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Pre-Installed Linux Tops Dell Customer Requests

Posted by kdawson on Mon Feb 19, 2007 06:11 PM
from the please-sir-may-I-have-a-penguin dept.
Linux Business Businesses
dhart writes "Within only a few days of Dell opening a new customer feedback website, they discovered that the feature most requested (by an almost 2-to-1 margin!) is an option on all new Dell PCs: pre-installed Linux. (And the number 3 request is pre-installed Open Office.) I believe they'll have a harder time now with the tired old mantra 'There's no customer demand for Linux.'"

Related Stories

[+] Pre-Installed Linux On Dells Coming 340 comments
When Michael Dell took back the reins of he company he founded, one of the first things he did was to launch the feedback site Dell Idea Storm. Following up on the recent Slashdot discussion of the early results of this experiment — an overwhelming expressed desire for pre-loaded Linux — Dell reports on what it plans to do with this feedback. Quoting: "[W]e are working with Novell to certify our corporate client products for Linux, including our OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks and Dell Precision workstations. [On the question of which distro to choose:] "[T]here is no single customer preference for a distribution of Linux... We want users to have the opportunity to help define the market for Linux on desktop and notebook systems. In addition to working with Novell, we are also working with other distributors and evaluating the possibility of additional certifications across our product line."
[+] Your Rights Online: Dell Censors IdeaStorm Linux Dissent 228 comments
thefickler writes "It seems pointless to seek ideas and feedback if you're going to ignore and delete the opinions you don't like. That's exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm website, which the company set up to solicit such ideas and feedback. Dell deleted a post linking to an article that criticizes its handling of the 'pre-installed Linux' issue."
[+] Helping Dell To Help Open Source 177 comments
Glyn Moody writes "Dell's IdeaStorm is turning into a fiasco — for Dell, and for open source as well. Instead of just shouting at the company to sell pre-installed GNU/Linux systems, how about helping them find a way to do it? Here's a suggestion that I've posted on the IdeaStorm site: that Dell set up an independent business unit for GNU/Linux systems, just like The Innovator's Dilemma tells us to do when faced with a disruptive technology."
[+] Dell Refunds Vista/Works With Two Emails 277 comments
look@thealternative.ch writes "Although many people have asked for pre-installed Linux, and Dell seems to have listened, some still think that buying a naked PC won't be easy. But what about stripping it naked after you buy it? I managed to get Windows Vista (and a bit more) refunded from Dell Germany last week. The process was surprisingly simple: 1) After delivery, ask Dell Support for refund by email. 2) ??? 3) Refund!!! Read the full email conversation in the original German or my English translation. For the impatient reader: The refund is €77.54 for Windows Vista Home Basic plus Works 8.0 (that is 15% of the total amount I paid). The whole process took 2 emails, 2 more to say thank you, and less than 48 hours. The money is already in my account. Kudos to Dell Customer Care (esp. 'Veronika') for being efficient and customer-oriented!"
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  • Their system configurator (Score:5, Informative)

    by suso (153703) * on Monday February 19 2007, @06:13PM (#18074394)
    (http://suso.suso.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday March 09 2004, @12:03AM)
    That's cool. But one thing that has always annoyed me about their server configuration utility is that you can select "no operating system, Linux configuration", but there are some hardware options that don't work with that option and so you have to select the microsoft config. So much for getting some extra counts for
    the Linux side

    • Re:Their system configurator (Score:4, Funny)

      by taursir (861098) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:14PM (#18074424)
      It's probably just a money-making or liability ploy. Although, you'd assume that if you're selecting that configuration, you know what you're doing, and they don't have to deal with people going, "OMG, IT WONT START".
      [ Parent ]
    • Maybe because of hardware that isn't compatible with Linux?
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Their system configurator (Score:4, Interesting)

        by jlarocco (851450) on Monday February 19 2007, @07:54PM (#18075648)
        (http://jlarocco.com/)

        Maybe because of hardware that isn't compatible with Linux?

