Dell Refuses to Sell Ubuntu to Business

An anonymous reader writes "I had a surreal experience with Dell today. My boss asked me to order a new computer for our small, non-profit business. Wanting to support Dell in their decision to sell computers with Ubuntu installed, I decided to order one. First, I talked to a small business representative, who informed me that I could not order one of the Ubuntu-based computers through the small business department. I had to go through the "home and home office" department. I called the Home office department. I asked the representative if I could buy one of the ubuntu computers for my company. She said (and I quote), "these Dell computers are designed for personal use only, as long as you use it for personal use, you can purchase one." So I lied and said I would.... Next, I tried to buy it on our business credit card. They would have none of that. She told me that I had to buy it through a personal card. Now, as a non-profit, our business does not pay sales tax (10% in Tennessee). Had I bought it with my own card, I would have had to pay tax (~$90), which my company would not have reimbursed me for. So.....no Dell today."

So...

[cs02rm0 (654673)]

...take your business, literally, elsewhere?

Re:So...

[ronadams (987516)]

Except if you're looking for FOSS OS laptop, where do you take it? Even most custom build places push Windows to every system. This is a real disappointment. Is Dell trying to avoid supporting these machines in a corporate environment? That's half-assed support, and Dell should be held accountable for it. Either stand behind your product, with the disclaimer that Linux-based may not work for everyone, or don't sell the damn things at all.

Re:So...

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

LinuxCertified [linuxcertified.com] sells laptops with various Linux distros preloaded and fully supported.

System76

[ciroknight (601098)]

http://system76.com/ [system76.com] Great laptops, reasonable prices, Ubuntu ships on the beasts. What more could you ask for?

Re:System76

[nomadic (141991)]

http://system76.com/ Great laptops, reasonable prices, Ubuntu ships on the beasts. What more could you ask for?

I tried configuring a computer on system76 and Dell, and when you put together comparable machines, the system76 one is several hundred dollars more expensive.

Home and Business support are different groups

[AHumbleOpinion (546848)]

... Is Dell trying to avoid supporting these machines in a corporate environment? That's half-assed support, and Dell should be held accountable for it. Either stand behind your product, with the disclaimer that Linux-based may not work for everyone, or don't sell the damn things at all ...

Dell is doing exactly what you recommend, they do not want to offer half-assed support to businesses so they do not sell it to businesses. Keep in mind that Dell has completely different support teams for home and business. The business side will take a much longer time to train up on Linux than the home side, more variations and usage patterns. Also keep in mind that the economics/profitability of Linux is entirely different for home vs business. Home is probably more likely to just go with a canned configuration, business more likely to customize the Linux installation. Ubuntu should have been a clue that this was home centric.

Re:So...

[ronadams (987516)]

Except that I don't want to pay for OS X if I'm just going to use it for a FOSS OS... another user did point out, quite correctly as I found, that you could just purchase a Dell with FreeDOS for businesses... why, why, why.

Re:So...

[mbrod (19122)]

Even with the news of Dell having Ubuntu systems (including laptops) I still went with System76 for reason exactly like this story. I have been happy with their service and support and I am glad I bought my laptop from them.

The keyboard on the laptop (Pangolin Value) is not as good as my IBM work laptop, but not bad. The display is great though, which is what I care about most.

Re:So...

[cavtroop (859432)]

what if you want to buy it with Ubuntu pre-loaded, so you can get support?

Re:So...

[Dogtanian (588974)]

Exactly. For all i care Dell can DIAF!! Slam Apple all you want they pretty much dont give a DAMN what you do with thier systems. [..] So for all you dell fan boys heres one more case of why Dell should not be purchased from...

Go back and consider what the original point of the story was, and answer this question: Will Apple sell you a Macintosh *without* Mac OS and/or with Linux? No? Enough said.

Yes, I'm sure Apple will graciously let you replace Mac OS with a Mac-compatible Linux. Just like Dell will let you replace Windows with Linux.

Employee Gift

[lathama (639499)]

Why not purchase as an employee gift. I would not buy from Dell myself but if I did that is what I would do.

"Its Mary's 30th year with the organization, we want to do something special for her."

Buy the old school Open Source systems

[thebdj (768618)]

Dell has been selling systems through the business end with FreeDos for a while now. Purchase one of those and install Ubuntu yourself. It really isn't that hard and you can actually customize the install to what components you actually need. Or you could purchase one and install any free distro you want.

I can list the millions of reasons why they only want to sell it as "personal use". Remember, Dell (and any other PC company) is still a business designed to make money and if they cannot please everyone all of the time, oh well.

Re:Buy the old school Open Source systems

[walt-sjc (145127)]

Furthermore, Dell business support and consumer support are TOTALLY different groups. It's quite probably that the business group has no ability (training, etc.) to support Ubuntu boxes.

Dell is speaking out of both sides of it's mouth

[8127972 (73495)]

As it would appear that they sell LINUX computers so that they can get positive mindshare from the Slashdot types, but they don't want to make it TOO available to people like businesses so that they don't get Micro$soft too angry when they go to re-negotiate their OEM agreement.

What this basically means is that LINUX is no further ahead at the end of the day.

Re:Dell is speaking out of both sides of it's mout

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

That would be why they offer redhat support [dell.com] and SuSE support as well.

The full list of supported linux can be found here [dell.com]. Just because one guy wants to buy one machine that doesn't come with Ubuntu, everyone is up in arms. Dell never claimed that they were going to offer it on every machine. They're damn careful what they offer for business machines in general, and you can always get a business class machine with no OS.

Buncha fricking sheep. Dell's making a good effort on linux.

And you quit?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Umm, and you didn't hang up and call them back and get another salesperson who doesn't give a crap?

