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Dell Releases Ubuntu 7.10-Powered PCs
sjvn writes "The official word will be out any minute now, but in the meantime DesktopLinux has learned that Dell will be releasing Ubuntu 7.10 on a laptop and desktop with immediate availability. And, as an extra added bonus, they're tossing in legal DVD-playback capability. In a word: Neat."
Here I thought computers were powered by electricity.
Linux keeps getting better and better every day it seems.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
Pitty their website doesn't work with Firefox 1.5 in Linux, I can't choose options such as OS. Doubt this qualifies as being slashdotted. Dell, we love you guys, but first things first....
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
The question is which will be first -
dell actually promoting linux on their front page or duke nukem forever going gold...
Seriously they must have sold a lot of the linux line to be doing this.
I bet all the chairs in Redmond are very afraid at the moment.
living the dream
If they're smart, they'll continue on that path and add out-of-the-box support for mp3, aac, and other non-Free multimedia.
What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
Of course, if it's not your favorite DVD, then the player won't work.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
I haven't read TFA (been here a while). Is the DVD playback crippled? Will it refuse to skip previews and such? It doesn't sound like a fully functional DVD player would get the blessing, and the promise not to sue, from the MPAA.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
I had been seriously considering getting a Ubuntu laptop for a while now, but held off because they were still using Feisty. Time to buy myself a Christmas present!
I wish they had at least a 15" display on these things. I hate to squint.
Looks like Ubuntu 7.04 on 15" laptops, for now.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
Well, it doesn't matter too much as there are other options in Sweden, but will these be sold in Europe?
Besides the DVD-playback, what is so important about this? Vista machines were available from day one of its release. No major OEMs are still selling Win2K. OEMs will always move on to the next OS offered by MS, Canonical, Ret Hat, Novell, etc. Ubuntu PCs being easier to find on Dell's site would be more newsworthy.
I thought they were releasing Ubuntu 7.10 on PowerPC chipped computers! Hey, maybe they'll get Flash working on Linux for PPC was my first thought... :)
So it still needs proprietary drivers, right?
So I went through and customized the same model with Windows Vista and with Ubuntu, to the same configuration (better LCD and larger battery, but otherwise stock). The Ubuntu model was roughly $854, and the Windows Model was roughly $824 (I might be off by a few bucks). But why is the Ubuntu model more than the Vista model? grrr.
The PPC zealot in me first read the headline as "Ubuntu 7.10 PowerPCs."
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Duck!
I kid, I kid! Love this move on Dell's part. Get me a laptop with a working built-in webcam and I'm sold. Telecommuter? Naaa, just an expat.
In unrelated news, there's a Duke Nukem teaser. Is it April 1 already?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
FBI warnings reduce the likelihood of an ignorance of fact defense, which could reduce the damages that the copyright owner can collect from convicted[1] infringers. If a publisher cannot give FBI warnings on a given home video format, it might significantly raise the price of titles in that format to compensate for the cost of lost opportunity for damages. And if this increased price is not profitable for a given title, the publisher might just not release it in that format at all, instead choosing to release it on the competing format whose digital restrictions management capabilities more closely match the publisher's wishes. You already see this with some studios exclusively releasing on HD DVD and others on Blu-ray Disc.
[1] If "convicted" applies only to criminal law, what corresponding adjective from civil law meaning "successfully found liable" best replaces it in context?
"If they're smart, they'll continue on that path and add out-of-the-box support for mp3, aac, and other non-Free multimedia."
What do you mean? Non-free?
According to the people who came up with the DVD format.
I'd be willing to bet that if asked "Would you rather go work and earn $100, or would you like to have it for free from UncleTogie's personal bank account?" darn near 100% of the people would indicate the latter. Majority rule is completely irrelevant in some cases, such as what the DVD specifications say.
I read it, and I saw the last sentence. Here it is for reference: "Some publishers run protected commercials on their DVDs, which is widely seen as an abuse of the feature." I don't disagree, and I also see it as an abuse of the feature. Maybe the spec is obsolete. That still doesn't change the fact that according to the specification, players that ignore PUOs are not working correctly. They may be broken in a way that is convenient to you, and you might like the way in which they're broken a lot, and I would never argue that you shouldn't use a player that works how you want it to.
But acting like DVD players that work according to the specification are broken only masks the real problems: companies that force you to watch stuff you don't want to because of greed, and maybe a specification that has parts in it that allows such companies to engage in such abuse, although there ARE valid uses of PUOs (some of which are also outlined in the Wikipedia article). Whining and complaining about the DVD players is pointless.
Actually, not buying DVDs that abuse the practice is the first step to make the situation better. If you get a DVD home and are forced to watch a crapfest of commercials, return it to the store and explain why. If companies start seeing an impact in their bottom line because of their abuse, they'll stop. If you keep buying DVDs from them and working around the PUOs, their profits will continue to go up, their abuse will appear to be profitable, and it will encourage even more abuse.
http://lynxcache.com/Dell_announces_Ubuntu_7_10_PCs_with_DVD_playback_UPDATED_.html
According to 'El Reg, Dell has sold around 40,000 Ubuntu powered PCs. To be fair, that's not too bad for an operating system that isn't Windows or Mac....
Dell isn't a dumb company, if they're investing time and money in improving Ubuntu and making it more appealing to the user I guess they must think it can make them money.