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Dell Releases Ubuntu 7.10-Powered PCs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the gutsy-moves dept.

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."

4 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DVD Playback by kellyb9 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Not off topic AT ALL. If Linux or for that matter Ubuntu is ever going to become mainstream this NEEDS to happen. DVD playback has been sore spot for Linux for several years, and while it's possible, from what I understand it's legality is somewhat questionable which is why most versions don't include it out of the box.

  2. Europe? by BlueParrot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, it doesn't matter too much as there are other options in Sweden, but will these be sold in Europe?

  3. Re:Is the DVD playback crippled? by KingSkippus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is the DVD playback crippled? Will it refuse to skip previews and such?

    A DVD player that refuses to skip previews and such isn't crippled, it's working exactly as it's designed to.

    I'm not saying that forcing you to watch commercials is a good thing, I think it's awful. But let's not act like players are supposed to completely ignore PUOs on DVDs, they're not. Those that do are the ones that aren't working as the specs detail they're supposed to, they just happen to be doing so in a manner that's convenient to you.

    In an ideal world, media companies would use PUOs responsibly and not piss off their consumers. In reality, their abuse of PUOs have caused many of us to seek ways around their pig-headedness by using DVD players that ignore elements of the specifications. It's sad, but we need to recognize the situation for what it is, not what we wish it were.

  4. Too much unregistered shareware by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wish they cost less than a comparable windows system. They're acting like they are giving you a free OS, when they're really getting more money off of the Linux machines. Major publishers of shareware pay home PC builders to get the unregistered versions of their products installed on the system before the end user first turns it on. Some Slashdot users have hypothesized that this makes up for the entire price of a high-volume OEM Windows license. The reason you don't get a discount on the PC with Ubuntu OS is that the shareware either isn't available for GNU/Linux (and doesn't run well in Wine) or has a Free counterpart that's as good or better.