Dell, VALinux and others suffer from being overconfident. They have it made: they have a large customer base (Dell) and / or a trendy name (vaLINUX). Dell, at least, started out with good service, good prices, and a decent product. That's how they've done so well.
I've bought hundreds of computers for a development house that relies almost exclusively on Linux. I order computers with all the best: Asus MBs, Seagate HDs, G400 vid, SBLive audio, etc. AS WELL AS MY CHOICE OF LINUX. The company we use is a smaller local vendor (check out www.buypogo.com) that is willing to build computers to specifications WE dictate, get them to us within a week, usually, and has the best customer service I've ever seen. (They usually come the next day to fix things.) They give a 2 yr. warranty on everything, and replace parts and whole machines without question.
The folks at Buypogo realize that we're competent and they will actually save money by not going the "Are you sure it's broken?" route. We have a few old Dells sitting around; the last time one of them broke (an obvious hard drive failure) I called them for a replacement. The technician requested that I open up the box and look at the hard drive: the only way I got him to agree to send me a new one was by opening up the box and saying "Oh yeah, it looks really broken!"
Go for the little guy, they actually have something to gain by providing you with good support.
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Dell, VALinux and others suffer from being overconfident. They have it made: they have a large customer base (Dell) and / or a trendy name (vaLINUX). Dell, at least, started out with good service, good prices, and a decent product. That's how they've done so well.
I've bought hundreds of computers for a development house that relies almost exclusively on Linux. I order computers with all the best: Asus MBs, Seagate HDs, G400 vid, SBLive audio, etc. AS WELL AS MY CHOICE OF LINUX. The company we use is a smaller local vendor (check out www.buypogo.com) that is willing to build computers to specifications WE dictate, get them to us within a week, usually, and has the best customer service I've ever seen. (They usually come the next day to fix things.) They give a 2 yr. warranty on everything, and replace parts and whole machines without question.
The folks at Buypogo realize that we're competent and they will actually save money by not going the "Are you sure it's broken?" route. We have a few old Dells sitting around; the last time one of them broke (an obvious hard drive failure) I called them for a replacement. The technician requested that I open up the box and look at the hard drive: the only way I got him to agree to send me a new one was by opening up the box and saying "Oh yeah, it looks really broken!"
Go for the little guy, they actually have something to gain by providing you with good support.