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Ubuntu Dell Now In UK, France, and Germany
mrcgran writes "Dell announced the availability of Ubuntu in Europe and future plans for China. 'I hinted at this before, but today, it's official: Dell announced that consumers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany can order an Inspiron 6400 notebook or an Inspiron 530N desktop with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed... In his LinuxWorld keynote, Kevin Kettler announced that Dell and Novell intend to offer SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 factory-installed on select consumer notebooks and desktops in China.'"
It's Gnome for Ubuntu.
While I agree that Open Sourcing either the drivers would be good, I think I'd rather have the full microcode for the chipsets. That would give several different groups a chance at making drivers. I'm not sure why AMD/ATI and NVidia don't release the assembly code, they may find they would not have to work as hard on drivers and they just might get some free assistance in tracking down bugs in both Windows and any other OS. Having said all that, I'd rather take these baby steps with Dell offering any pre-installed Linux, whether it has open or closed source drivers, than not having any computer with pre-installed Linux. Besides, Dell's Ubuntu laptop offering has Intel graphics and wireless chipsets.
Linux isn't an operating system, it's a kernel. Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, those are operating systems powered by the Linux kernel.
*trying to dispel the Linux is an OS confusion*
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Hidden in the press release and not obvious on the main UK site is a text link to www.dell.co.uk/ubuntu
Following this link takes you to the "Dell with Ubuntu" homepage, but clicking on "Choose Desktop" or "Choose Notebook" results in a 404.
Excellent work there Dell.
I'd call it that. I've got a fairly intimate knowledge of the Dell systems that can be configured with Ubuntu (I fix Dell's for a living). Dell tends to favor Intel for it's onboard graphics (and Linux users have little reason, to upgrade this). And Intel produces it's own open source* drivers. Sadly, right now it looks like the new Inspiron desktop doesn't have an onboard graphics option**, and the XPS machines never do, so until that changes, a pure open source system will have to be the notebooks.
*GPLv2 for kernel modules, MIT for other parts, which to my understanding is traditional for Linux drivers.
**I'm going to have to take a look at this when I get to work, but iirc, there's an onboard Intel GMA, even if they don't sell that as an option.
Footnote: Selling Ubuntu apparently worked, they've run out of 1505Ns already. Hopefully this will encourage them to widen the options a bit.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
Addendum. There *is* a Intel GMA something or other on the 530 lineup, but in order to get it, you'll have to pay 50 dollars more, and Ubuntu won't be preinstalled. (Go to Dell.com/open and click on shop for FreeDOS)
It makes no sense to me either.
Another nifty trick? They have an ultra low end (as in celeron) machine with Vista on it, will only cost you 400 dollars and should run Linux great (except the modem, which will be useless).
Okay, so I'm borderline astroturfing at this point. I'm being honest about it though.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
No it isn't. That library is required to play DVDs that have been encrypted with CSS. Any other DVD plays fine without it.
That library is also completely open.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/feature s.aspx/inspn_1720?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs
On 08/Aug/2007:
16:46:09 System System Initial Question/Comment: When will the Inspiron 1720 be loaded with Ubuntu Linux in UK??
16:51:10 System System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
16:51:10 System System Connected with Sherrel_Long
16:51:15 Agent Sherrel_Long Thank you for contacting Dell Sales Chat. This is Sherrell, your Sales Advisor. Please give me a moment while I review your query.
16:52:26 Customer Me ok
16:53:10 Agent Sherrel_Long The software is available if you purchase through phone.
16:55:34 Customer Me i'm buying in uk, 1720 with ubuntu is available in uk as well?
16:56:40 Agent Sherrel_Long Yes, you can call the sales line for this.
INSPIRON 6400N - £616.87
BASE Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2130 Processor (1.86GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache) N-Series
OPERATING SYSTEM Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
HARD DRIVE 80GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD N-Series - Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive for N-Series
PRIMARY BATTERY 6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI Card (for Dual Core Processor)
INSPIRON 6400 - £648.75
BASE Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2130 Processor (1.86GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
HARD DRIVE 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software
PRIMARY BATTERY 6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI Card (for Dual Core Processor)
I've tried to set them up as close as possible. The Vista version can be made £23.50 cheaper by choosing the (default) base wireless card, and has a larger hard drive, and has free shipping which brings the price down and isn't available on the Ubuntu machine.
Have to say I'm disappointed with the offerings, especially as the 6400 is quite an old model already, and there's little scope for building a powerful (by 2007 standards!) machine.