        I'm not seeing your point. Incompatible hardware is only a problem if you have an existing computer, and you want to run a different OS on it. If you're building the machine, as Dell is, it doesn't make any sense to purposely choose hardware that's incompatible with the OS most people (buying these machines) want to use.

        It could be an honest mistake, but they're probably just being asshats.

        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Their system configurator by McFadden (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @10:07PM
          • Re:Their system configurator by Morlark (Score:3) Monday February 19 2007, @10:37PM

          • Re:Their system configurator (Score:5, Interesting)

            by jlarocco (851450) on Monday February 19 2007, @11:47PM (#18077730)
            (http://jlarocco.com/)

            So you're saying that Dell should only be allowed to ship their servers with 100% Linux compatible parts? Presumably you're one of the people who also complained when they were a 100% Microsoft lock-in.

            I didn't say that at all, and I think most people got my point. If they're selling a machine to be used with Linux, then logic would imply that those machines should actually work with Linux.

            You said it yourself in the comment: "the OS most people want to use" (emphasis mine). I note you specifically didn't say all people. Which means there there are people out there who may not want their hardware requirements dictated by an OS they're not even going to install.

            Slow down, and read what I said. The whole thing, with the parentheses. I explicitly pointed out that the people buying *these* machines, specifically the "No OS, Linux" machines, want the machines to run Linux. I wasn't refering to Dell machines in general. If Dell is selling the machine without an OS, specifically so that people can put Linux on it, then yes, I think Dell should make at least a little effort to make sure it comes with Linux compatible hardware. Otherwise, what's the point?

            [ Parent ]
          • Re:Their system configurator by RockDoctor (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @04:56AM
          • Re:Their system configurator by amias (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:53AM
          • Re:Their system configurator by Lockejaw (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @02:51PM
        • Re:Their system configurator by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @09:44AM
        • Re:Their system configurator by jedidiah (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @09:49AM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

    • Re:Their system configurator (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2007, @06:32PM (#18074668)
      "no operating system, Linux configuration"

      is'nt that because the operating system is actually emacs?
      [ Parent ]

    • Re:Their system configurator (Score:4, Informative)

      by rklrkl (554527) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:43PM (#18074814)
      (http://lottery.merseyworld.com/)
      Funny, whenever my company orders Dell Poweredge servers with the no OS option, that's all I have do (how you can have a "Linux configuration" when there's no OS shipped with it?). Slap on CentOS 4.4 and you have an enterprise level OS (a clone of RHEL 4) for no extra cost. And, yes, the Poweredge hardware is fully supported by the enterprise Linux distros in case you're wondering.


      A quick check shows that the "No OS, RHEL $0" and "No OS, Windows $0" options are only on the US www.dell.com site. If you go via the UK www.dell.co.uk site you far more sensibly just get a single "Not included [included in price]" no-cost/no-OS option.

      [ Parent ]
    • Consequences of Linux Demand by reporter (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @07:05PM
    • Re:Their system configurator by Theatetus (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:36AM
    • Re:Their system configurator by red crab (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @02:35AM
    • Heh, they just removed it. by suso (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:36AM
    • Re:Their system configurator by Iridium_Hack (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @09:19AM

    • Re:The Indian tech support is worse. (Score:5, Informative)

      by geekboybt (866398) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:52PM (#18074938)
      Not to feed the trolls, but here goes anyways... Have you actually called their support? Or, a better question - are these actual servers (PowerEdge) or desktops standing in as servers? I've called them many times, for servers that only cost $1k to ones over $6k. Every time I've gotten an American English speaking rep from Texas. Yes, even on Christmas morning and the machine's technically out of warranty. Cheap desktops get you cheap support. Real servers get you real support. You get what you pay for.
      [ Parent ]

    • Great Story: (Score:4, Interesting)

      by encoderer (1060616) on Monday February 19 2007, @07:48PM (#18075582)
      On a late night public radio call-in show (put out by American Public Media), they had a story about the overseas call centers. It was a great story. They played clips of the training classes where they teach these indians to lie about what they did on the 4th of july or what they ate for Thanksgiving. It was sickening.

