "n" series by clicking this link http://www1.la.dell.com/content/products/compare.a spx/optix_n?c=pr&l=en&s=bsd
Very true, but will it balance the years of Microsoft taxes levied on linux user's who purchased systems for linux use and were never provided the option of no-OS or linux pre installed? I've personally purchased two laptops on which I ran linux and never intended to run Windows but I had to pay the Microsoft tax if I wanted the hardware.
I think the pirating also helps Microsoft more than it hurts. The large pirated install base helps to maintain Microsoft's monopoly position. Given a choice of paying for Windows or using linux free I suspect the majority of those users would dump Windows in a heart beat.
Love them or hate them, Dell sells more PC's than any other vendor. So their moves as a whole would generally be something that the linux community SHOULD follow, not just disregard and only cite statistics for much smaller vendors or channel resellers. Frankly, though, this isn't that big of a deal. As has been said before, it's relatively easy today to buy a PC from Dell (US) without an operating system. And the fact that in China you can buy a PC preloaded with a government-funded operating system isn't something I'd use the word "shocking" to describe.
Only? For $55 that had better be a nice bottle of sake.
I have bought hundreds of Linux machines from Dell. For a corporate customer it isn't an issue.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Linux on Dell Laptops seems to perform almost flawlessly. I run Ubuntu on my Inspiron 6400 and everything was detected. The only noticeable problem I have is that I have to manually put the laptop to standby before closing the lid. I confess I haven't checked the power control panel yet. Otherwise, everything was detected and cooks!
I call bullsh*t, or at least misinformation.
I was able to negotiate a refund of some $62 for each of four Dell PC purchased while I worked at a former employer because we explicitly did not want Windows for them. Even though it came preinstalled, with shrink-wrap installation media, we got the refund upon returning the installation media and attesting that we reformatted the hard disk.
Dell was not difficult about it.
Of course, the fact that all our desktops were Dell machines, and most of them did run Windows, and my employer did have a blanket corporate license from Microsoft for all MS software may have had something to do with it, but still.
Of course, getting a refund for returning something you don't want is not the same as not having to purchase it in the first place, but the bottom line was that, in the end, Dell happily sold us PCs with no operating system on them.
You could've hired me.
Unless you have a very strange or old volume license agreement with Microsoft (different than every other volume license I've ever seen), what you are doing isn't legit. You can't install volume or corporate-license Windows on bare hardware; the hardware has to have some sort of Windows license on it first. I don't think Microsoft sells unlimited-install licenses that entitle you to put XP onto totally bare hardware. It's their way of cooperating with the big VARs; this is one of the reasons why you never see a big company with white-box PCs, even though any reasonably-sized organization with its own IT department could go to Taiwan and get their own equipment for half of what Dell charges. Only the gear that comes with a license sticker on it from the factory is eligible to have corporate images put onto it. (Which really makes me question the utility of those corporate licenses, but I guess that's because I'm not in management.)
Dell is pretty clear about this on their n-Series page, as it states in bold type: "It is not a Microsoft operating system and is not qualified for Windows licensing use under any existing Microsoft Volume Licensing Program (OPEN, Enterprise, etc.) Customers interested in a Microsoft® Windows® solution should purchase a Dell desktop pre-loaded with Windows XP Professional."
If you get audited, you may be in trouble.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx /nseries_nb
I just rewrote the same link they used for the desktops. It seems to work.
The difference is that the victims of your hypothetical crimes are not tacitly encouraging it. Kidnap victims do not go around saying "If I am kidnapped I will not go to the cops", do they? They are also real crimes recognised by any society, not ones invented by governments in recent years.
MS (and other software companies) do tacitly encourage piracy. Otherwise why do they fail to enforce their copyrights.
I lvie in a country where some of the Holywood studios have proved enforcement works: people are far more cautius about priating DVDs than software because they ahve been sued for it. IBm has also been getting people to pay for Lotus Notes. MS thinks this market is worth fairly heavy advertising, but not worth suing the peole priating their software - why do you think that is?
If anyone from MS is reading and wants to prove me wrong: I will promise to find you thirty retailers, high street or shopping mall , that can easilly be proven to be pirating your software, in return for a guarantee that you will sue them.
Rumour has it that MS was considering enforcement, but backed down when some corporate users said that they would rather use Linux than pay for Windows.
What are you talking about?! We have hundreds of Dells of different types were I work and I've never seen one welded or riveted shut. I've seen rivets used in their construction but, not used to keep you from getting inside. I think you are mistaken. I know those Dells can be pretty tricky to open sometimes because they have weird case designs but given enough time I have not encountered one I could open with a screw driver or my bare-hands. Maybe I'm wrong, whats the model number on the machine your talking about?
I am, in essence, an avowed capitalist, but let me say this:
It is the supreme irony that it is possible to more freely purchase what you want in China than it is in the United States - the country of the products' origin and central influence of capitalism throughout the world.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I always use
www.dell.com/linux
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I had my other half look at the ad. Since she is from China I felt that should qualify her as an expert. The first thing she told me that it didn't look right and don't trust any ads in China unless you see and are able to try out the product first hand. She also told me that the literal translation for the wording before Linux on the 2nd picture was "flag" and not Red Flag so it would be Flag Linux