Linux Preinstalled Dell Available Soon

An anonymous reader writes "According to a BetaNews article, Dell confirmed on Wednesday plans to offer Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems, beyond its current Linux-based servers and Precision workstations. No specific time frame was given for the expanded Linux plans, although the company said in a blog posting that it will provide an update in the coming weeks regarding the effort. It will detail 'information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available,' Dell said, adding that, 'The countdown begins today.'"

So...

[The Bungi]

Does this mean that Dell will have to stop selling Windows? Or that they'll go bankrupt? Or will their offices be burned down to the ground? What was the reason for this not happening before again?

Great

[mastershake_phd]

Now just tell me it costs less than, or at least the same as, the same PC with Windows pre-installed.

I'm so excited!

[QuantumG]

I just hope Dell offers lots of distributions and gives the option of lots of different Linux support services. That's the great thing about Open Source.. there's an actual market for support services.. you're not stuck with the manufacturer. Dell could become the shop for desktop Linux.

is there a politician in the room?

[davmoo]

If in fact "no specific time frame was given", then how the fuck can "the countdown begins today"? Counting down to an undetermined date is like counting up to inifinity. And I have a feeling Dell knows this. This way they can talk the talk without having to actually walk the walk and either lose money or anger Microsoft.

Re:Great

[davmoo]

Unless the Linux world comes up with a way to give Dell all the kickbacks and payoffs that the Windows world does, I don't see how Dell could possibly offer a Linux machine for less than, or even the same price as, a Windows machine. I hope Dell can prove me wrong, but I ain't holding my breath for it.
 

Re:So...

[ClosedSource]

"What was the reason for this not happening before again?"

A perceived lack of ROI, I would guess. Whether that perception was accurate will be determined once they've been offering the Linux PC's for a while and can weigh their profits against support costs.

Re:Betcha they'll wait for Ubuntu Feisty

[l3v1]

Well, I'va also been "playing" with feisty beta, on a dell with internal wifi and on an ibm t series with pcmcia wifi. Thing is, wifi didn't work automatically on either of them. It wasn't rocket science to make them work by hand, I know Debian inside out, still, what will take Dell that unspecified amount of time is probably to test their laptop line to see which is the best dell laptop + given linux distro combination. I hope they will come up with a good one, otherwise it will be anything but a success.
 

Now it's up to the linux users

[mwvdlee]

Now it's up to the linux users to actually buy those Dell systems they've been begging to come pre-installed with Linux for so long, to prove it wasn't just meaningless bitching and that they actually want Dells with Linux.

Wrong direction

[VincenzoRomano]

Dell confirmed on Wednesday plans to offer Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems

But why on earth aren't they "planning to offer" the bare hardware with no OS pre-loaded at all?
Seriously, why?

Re:Let the cheering being...

[smartr]

One thing I haven't seen is a Windows coming with OpenOffice, Firefox, The Gimp, and Audacity preinstalled. Sure, anyone could go download those for free, but how many 'regular joes' know to do so? Every new install of Windoes I've seen has come preloaded with crapware. Most 'mom and pops' won't want to actually buy a full version of Microsoft Office, so OpenOffice preinstalled fits their needs much better. I honestly think that when people see how much "more" a prebuilt linux system has to offer, there will be some very happy customers. If Dell doesn't lose too many income earning deals with software companies because of this, this will be a huge win for Dell.

Re:Great

[mastershake_phd]

Are we arguing that Linux is inferior to Windows and therefore should cost less?

No, I'm saying it may be cheaper to buy the same PC with Windows on it then delete Windows and install Linux yourself. Chances are they will sell the very same PC with Windows on it.

For everyone who says that this is a ploy by Dell:

[lilomar]

For everyone who says that this is a ploy by Dell: What do they have to do exactly? I have heard nothing but doubt on Dell's sincerity since this whole thing started, and as far as I can tell, Dell has done every thing possible to do what was originally asked of it on IdeaStorm. It has also lived up to all of it's promises about going forward with Linux on their computers. So, give them a break. Just wait and see if they keep their promise or not before you start talking about how they are just doing it as some evil Microsoft plan to take over the world (or the rest of it anyway).

Stop wondering

[suv4x4]

I know that most of the crowd around here will be thrilled.. But I do wonder how broad the market actually is for this..

Can we please cut down on the "but I wonder" posts. Never mind what gets posted, there's always a bunch of folks there to "wonder" about the opposite happening, never mind what's the talk about. Just as some sorta hobby.

Why wonder, when you can wait and see? If Dell offers Linux computers, this is good. It can't possibly be bad, if nobody buys 'em Dell will stop offering them. Nothing more.

Re:In related news, advice?

[cerberusss]

This is completely besides the point, but wouldn't you consider just resizing the Vista partition? In previous stories, others mentioned trouble with warranties when calling the helpdesk without a working Windows installation.

Re:So...

[drsmithy]

I'm sure the lack of interest in Vista has something to do with this.