      But then they interview this "industry representitive" who basically said what we all have been: The American people are not satisfied with the level of service they get from Indian call centers, and that many companies are closing them.

      I momentarily though "wow, thank god, that's a trend that can't be over too soon."

      Then he pulls out the punchline: Many of the closed Indian operations are being moved to the Phillipines, because people have less of a negative impression when the phillipino accent is played back to them.

      I swear to god it's like the RIAA is running the call center industry.

      I was SCREAMING at the radio that the only reason Filipino accents don't score as badly as Indian accents are that Americans haven't called tech support yet and had to deal with under-trained Filipinos nearly as much as they've had to deal with under-trained Indians.

      So yes, that's their bright idea. So if Dell does accept the "Close your indian call centers" suggest, don't expect much of an improvement. Maybe we should be a little more specific and suggest that they move their call centers only to NATO countries, and preferably the US, Canada or the UK.
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Great Story: (Score:5, Interesting)

        by koreaman (835838) <uman@umanwizard.com> on Monday February 19 2007, @08:11PM (#18075806)
        (http://umanwizard.com/)
        Do you know any Filipinos, and more importantly, do you speak English with them on a regular basis?

        I know a teenage Filipina girl. Although she does have a noticable accent, her English is impeccable and easily understood. She's not a special case, this is normal for Filipinos. The Phillippines exhibit a situation of diglossia in which English is used for educational and government as well as other formal purposes. What this means is that everything from government proceedings to television reporting is conducted in the English language. In addition, English is the only language spoken in many schools, and textbooks are exclusively written in the language. According to the Filipina I know, any use of her local language in her school incurs a fine.

        Thus, Filipinos, especially educated ones, can be expected to have a good command of English. This, coupled with the fact that their accent is quite easily understandable, would make them, on average and from a linguistic point of view, much better technical support representatives than their Indian counterparts.
        [ Parent ]

        • Mod parent... Well, *you* decide... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by KingSkippus (799657) * on Monday February 19 2007, @08:38PM (#18076062)
          (http://skippus.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday June 19 2005, @07:25AM)

          I won't tell you how to mod the parent, but I can throw my 2 cent's worth of experience in.

          It is 100% true that English isn't a second language in the Philippines, it's a primary language. I work in a 24x7 datacenter, and a year or so ago, a new support center was opened in the Philippines to handle our night shift. I thought they were going to let a bunch of people go, but it turned out, they were expanding our operations, not replacing them. (Thank goodness!)

          I was very skeptical that this would work. I had many of the same fears. Would we be able to understand their accent? Would they be undertrained an incompetent? Would there be any culture clashes?

          The answers, to my surprise, were: They have no discernible accent—none. They're very smart and easily keep up with our local folks, and have often gone far above and beyond the call of duty to help us out. And yes, they are very familiar with our culture and ways of doing things. In fact, a nice bonus about the Filipino support center is that a lot of our night shift calls were coming from Asia-Pacific countries (since, duh, they were open at that time of night), and a lot of those clients feel much more comfortable dealing with our Filipino support center than our American night shift folks.

          By now, you're probably thinking, "Right, you're just a management goober," but I assure you, I'm not. In fact, I was certain that I was going to lose my job due to Filipino outsourcing, but that never happened, since we weren't really outsourcing. And after working with them for a while at our shift turnover and seeing the quality of the work they did for us, I can honestly say that hiring our Filipino friends has turned out to be one of the few times management actually did something right at my company, and it's been a win-win situation for everyone.

          I'm not saying that every Filipino person is smart and capable and a perfect joy to work with. Just like dealing with all people, your mileage may vary. But I can say that anyone who thinks that good customer service can't be provided by support centers in the Philippines is either stupid or doesn't know enough Filipino people, if any at all.

          [ Parent ]
        • Re:Great Story: by encoderer (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @09:30PM

          • Re:Great Story: (Score:5, Insightful)

            by ElDavido (897521) on Monday February 19 2007, @10:23PM (#18076966)
            and they're STILL not going to understand common pop-culture references
            Do you call tech support lines to chat about American Idol or something? When I call, I want technical answers. So long as I can understand the other person, I don't care where they are or what cultural customs they follow.

