Dell will use Ubuntu

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 2nd May 2007
Comments (16) Stumble
Dell will use Ubuntu

"Fawns, badgers, and bears, oh my!" - Dell will carry the menagerie that is Ubuntu.

It's been a little while since we've heard more of Dell's plans to use Linux on some machines, and we've been left with a lot of questions. In particular, everyone has been wondering what distro of Linux might be used: would it be Ubuntu, for ease of use? SUSE, for its strong support and compatibility? Slackware for its incredible flexibility and stability?

And the winner is....Ubuntu. Officially.

According to Dell's "Ideas in Action" site, the world's largest PC manufacturer has chosen Ubuntu's latest 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" distribution. The option will officially be provided on "some consumer products," but rumours assume one of Dell's budget "Essential" line (also known as e-series) of desktops, an Inspiron-e laptop, and an XPS model desktop. The systems will begin to be sold at the end of May.

Ubuntu isn't that surprising of a choice, given that it did win Dell's distro survey conducted over the last couple months. Michael Dell has also recently acknowledged using the build on his home laptop instead of Windows, which is a pretty ringing endorsement to the average person. Users of the Ubuntu are also usually the first to admit that it has a striking similarity to Windows in several respects, allowing an easy learning curve.

Whether the Feisty Fawn build was actually assisted with by Dell to ensure compatibility remains to be seen. Also missing in the acknowledgment on Tuesday afternoon is pricing information, though guesses have been offered for a couple of the systems. Of course, these are entirely dependent on which systems Dell chooses out of its line-up.

Other flavours of Linux will still be for sale in the other business areas, including RedHat for Precision workstations and SUSE for servers. Ubuntu will only be used in the consumer sector of the company's product line. If you were Dell, which flavour of Linux would you have chosen? Is offering Linux the right move for Dell? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
Quote Jamie 2nd May 2007, 09:54
Not on the UK store?
Quote bilbothebaggins 2nd May 2007, 11:45
While I think Ubuntu is a great product - I use it myself and have installed it on the PC of my parents - I shiver to think what will happen if the average, windows trained, computer user tries to use these.

It will be interesting, though I really fear neither Dell nor Linux nor Ubuntu will get a positive feedback out of this ...

*crosses fingers for Ubuntu* :)

br,
-btb-
Quote p3n 2nd May 2007, 12:09
Why on earth do you need linux preinstalled ? Surely they should just add an option for no OS and let people decide as after all its free...
Quote konsta 2nd May 2007, 12:21
For exactly the same reason as any OS is preinstalled....
Quote labr@t 2nd May 2007, 12:31
be great
Quote Glider 2nd May 2007, 12:46
How much as I dislike Ubuntu, I think this is a great step for Linux.

The average Windows user will cope just fine with Ubuntu. After a week they would have forgotten Windows :)
Quote mclean007 2nd May 2007, 13:00
Will it be cheaper than the Windows equivalent though? If so, I can envisage a substantial minority purchasing the Linux version, zapping it and installing a less than wholly legitimate copy of Windows to save a few $£€. Heck, I'd zap Windows from a Dell PC and reinstall clean anyway - who knows what kind of crud the Dell installer monkeys put on there!
Quote Glider 2nd May 2007, 13:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by mclean007
Will it be cheaper than the Windows equivalent though? If so, I can envisage a substantial minority purchasing the Linux version, zapping it and installing a less than wholly legitimate copy of Windows to save a few $£€. Heck, I'd zap Windows from a Dell PC and reinstall clean anyway - who knows what kind of crud the Dell installer monkeys put on there!
Like there is a marginal minority that does that today on homebuilt PC's...
Quote bilbothebaggins 2nd May 2007, 13:58
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glider
...
The average Windows user will cope just fine with Ubuntu. After a week they would have forgotten Windows :)

That remains to be seen. Insofar this is an interesting experiment by Dell :)
Quote Veles 2nd May 2007, 14:02
They'll probably charge £50 for the bother of putting a free OS on there.
Quote mclean007 2nd May 2007, 15:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glider
Like there is a marginal minority that does that today on homebuilt PC's...
True, but I don't see Microsoft being too happy about Dell pitching consumer PCs at a lower price with no MS OS installed. First, it will encourage piracy, and secondly, it will reveal to some extent the cost to Dell of Windows licences.
Quote Confused Fishcake 2nd May 2007, 19:54
While I only use linux, and would never have windows on any of my pcs, I'm dubious of this new move. The average person is going to either not try it at all, or more likely:
1- Buy a Dell pc with Ubuntu installed
2- Have no idea what to do, post some useless post on the Ubuntu forums
3- Find out that their new game/software won't run (Yes I know wine rules, but its not easy enough for your average user)
4- Get seriously pissed of at Ubuntu, Dell, and Linux, and buy a copy of windows, and pay for it to be reinstalled. This will badly damage the reputation of linux among scared new users.

TBH, anyone who cannot install ubuntu on their own will never be able to use it.
Quote Hamish 2nd May 2007, 20:20
be good for situations where you need a fairly large number of basic machines, internet cafes etc, that would set you back a lot in windows licenses
Quote mattthegamer463 2nd May 2007, 20:43
Ubuntu drove me insane in wholly 20 minutes, I could never see a average or above average PC user who's ever used a Windows PC being able to do anything on Linux. "Just use WinZip" his friend says. WinZip doesn't work for Linux he finds out quick so he has to search the internet for the equivalent Linux program to do the job for him. Viewing a funny picture now became a 30 minute webhunt and Linux nerd jargon-translation, and the end result is a very annoyed consumer with a picture of a beaver in a hat.

Perhaps a 30 day Windows trial and an included Ubuntu Live and Install CD included in the bundle? That gives the consumer a chance to weigh their options at least.
Quote Bogomip 2nd May 2007, 21:06
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Pope
Is offering Linux the right move for Dell?
I'm a seasoned gamer and computer enthusiast, I regularly use PCs in all of their glory and have been around long enough to know a large amount of programming languages in some capacity and even DOS commands!

I installed Ubuntu the other day - the simple linux. 2 days and much pain and misery later the graphics work!

Linux isn't the right move for dell - people who use linux really want to work for their computer to do stuff, people who buy dell really hope AOL and the internet comes pre-installed, in my personal experiance. You can't give people a system that isn't going to run the games they want, that isn't going to be able to run the program off your NTL disk to install the internet and isn't going to be fixable if it breaks.

edit: And I can honestly see no reason to use linux over windows except for cost - security is only a matter of not visiting dodgy sites (which people probalbly would tbh) and as for stability, my linux crashed all the time - not good at all. Back to windows now though, ah sweet bliss :)
Quote Aankhen 3rd May 2007, 00:08
I wonder just how much their support calls will go up. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbothebaggins
Insofar […]
"I do not think that word means what you think it means." ;)
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