Slashdot Mirror
Why Dell Won't Offer Linux On Its PCs
derrida sends us to an article in the Guardian by Jack Schofield explaining why he believes Dell won't offer Linux on its PCs. In the end he suggests that those lobbying Dell for such a solution go out and put together a company and offer one themselves. Quoting: "The most obvious [problem] is deciding which version of Linux to offer. There are more than 100 distros, and everybody seems to want a different one — or the same one with a different desktop, or whatever. It costs Dell a small fortune to offer an operating system... so the lack of a standard is a real killer. The less obvious problem is the very high cost of Linux support, especially when selling cheap PCs to naive users who don't RTFM... and wouldn't understand a Linux manual if they tried. And there's so much of it! Saying 'Linux is just a kernel, so that's all we support' isn't going to work, but where in the great sprawling heap of GNU/Linux code do you draw the line?"
the real reason they dont off linsux on their pcs is because they dont want to be associated with dick smoking fags. i dont blame them.
dodges what issue exactly? the issue that these companies have the right not to put linsux on their machines? fucking get over yourselves here. this is like the whole "i was censored by dell" bullshit article that came up on here about a week or so ago; dell doesn't want to be associated with a bunch of fucking whiners who are going to scream "foul" the second their favorite distro isn't picked or that they don't offer a machine in the same exact configuration of a windows machine they sell.
outside of slashdot most people don't give a fuck about linsux. these are the people that companies like dell need to have their business profitable. they're not going to put up with a handful of bitching and moaning bitches to make a few extra bucks. you guys keep shouting marketshare but when it comes down to it the number one factor the entire linsux community keeps putting up as the prime point to switch is that it's cheap. this is another reason not to bother; linsux users aren't ready to shell out the bucks.
i can just imagine the day dell would put out a line of linsux pcs, there would instantly be an article on slashdot that the linsux community has been robbed because of some bullshit followed by 1600 posts about how dell sucks because they don't carry distro x, that real computer users build their own, that if you buy from dell there will be spam or spyware associated with the machine and a thousand other bitches.
the linsux community is not a good community to make a profit in unless you can assure yourself that your end user is already linsux knowledgeable. switchers are going to be clueless and they're going to blame dell instead of the linsux fags. this is going to cause a million problems for dell.
i hope for dells sake it never happens.
Its a shame Dell doesn't latch onto this idea.
Why? Just buy the damn Acer, and be done with it! Do you really want a computer case that has the word "Dell" printed on it?
I don't respond to AC's.