Dell Drops Ubuntu PCs From Its Website

Barence writes "Dell has stopped selling consumer PCs preloaded with Ubuntu from its website, and doesn't know when they're coming back. A search for Ubuntu on the Dell UK website returns only one laptop — the Dell Latitude 2100 from the company's business range. Dell insists that it's continuing to sell Ubuntu systems, but only over the phone, and has no idea when — or even if — the Ubuntu PCs will return online. 'We've recently made an effort to simplify our offerings online, by focusing on our most popular bundles and configuration options, based on customer feedback for reduced complexity and a simple, easy purchase experience,' Dell told PC Pro. 'We're also making some changes to our Ubuntu pages, and as a result, they are currently available through our phone-based sales only.' The move comes after Dell put a page on its website advising customers only to go for Ubuntu if they were interested in open-source programming."

Comments

Just works?

[transporter_ii]

Typing this on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS using Google Chrome. Why Chrome? I used 8.04 and Firefox for about a year, year and a half and loved it. Then one day Firefox updated to 3.6.6 and Flash quit working. I also got to noticing that web sites took a long time to load (I thought it was because I use a WISP). I messed around with Flash and the best I could get was intermittent flash and it took a lot of browser restarts just to get that. So I updated to 10.04 in hopes that would fix the problem. I think Firefox actually got slower.... annoyingly slow.

Just for the sake of testing, I installed Google chrome and it worked amazingly better. Flash works the first time you start it up and it is amazingly fast compared to Firefox.

But I'm a Firefox fanboy and, though I like Google, I hate to see them take over the world. More than speed, I like the plugins available for Firefox.

Firefox is an integral part of Ubuntu and you would think of all things, this would be the one thing that "just worked," Not. And during this same period of time, Firefox on my XP system works exactly like it has since I installed it.

Re:it doesn't make any sense because

[airjrdn]

BS

I just began using Linux Mint nearly full time, and it's been very nice, but finding software is still easier for Windows users if it isn't in your repo's.

You don't have to hunt anywhere, any non-Apple store that sells software sells Windows software, and all major software sites carry Windows software.

As for fussing with it, again BS. I've always had to do much more work getting Linux to print and install proprietary drivers than I ever had to do in windows, and the ultimate pain is felt if you do something that disallows X to start. Worst case scenario in Windows is that I'm at 640x480. Piss X off and you are in a terminal.

primarily a marketing experiment

[viralMeme]

"Personally, I thought it was just a matter of time, as this was primarily a marketing experiment to cash in on a perceived hot commodity (Linux).

Someone else above used eerily similarly phraseology (`testing the waters of this option'). But never mind, lets smoke out some innovation shall we ;)

"Now, lets interject what I am asking into the picture.... We invest big, big $$ in Dell. We will continue to invest big, big $$ in Dell. I am asking that we do this investment with our eyes wide open. I do not want to invest $$ in Dell to fund their Red Hat efforts. I am asking that: a) we be quite prescriptive in our investments with Dell relative to the competitive threats we see with Linux b) we constantly benchmark ourselves against the actions they do with RedHat"

Would you mind translating that into RedmondSpeak and tell us all what he really maent :)