Dell Linux Details

jon_anderson_ca writes "Dell, through their direct2dell website, has released some details of their soon-to-be-available Linux machines. Among the highlights: Only hardware that works with Linux is offered; open-source drivers are used where possible; binary drivers for Intel wireless cards, etc.; and no support for proprietary media codecs. Seems reasonable, but it's too bad that Click2Run isn't in Ubuntu 7.04 for the sake of those wanting to (legally) play DVDs, use AVI files, etc." The direct2dell site divulges no details on what models will be offered with Linux. For those we turn to linuxquestions.org, where proprietor Jeremy published a scoop last week: "We will be launching a Linux based OS (Ubuntu) on the E520, 1505 and XPS 410 starting next Thursday, 5/24."

Comments

But will they be cheaper?

[Animats]

The base Dell 1505 laptop is $699, with some low-end version of Windows Vista preinstalled. If the Linux version costs more than that, Dell isn't serious about this.

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[spoop]

But with Windows on a $700 laptop, I'm sure they install all kinds of crapware that brings the cost down, which they obviously can't do with Linux. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual cost to Dell for Windows and Linux is the same.

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[CastrTroy]

The difference is that the PowerEdge line is servers. You can't install crapware on a server. Any admin (I would hope) would promptly wipe the drive anyway and start over from scratch if you included anything close to crapware (or even if you didn't, just because they wanted to do everything from scratch). You can't compare the pricing on their servers to the pricing on their desktop machines, because they serve entirely different purposes, and entirely different markets.

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[fishthegeek]

I'm suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder on the idea that the Linux laptop should be cheaper. On one hand it is financially cheaper for Dell to offer the machines without Windows. On the other hand Dell is probably offering more of a value to most people by vetting the hardware against the software before delivery.

Some of us have had the joy of getting wireless or sound working over the course of a week. Heaven help anyone trying to get power management on a laptop working well. I'm typing this on a 30 day old Acer and what power management I have working is a gross and inelegant hack. I jumped on ideastorm like a couple of other people did and said my peace. Having done that I intend to sell this laptop on craigslist, and buy a Dell preloaded with Feisty and I will pay the difference if I need to. I have the sneaking suspicion that most of the posts on ideastorm are "me too" posts or kids wanting to feel 1337. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that most of the posters are willing to put their money where their mouth is. I believe that having Dell add the value of making a good laptop with a great (and hardware vetted) OS will be worth what they ask. I feel a little naive for suggesting that Linux folks should trust Dell but Dell just might actually price their laptop fairly and I for one will pay for easy Feisty goodness. Look at System76, they sell Ubuntu preloaded and I can promise that they will never be the lower cost option.

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[lawpoop]

Seriously, how much can each craplet defray the cost of a new computer?

I don't know what the numbers are, but I would bet there is at least 1,000 installs for every eventual purchase of an app. If you paid $5 to have your app pre-installed, that would be $5,000 dollars before you got your first $79.99 sale.

The actual amount that each app brings down the cost of a laptop has got to be in the cents range.

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[drsquare]

And you're basing this conclusion on numbers you've completely made up?

Re:But will they be cheaper?

[SEMW]

I don't know what the numbers are, but I would bet there is at least 1,000 installs for every eventual purchase of an app I think you're overestimating the average user and underestimating the psycology used.

Grandma buys a Dell computer. Grandma uses it happily for three months. After three months, Norton pops up a window with an Alarming Yellow Exclamation Mark telling her that her antivirus protection "Will Expire in 5 Day(s)" and that unless she pays $20, her computer Will Be Vulnerable To Newly Discovered Viruses And Other Security Threats! Now, Grandma's read about computer viruses in the papers. She's never heard of AVG, Avast, or ClamAV.

So Grandma presses the button and pays $20. From her perspective, what else could she do?

No, I don't have any figures either, but I suspect that percentage subscription renewals from preloaded apps are a hell of a lot larger than you think.

