The best way for Dell (or any OEM) to support Linux would be to start their own distro pre-installed, configured and optimized for the hardware they sell.
With Vista released, I started seriously evaluating the upgrade options for my home machines. One of the machines (a 3 year old P4 HT) had XP, so the choice was easy. I upgraded that to Vista. The upgrade went smoothly. There were a few compatibility issues in the first couple of weeks, which were addressed by software vendors quickly. Next, there was the dilemma of what to do with the laptop (5 year old P3). It is running XP alright, and I needed a new laptop. First, I thought about installing Linux on it. So I installed Ubuntu, and rest of the night was a nightmare. The wireless card didn't work. The options to configure wireless card in the UI suck big time. I enabled the card, the dialog box showed me it was enabled, but it didn't work and the next time I opened the dialog box, it was shown as disabled again. Then I discovered that I had to manually configure the security options using command line tools. Guess what, all these things get auto-detected on Windows (Vista and XP) and get configured without any hassle. Even my Windows Mobile phone can do that. Yes, Linux is free if your time has no value. So later in the night, the machine got back to XP. And did I mention that Linux doesn't support my native language (which is supported on XP since ages), doesn't run any of the professional audio/video/image processing software out there and doesn't like talking to my Xbox 360? The penguin better stay with the servers, but Windows 2003 Server is a strong contender there. Back to the upgrade of laptop, I was seriously considering MacBook. I needed a fast laptop with a small footprint. But Apple thinks that it would be below their dignity to give a decent graphics card and 7200 RPM hard disk on the 13" MacBook. So, I went back to the PC world, and got myself Dell XPS M1210 with Windows Vista pre-installed. This laptop is blazing fast, runs Vista very smoothly and all of my old hardware (including Pro Audio stuff) and software works fine on it. Regardless of what people here say, I am going to stick with Windows on my primary machines. And now I am thinking about buying some used machine and putting Windows Home Server on it to complete the ecosystem.
Another very positive selling point of Xbox 360 is its use as a media extender. Xbox 360 can work as a media center extender and stream audio/video/pictures from your PC. The performance and media experience is pretty good on Xbox 360. And then movie rentals and purchases are also coming to Xbox 360, with potential of live IPTV in future. So Xbox 360 is a lot more than a gaming machine. It is a versatile entertainment device supporting a lot of scenarios.
This is the first release of Windows which followed Microsoft's Secure Development Lifecycle. So it would be a real test of SDL when it is deployed on machines of millions of customers. Now what XP users who intend to stay on XP need is XP SP3, merging code bases of Server 2003 and XP and adding IE7 and WMP11 to it. This would take care of a lot of security problems and make serviceability of XP easier. I wonder if Microsoft will do that.
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The best way for Dell (or any OEM) to support Linux would be to start their own distro pre-installed, configured and optimized for the hardware they sell.
With Vista released, I started seriously evaluating the upgrade options for my home machines. One of the machines (a 3 year old P4 HT) had XP, so the choice was easy. I upgraded that to Vista. The upgrade went smoothly. There were a few compatibility issues in the first couple of weeks, which were addressed by software vendors quickly. Next, there was the dilemma of what to do with the laptop (5 year old P3). It is running XP alright, and I needed a new laptop. First, I thought about installing Linux on it. So I installed Ubuntu, and rest of the night was a nightmare. The wireless card didn't work. The options to configure wireless card in the UI suck big time. I enabled the card, the dialog box showed me it was enabled, but it didn't work and the next time I opened the dialog box, it was shown as disabled again. Then I discovered that I had to manually configure the security options using command line tools. Guess what, all these things get auto-detected on Windows (Vista and XP) and get configured without any hassle. Even my Windows Mobile phone can do that. Yes, Linux is free if your time has no value. So later in the night, the machine got back to XP. And did I mention that Linux doesn't support my native language (which is supported on XP since ages), doesn't run any of the professional audio/video/image processing software out there and doesn't like talking to my Xbox 360? The penguin better stay with the servers, but Windows 2003 Server is a strong contender there. Back to the upgrade of laptop, I was seriously considering MacBook. I needed a fast laptop with a small footprint. But Apple thinks that it would be below their dignity to give a decent graphics card and 7200 RPM hard disk on the 13" MacBook. So, I went back to the PC world, and got myself Dell XPS M1210 with Windows Vista pre-installed. This laptop is blazing fast, runs Vista very smoothly and all of my old hardware (including Pro Audio stuff) and software works fine on it. Regardless of what people here say, I am going to stick with Windows on my primary machines. And now I am thinking about buying some used machine and putting Windows Home Server on it to complete the ecosystem.
Another very positive selling point of Xbox 360 is its use as a media extender. Xbox 360 can work as a media center extender and stream audio/video/pictures from your PC. The performance and media experience is pretty good on Xbox 360. And then movie rentals and purchases are also coming to Xbox 360, with potential of live IPTV in future. So Xbox 360 is a lot more than a gaming machine. It is a versatile entertainment device supporting a lot of scenarios.
This is the first release of Windows which followed Microsoft's Secure Development Lifecycle. So it would be a real test of SDL when it is deployed on machines of millions of customers. Now what XP users who intend to stay on XP need is XP SP3, merging code bases of Server 2003 and XP and adding IE7 and WMP11 to it. This would take care of a lot of security problems and make serviceability of XP easier. I wonder if Microsoft will do that.