            (Yes, I understand that the Phillipines are an American protectorate so they could all be considered somewhat 'american' but you know what I meant)
            The Philippines are not an American protectorate. The Philippines have been a completely sovereign nation since 1946. They were ceded from the Spanish to the United States in the Spanish-American War in 1898. That relationship lasted until WWII, when the Japanese took the islands. After WWII, the Philippines became a fully independent nation. The United States had military bases there until the early 1990s.
            [ Parent ]
          • Re:Great Story: by koreaman (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @10:23PM
            • Re:Great Story: by encoderer (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:05AM
            • Re:Great Story: by TCaptain (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:39AM
              • Re:Great Story: by petermgreen (Score:2) Wednesday February 21 2007, @09:42AM
            • Re:Great Story: by wordsnyc (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:24AM
              • Re:Great Story: by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:27AM
            • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
          • Flaimbait? by encoderer (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:02AM
            • Re:Flaimbait? by koreaman (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @06:05AM
              • Re:Flaimbait? by encoderer (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:36AM
          • Re:Great Story: by Fulminata (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:39AM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

        • Re:Great Story: (Score:4, Funny)

          by mwvdlee (775178) on Tuesday February 20 2007, @02:08AM (#18078638)
          (http://www.vanderlee.com/)

          I know a teenage Filipina girl.

          Are you sure about that?
          [ Parent ]
        • Re:Great Story: by GanjaManja (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @03:55AM
        • Re:Great Story: by koreaman (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @09:21PM
        • Re:Great Story: by bhiestand (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @04:37AM
        • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Grite Story: by zsau (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @08:51PM
      • Re:Great Story: by klx (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @08:56PM
      • Re:Great Story: by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @09:29PM
      • Re:Great Story: by koreaman (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @10:29PM
      • Re:Great Story: by sdgr800 (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:22AM
      • Actually, I got tech support from there tonight.. by the_rajah (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:32AM
      • the point of outsourcing by weierstrass (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @06:28AM
      • Re:Great Story: by xtronics (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:14PM
      • Re:Great Story: by Pikoro (Score:1) Wednesday February 21 2007, @02:43AM
      • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Their system configurator by sumdumass (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:05AM
    • Re:The Indian tech support is worse. by the_womble (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @03:20AM
    • 5 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • Demographics (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wordplay (54438) <geo@snarksoft.com> on Monday February 19 2007, @06:13PM (#18074406)
    Strangely, the #2 option was pre-installed pictures of Natalie Portman.

  • curious (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gravesb (967413) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:15PM (#18074440)
    (http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com/)
    I'm all for choice, and I think its pretty stupid of Dell not to have offered this before. However, I wonder how many unique requests there are, and how many people asked for that a 1000 times or so. I use Linux at home, but it sure isn't on a Dell box; I built my own, as I guess a lot of Linux hobbists do. But if this gets Dell to implement that option, then great. More Linux penetration is good. Of course, people have to follow up on it; if they offer it and no one buys it, it just gives them and other retailers a reason not to offer it and will make it harder in the future to get pre-made Linux boxes from the major sellers.
    • Re:curious by truthsearch (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @06:44PM
      • Re:curious by RareButSeriousSideEf (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @07:33PM
        • Re:curious by mackyrae (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @08:14PM
          • Re:curious by RareButSeriousSideEf (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @11:25PM
        • Honest votes by symbolset (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @11:16PM
        • Re:curious by eno2001 (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:17AM
          • Re:curious by Dan Ost (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @07:27AM

