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Will Dell Be Bad For Ubuntu?
vcore writes "Many people are excited for Ubuntu's upcoming release on Dell computers, and while it is certainly good news there are a few causes for concern. Very few details have emerged so far so it is not completely clear what impact Dell with have on the thriving Ubuntu community. But there are questions concerning support, logistics, pricing, and a number of other areas that are affected. From the article: 'Dell is in the practice of filling their computers with large amounts of "bloatware" and also all sorts of co-branding, but it remains to be seen what they will do with Ubuntu. It has been reported that Dell will be shipping a standard version of Ubuntu 7.04...'"
Don't you remember last week?
If they extend immunity to Dell, they can't make legal threats to Dell. It seems to me like Microsoft is a two-headed monster lately which can't agree with itself on how to attack.
In the 500MHz days, I tried Mandrake Linux, which I was told was "as easy as Windows". "It finds all your hardware and just works." After spending a month trying to get it on the network and talking to a Windows share (with some success), I decided it was just too difficult, like the previous post is saying.
That was then, this is now. I installed Ubuntu Feisty on 2 laptops and it just worked. All the hardware really was found and installing programs with--ready for this--the Add/Remove Programs menu option...is brain-dead simple. Connecting to network shares is just as easy as Windows. In some cases, I have gone to the command line to install something, but 99% of the time, it's just:
Ooh, that's hard.
The biggest problem was that I had to type in 3 command-line commands to get a wireless network card to work. But on Windows XP, I had to call India 3 times to do the same thing, so what's really easier? Hint: the command line was much faster...
Linux is no longer a frustrating command-line-ridden exercise for a Windows user. In fact, if you are already using Firefox and OpenOffice, which I was, you will find it to be very similar.
I have found Linux equivalents for most of what I do. Also, I have gotten many programs to work under Wine just fine. I haven't even found the need to install a Windows virtual machine yet, and it's been over a month.
All that to say, your comments are a little outdated. I thought the same as you did until Vista frustrated me so much that I gave Ubuntu a spin.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Done Windows update recently?
Nearly every time a Windows update completes I am required to restart. In fact, if I -don't- restart I'm presented with a pop up every 5 minutes reminding me that I need to restart.
If you just want to look at software and not OS updates, typically any software that installs/updates a driver or registry entry requires a restart upon completion.
Doing a new windows install from fresh to fully patched and all software/drivers installed requires me to restart 3-5 times. Doing the same on most Linux distros maybe requires one.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Turn the pop-up off. If you shut down affected services before installing the update, you don't need a restart anyway.
gpedit.msc -> Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
Set "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations" to disabled.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Users occasionally need to perform administrative tasks. This happens frequently enough that if they needed to log out and log back in as root to do them, they would just stay logged in as root all the time for convenience. That's obviously not secure.
So, that means that there needs to be a way to get administrative privileges temporarily. In order to have any security at all from this, it has to require user interaction (otherwise programs could automatically get root, and there would be no security). That leaves the choice between the Windows Vista "press OK to perform admin task" solution and the Mac OS X / Ubuntu "type in your password to perform admin task" solution. Making the user type in their password at least proves that it's not someone else sitting down at their computer, and makes sure the user notices that something special happened.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Ok, about the Dell computers shipped with bloatware, etc.
How will that affect Ubuntu. Probably not too much, unless the bloatware software writers want to starting writing lots of non-windows software all of a sudden.
I did get ahold of a Dell Inspiron 1505 with XP, and it was so loaded up with bloatware that the owner asked my to format the XP partition, and "start over". Used my Knoppix Remaster to look around in the drive, and see what partitions Dell had. Seems there were several, one for the Media Direct button setup, that bypasses the main OS. Another for the restoration, and then the main XP partition. Had to download lots of drivers from Dell to get everything set up and running. The restoration is rather generic Dell, does not exactly fit the particular Dell notebook, with all necessary drivers. First, I used another computer to obtain the missing drivers, and stored them on a flash drive, to move them to the 1505. Quite a few, actually.
When done, the 1505 ran like a dream, without any of the bloatware.
Now for the interesting part:
I have another 1505 being built for me by Dell, but it will come preloaded with Vista. I kinda doubt I would want to try and "format" the main Vista partition, and start over like I did (successfully) with the XP 1505.
Sounds like I would be on the telephone with Microsoft splaining what I was trying to do that fowled up the Vista setup.
I will run my livecd linux (screenshots below), however, I am not apprehensive about connecting to the internet with that. The ultimate owner of this particular 1505 will be using Vista, so I can't just format and install something else. I would expect that Dell's linux machines will be shipped with drivers that match the hardware, something I would have to "go it alone" on, if I just "installed Ubuntu" on the 1505. Should be some value in getting a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled, i.e. "everything works", sound card, graphics, everything, just like it is supposed to be with a Dell Vista computer. One thing, though: Will Ubuntu boot up fast enough to satisfy the average user? Vista is supposed to boot up quickly, I don't know from first hand experience, yet. My Remaster boots up fairly quickly, I boot up and down lots of times daily, no problem. In comparison, Fedora Core 6 takes a lot longer on the same machine, so much so, I don't use it much.
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.