Is it going to be completely Ubuntu?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Dell going to have their own repository? If people can get software from every repository it is possible that they will get something that doesn't work with the hardware. If Dell had its own repository then they would gain the same advantage that Apple has; the software would be guaranteed to work with the hardware. That would save them a bunch in support. That could make Linux much more attractive to Dell.

Re:Is it going to be completely Ubuntu?

[SavvyPlayer]

Ubuntu is updated every 6 months, and Dell has chosen the more cutting-edge 7.04 version over 6.06 for which Canonical had promised support for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. With Windows, Dell has been accustomed to supporting a relatively stagnant Windows kernel. To commit to supporting a Linux kernel that evolves every dozen weeks or so, and a software distro that evolves every 6 months will require active participation on Dell's part -- regular contributions to testing (n+1) and participation on the Ubuntu launchpad.net site. If Dell is going to contribute at that level it might as well simply become another full ubuntu mirror. Exciting prospects indeed.

Hmmm, not good

[GFree]

If Dell isn't going to be supplying support for proprietary media codecs (regardless of how easy it is to add them yourself), then this suggests to me Dell wasn't prepared to pay licensing costs to make this happen. I hope they provide instructions, or perhaps a script that runs the first time you boot into your Linux box that can auto-install these codecs, otherwise this will piss off a lot of people.

Re:Hmmm, not good

[Compholio]

I hope they provide instructions, or perhaps a script that runs the first time you boot into your Linux box that can auto-install these codecs, otherwise this will piss off a lot of people.

Supposedly they'll be shipping 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) which has a codec wizard

Really...

[BlurredOne]

I know that this does not apply to all of the threads in here, but I need to get something out.

Is there anything that any hardware or software vendor can do that will make the /. community happy? This isn't meant as flamebait or a troll, it is a genuine questions. Dell is taking a step in the right direction by offering Linux on select systems, and some of you seem to be taking this as a personal afront because Dell doesn't cater to all of your whims. This is the start of them offering Linux publically on their systems. It will take some time for Dell to get everything worked out. Please, if you want Dell to continue to offer Linux on their systems, don't criticize them for the initial offering, support them. Go onto the Direct2Dell site and let them know what you would like in future releases. Contribute to the process, don't complain when something that you never asked for isn't included.

Noone gets it right the first time, and if they did, we would still be using the alpha of Ubuntu.

Why not make an "Uncrippled for non-US" edition?

[Kadin2048]

Are there any "European Linux" distros that don't kowtow to the U.S. DMCA rule, and include libdvdcss by default?

It seems like all the major distros basically play by the U.S. rules, but with the seeming increasing popularity of Linux in Europe, I'd think that the time would be right for somebody to just stop following idiotic U.S. regulations and make a distro that's not hampered by anti-circumvention ... I mean, why not have "Crippled for U.S." and "Un-Crippled" mirrors, and just ship the same distro with a different /etc/apt/sources.list file depending on whether it's the "US ISO" or the "International ISO"? (And, duh, everyone except for corporate users in the U.S. would probably just download the European version, but the point would be that in order to get the 'good stuff,' you'd have to shamefully pretend to live in a country that doesn't suck so bad at IP laws.)

It would be sorta like the 40-bit encryption restrictions in the early 90s, only in reverse. We need to make it screamingly obvious to politicians in the U.S., that America is losing on something that the rest of the world is doing without us, because of our stupid rules.

I don't normally encourage obnoxious European holier-than-thou-ism, but this is one case where it could be put to useful effect.

Re:Why not make an "Uncrippled for non-US" edition

[ajs318]

Yes. At least in Britain and Europe, if the DVD is your property, then you are legally entitled to watch the film recorded upon it. Otherwise, the store that sold it to you was breaking the law -- goods sold to a consumer must be fit for their rightful purpose. The fact that you are circumventing encryption is irrelevant in this case, since you are (by sole virtue of ownership of the disc) the intended recipient of the encrypted communication and therefore have authorisation from the sender of the encrypted message (the film company) to view it.

Enforcement of the EUCD in such a way as to protect the interests of established manufacturers would violate pre-existing European laws against anti-competitive behaviour.