    • Re:curious (Score:4, Interesting)

      by smilindog2000 (907665) <bill@billrocks.org> on Monday February 19 2007, @07:23PM (#18075330)
      (http://www.billrocks.org/)
      I found an interesting Dell/Linux bit of hype. Dell pushed their new $400 Dimension e521 as a good Linux machine last fall, but it turned out that it wouldn't actually run Linux, due to BIOS bugs on Dell's system. I expected the community to report the bug, and move onto the next machine... wrong. There were at least hundreds of angry linux users out there making a stink... and then the unthinkable happened... Dell listened to the Linux community feedback and FIXED their BIOS! I bought one as soon as I read that. It makes a great Linux box, at least if you run Ubuntu Feisty :-)
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:curious by batso (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @12:54PM
        • Re:curious by smilindog2000 (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:06PM
      • Re:curious by Eil (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @02:33PM
      • Dell BIOS and Linux by avanaardt (Score:1) Tuesday February 20 2007, @10:05PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:curious by Trom77 (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @07:29PM
      • Re:curious by networkBoy (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @07:35PM
    • Re:curious by KKlaus (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @08:21PM
    • Re:curious by slapys (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @09:10PM
    • Re:curious by Jonny do good (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @09:40PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:curious by JoeZ99 (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @11:07PM
      • Re:curious by alc6379 (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:00AM
        • Re:curious by JoeZ99 (Score:1) Thursday February 22 2007, @09:55AM
    • Re:curious by Eivind (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @02:25AM
    • Re:curious by lixee (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @06:04AM
    • Re:curious by Dan Ost (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @07:37AM
    • Re:curious by VdG (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @08:32AM
    • Re:curious by Steve001 (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @11:58AM
    • Re:curious by AeroIllini (Score:2) Tuesday February 20 2007, @01:31PM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • Linux flavors A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx (565205) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:16PM (#18074448)

    I believe they'll have a harder time now with the tired old mantra 'There's no customer demand for Linux.'"


    It's not so much that there isn't customer demand for LINUX, it's that there isn't a whole lot of customer demand for individual Linux flavors A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc. It's too much of a PITA to worry about qualifying all that different hardware with all the different distros and then worrying about dealing with Red Hat, Novell and all the different suppliers of what's basically a free OS.

    Now, if they had a service like "I'll send you the Linux distro I want, please preinstall it on the next 500 computers you ship me," that could be big.

  • lolz by abscissa (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @06:18PM
    • Re:lolz by blindd0t (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @06:44PM

  • Requests != demand (Score:5, Interesting)

    by StikyPad (445176) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:19PM (#18074504)
    (http://slashdot.org/)
    I believe they'll have a harder time now with the tired old mantra 'There's no customer demand for Linux.'"

    Assuming, of course, that this wasn't a campaign launched by F/OSS zealots. For some reason, vocal minorities are often confused with silent majorities. I'll put more faith in this alleged consumer demand when Linux boxes start outselling all other systems by a 2-to-1 margin. In fact, I'd be amazed if they even sold at a 1:2 margin. It would be a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless.
    • Re:Requests != demand by Xzzy (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @06:27PM
    • Re:Requests != demand by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Monday February 19 2007, @06:28PM

    • Re:Requests != demand (Score:4, Informative)

      by profplump (309017) <zach@kotlarek.com> on Monday February 19 2007, @06:39PM (#18074780)
      (http://www.uberzach.com/)
      You're correct in assuming that most people buying machine from Dell probably *are* happy without a pre-installed linux configuration option, but that doesn't mean the statistics in the poll aren't representative of some portion of Dell's actual machine-buying customers, or that the poll results are somehow rigged or invalid. All the statistics say is that, of people not happy with the existing configuration options, the most popular change request is pre-installed Linux, not that most customers would prefer Linux to Windows. Having Windows pre-installed is not a change, and therefore that configuration option is not represented in the statistics.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Requests != demand by Jherek Carnelian (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @06:46PM
    • Re:Requests != demand by evilviper (Score:2) Monday February 19 2007, @06:47PM

    • Re:Requests != demand (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jesdynf (42915) on Monday February 19 2007, @06:49PM (#18074896)
      (http://slashdot.org/)

      You put a radio button that reads "( ) OpenOffice, FREE ( ) MS Office, $49.99 Dell Discount Rate" and we'll talk about consumer demand.

      [ Parent ]