Thats the tactic I use. You always run into stubborn people in the service industry, but 9 times out of 10, the next person you reach won't care either way and will process your transaction just fine.

I had a similar experience

[itsjpr (16533)]

I was interested in supporting Dell and it's Ubuntu decision. I'm not traditionally an Ubunutu user. I've SuSE/openSuse on my 3 year old Dell laptop since I got it years (didn't have any hardware compatibility issues and auto-detected everything important) and otherwise use CentOS and Debian but thought it would be worth buying one just to ease hardware selection since laptop hardware changes so much.

I looked at the specs for the Ubuntu laptop. 6 pounds! Holy crap, no way in hell I'm lugging that around. My current Dell laptop is under 3lbs. I brought up the page for Dells smallest laptop and wanted to compare the hardware to their Ubuntu one. I buy under government/higher-ed. Guess what...no mention of Ubuntu as an OS option in that category. Looks like it's only available in the Home section.

Ho hum, back to the old fashioned way. Checked for wifi support before I bought the littlest one, paid the MS tax, and kept my fingers crossed.

Dell's Ubuntu option is a nice idea, but restricting it to a single Laptop isn't all that engaging.

Fuddy fuddy fud fud.

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

It's not about that. Dell makes "Business computers" they have whole lines of "business" computers, very specific models; Optiplex, Precision, PowerEdge. They come with a limited number of OS choices...which includes Redhat Enterprise and SUSE Enterprise.

You can't buy Ubuntu on one of those, and you can't buy windows xp either. Clearly Dell views Ubuntu as "not ready for the server" and is unwilling to put it on a server class machine. You can still buy the machine with no OS, and add Ubuntu yourself.

Dell is in some serious trouble.

[jcr (53032)]

This habit of jerking customers around is why they're going to follow Gateway down the drain. Good for HP and Apple, sucks for Dell's customers and shareholders.

-jcr

GPL = no commercial use

[mi (197448)]

I know, the subject is simply not true. But this the perception out there nonetheless...

She said (and I quote), "these Dell computers are designed for personal use only, as long as you use it for personal use, you can purchase one."

My recent surreal experience went like that (talking to sysadmins in a giant financial company, with thousands of Unix-servers):

• Hi, can we, please, have the OpenSSH package added to our Solaris 8 boxes?
• No, not OpenSSH — we can put Foo SSH for you, we have a site-wide license for that.
• Yeah, but the newer Solaris 10 machines come with OpenSSH, and Foo has some minor incompatibilities with it (scp does not work right)...
• Sorry, OpenSSH is GPL-ed, and so we can not use it here .
• What? That's double untrue — OpenSSH is BSD-licensed, and even if it were GPLed, there is nothing preventing us from using it — only if we were to modify it, would we run into any license provisions!
• Sorry, that's our department's view — talk to such and such... We can disable OpenSSH on the Solaris 10 boxes for you, and install Foo SSH there, if you need the compatibility...

How do you like that?

Re:Why go with Dell?

[Opportunist (166417)]

No, consumers in general are dumb. If they weren't, they would be customers.

Thus I feel vaguely insulted every time someone calls me a consumer.

Re:Why go with Dell?

[Skye16 (685048)]

Why is it somehow bad to call out a company for a stupid business decision?

I mean, I don't have to buy for them, but I sure as hell don't have to hold back my "they're stupid monkey fucking gutter slut" comments, either.

Plus, it's nice to know for the rest of us. It's nice to know what businesses to avoid if the situation ever comes up.

It's pretty pathetic that you complain about the right to free speech. American Consumers are dumb? I'd say the idiot who bitches about free speech is dumb. But hey, far be it from me to stop you. Even retards are allowed to get their say in. Freedom of speech and all.

Re:GPL infringement?

[tomhudson (43916)]

"Nice Try. But Dell's not just selling you Ubuntu, its also selling you the computer on which you're running it. And they *can* place additional restrictions on the hardware."

No they can't. It has nothing to do with the gpl, and everything to do with consumer protection laws (even business purchases are covered in many jurisdictions by the implied warranty of fitness for use). Unless the hardware comes with a per-seat or per-user license, which is not the case here, they cannot tell you how to use it. All they can do is refuse warranty support if its been abused. That is their SOLE option/recourse.

Buy the damn thing and get a refund on the Windows license. The instructions have been posted on the net, including here on slashdot, often enough ... (and tag another $100 onto your claim, for wasted time, since they refused to sell you one without a Windows license, and take them to small claims court for the extra $100).

Re:Probably Red-Tape

[Kainaw (676073)]

Being in a company that has a license so that every computer/server I purchase must be purchased from Dell, I now know that Dell is very anti-Linux in the workplace. I had one server start blowing white smoke out the back just before it burned up and died. I called Dell to try and get it fixed under warranty. They asked for some Windows code. I told them I had RedHat on it. They said that since I put a non-Windows OS on it, I voided the warranty. Later, I had a desktop PC lose a harddrive. I called to see if I could get a replacement drive under warranty. They told me I had to try to run some Windows diagnostic program. I explained that the drive is dead - so I can't run anything - and it was running Fedora anyway. Oops. Since it didn't have Windows, it isn't covered under warranty. Again, I had another desktop with a broken CD tray straight out of the box. I called to complain. This time, I didn't even put Linux on it because I couldn't - the CD tray wouldn't open enough to get the Linux CD in there. They looked at my history and said that they don't warranty my computers because I have a history of installing unsupported operating systems on them.

You're kidding, right?

[argent (18001)]

That sounds like a match made in hell. You get to enjoy all the disadvantages of Linux *and* all the disadvantages of Windows at the same time. Your Windows services and kernel are still exposed to malware, you have all the DRM fun of the Windows world, and you have more overhead when running the UNIX applications you bought the computer for.