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Dell To Offer Ubuntu Laptops Again
An anonymous reader writes "TechCrunch reports that Dell will be officially re-entering the Linux laptop market. Beginning this fall, it will sell a 'developer edition' of one of its Ultrabooks that comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu 12.04. Dell first started offering computers with Linux installed in 2007, but they dropped the products in 2010. This spring, a skunkworks effort called Project Sputnik was announced, and now, after the completion of a short beta test, the Ubuntu laptops have been given a green light for commercial sale. Canonical has been working alongside Dell to help make this happen."
...to buy one, wipe off that buggy, proprietary OS and install Debian on it.
Is this announcement definitely from Dell, or is it more bullshit from Canonical? Canonical has previously announced various machines as coming with their Linux preloaded. Canonical claimed that for an EeePC model. Didn't happen.
Last time I looked at one of these Linux laptops, the price was higher than the $350 Windows laptop I saw at staples. Therefore it saved me money to buy the Windows version, download Lubuntu, and install a dual boot, rather than support Dell Linux offering.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Dell is the fourth largest PC vendor in sales numbers in the last quarter so a few people are buying their stuff still.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Now I can get a cheaper laptop and put on my pirated Windows 7 Ultimate! w00t!!!!!
(because *nobody* pirates the home edition)
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I've always reserved "skunkworks project" for what I thought were interesting, kinda secret, complicated pursuits.
You know, like the exact opposite of dell slapping ubuntu on a laptop and selling it on their website. ;)
Looks like it's time to negotiate OEM Windows pricing with Microsoft. Out comes the old pal, Linux, and stays there right up until Microsoft complies with Dell's demands. This is getting tiresome. It's the third or fourth time they've done this, there's no element of surprise to anyone but people with Alzheimers.
Even now, there are some notebooks available on their website, and you can probably get even more options when you ask them on the phone.
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Normally OEM licences are often on a 5 year term, so this would make sense timing wise.
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i should note, for on-topic's sake, that the dell laptop i'm writing this on -is- running ubuntu 12.04, but I put it on there, not them.
from the Project Sputnik FAQ:
You and everyone else, apparently.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
On February 9, 2003, Curtis was caught attempting to buy a bag of marijuana on Manhattan's Lower East Side.[2] Curtis was arrested and charged with criminal possession of marijuana. Due to recognizability of Curtis, word of the arrest spread quickly through the media. A chain email of the story even cropped up as it was forwarded around the internet using the iconic parodied phrase "Dude, you're getting a cell!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Curtis_(actor)
"'who ISN'T buying dell"
Nor am I, nor will I ever. Back in the mid to late 90s DELL was an awesome system.
Anyone remember the Dimension 450? Anyway, in the early and mid-2000s, their overall service and quality level just tanked.
Intentionally so, actually. I am posting this as AC since I worked for Dell for a great many years as a Gold Tech Support Agent, and I don't particularly like the idea of being sued for letting the cat out of the bag.
The reason your service and quality level tanked -- why calls were outsourced to India, why parts became just a little bit flakey, etc -- was to give sales a reason to upsell you.
Yes, outsourced techs are cheaper (they make pathetically low wages), but they also gave us an opportunity to sell you a service contract to speak to an American for a vastly inflated price, and they make a killing doing so.
Yes, the cheaper parts are cheaper, but they gave us an opportunity to sell you a next day or 4 hour service contract for your hardware, rather than have you ship in the laptop or wait for service, and again, they make a killing doing so.
It's the latter (upsells) not the former (direct discounts) that Dell was interested in.
The higher ups were quite open with this when they were explaining why we couldn't help frustrated customers who India sent over to us -- if India couldn't fix something, and it was past 5 o'clock over there, they'd punt the customer over to us-- and we'd punt them right back, most of the time.
And yes, you can still get an American. When you buy your next Business model Dell, ask for a "Pro Support" warranty. Unfortunately, you won't get me, as my site (as well as all the Canadian sites) were outsourced... to Dell. They closed our site claiming they didn't need 3 Pro Support sites, then outsourced our jobs to a company Dell owns down in Florida -- but this way, they don't have to give benefits nor a fair wage. Ain't economics grand?
Today you can order a XPS13 off dell.com which will come with Microsoft pre-loaded.
I hate Windows as much as the next guy, but if they're bundling a $250B company with each XPS laptop purchased, even *I* want to get in on this promotion!
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Did you ever actually look for the Linux laptops on Dell's web site? I did, and it wasn't like they plastered them on the home page. It's not like it was even a choice when you were configuring your system. You had to go to a special sub-site with few or no links from other pages. You really had to know where it was to get to it.
Trust me, people weren't buying Linux machines by accident.
When I bought mine you had to go looking for the Ubuntu machines page; when you got there it explained very clearly, in non-technical language, that if you don't know what we're talking about you don't want one: go over here to buy a Windows machine. They thought that out ahead of time and were very clear about it.
The reality is a Linux laptop should cost MORE because while Dell may have to pay $25 to Microsoft they get $50 from the crapware vendors.
1) It's highly unlikely that anyone looking to buy a Windows laptop will accidentally type "Dell Linux Laptop" into Google. Prove to me that it can happen by accident.
2) That link only shows how to buy rack-based server hardware with linux. Even back in 2009, when Dell did sell consumer based machines with linux, they had a huge section of the website about linux, but it was all server-based information. You could spend an hour clicking link after link through the Dell linux site without finding the consumer products. Actually finding a link to configure a dell laptop or desktop model with linux pre-installed was nearly impossible. I know... I tried.
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