Why would a typical Dell customer who isn't interested in Vista, be interested in Linux ?

Re:So...

[Cylix]

Why do people do the things they wouldn't normally do?

Marketing!

That's right folks, we are poised to market linux to any and every one of those poor fools who couldn't even use a toaster.

It's the next big thing!

Or perhaps there has been enough stink about it to get them to at least sale the idea. I'm sure it won't cost that much and it will probably push a few more units.

Hell, even I would have liked this last year when I purchased several new systems. Given how goofed up the process is on some of the top end stuff it would just be kinda nice to have them out the door and pre-installed. Especially when performing a build out on a project and the last thing you want to do is worry about your servers installation needs.

Re:Great

[gormanly]

Yes, if you use a free, community-supported distro and are happy with that, know your way around it and don't mind upgrading to the next release every few months, then it may be cheaper. Assuming you have some sysadmin skills and your own time has no value.

However, if you're in the market for a new laptop, if might be worth asking yourself if a few extra currency units on a kilo-currency unit investment means so much to you that you'd rather buy something you don't want (and possibly actually hate using) from a company you intensely dislike, when doing so deprives a Linux vendor of the revenue it'd earn if you bought its product, thus undermining the very community you claim to be a part of. If you pay for your Linux distro, the community wins. Engineers get paid. Support organisations get built up. Knowledge expands, and we become mainstream in the desktop sphere. Thence, world domination.

And from a more selfish p.o.v., if you want something stable, predictable and supported by ISVs, an OS that you can put on to the machine and never upgrade (much more important with laptops than desktops) for the life of the machine... guess what? That'll cost you. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

I order all our Dell workstations with Red Hat Enterprise Linux preinstalled (one of 2 reasons I have for choosing Dell), and it'll be great to be able to do the same with laptops. (This post brought to you by a Dell XPS M1210 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS.)

Preloaded Linux or open hardware?

[chamalulu]

Personally, I do not care much if Dell ships laptops with Linux.

What would make me positively surprised is if any large computer manufacturer would provide hardware with a guaranteed open specifications. If I get it with or without OS is irrelevant.

Closed hardware and no specs makes me a dull boy.

Re:Let the cheering being...

[shaitand]

'My point is that whilst the market may not be huge, Dell doing this could gain themselves a much larger part of that market by making these offerings, so it may well be successful for them.'

Not to mention that the market is growing. Dell is in a perfect position for early adoption. Dell knows they need to capture this market BEFORE the demand is entirely there. That way as the demand grows they maintain their market dominance.

There are other factors too. Dell is the largest PC vendor. Manufacturers might not cave to kernel volunteers wanting specification but they will cave to Dell. A customer the size of Dell is enough to justify linux support for your device even without any other demand. The is probably true of software in many cases. Increased hardware and software availability will mean increased adoption and a growing market.

Large companies typically a poor job of this

[gelfling]

Large companies have a very difficult time supporting more than one OS. It's about depth of staffing and skill. Of course if one assumes that Linux won't require as much support than I suppose there's an opening there. But if you imagine that Dell will preload any of your 20 favorite distros you are tripping. It will be SuSE and Red Hat. Period. And after some time they will eliminate one of them. Another year or two they'll discover that they're spending 20% as much as Windows to support 5% the customer base of Windows and then they will pull the plug on this.

I call BS

[massysett]

This whole Dell preinstalled Linux thing strikes me as a sham to get something out of Microsoft, like lower Windows license prices.

The best thing Dell could do for Linux is simply make sure its hardware works. Put some engineers in a "Linux lab." They would make sure that all Dell computers, or just select Dell models, work well with Linux. That would mean that these models would have supported wireless and multimedia buttons that work. They would have video cards with open source drivers. Dell's Linux Web page would be much improved over its current version. It would have detailed instructions on how to make sure that suspend to RAM works with Dell laptops. It would have detailed instructions on how to get a selected Dell remote control to work with MythTV. Dell engineers would make sure the hardware has drivers, writing patches for the kernel if needed (then upstream would gladly help maintain the new code.)

If Dell did all this, there would be no question on "what distro to support." EVERY distro would then support Dell! Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Red Hat, SUSE, etc. would all take the necessary steps to get the Dell models supported in their distro. After all, with the detailed Dell information on the Dell site, integrating support would be dead simple! There would then be strong community sentiment in favor of Dell. Dell would be the best hardware maker for Linux. Everybody wins.

Linux preinstalled is not all that important. The emphasis on preinstalled is the old, Windows/Mac way of thinking. If the kernel supports the hardware, then ANY distro will work with Dells! Installing any distro would take just a few clicks. Sure, some people will want preinstalled. For that, Dell could just have "Certified Linux Partners" that would preinstall whatever distro they want. Then the partner gets the support calls, not Dell. Dell would have lots of partners and sell computers, without getting end user support hassles. Again, everybody wins.

Dell must realize all this. Their IdeaStorm is nothing more than PR BS. If they really wanted to support Linux, they would just improve hardware support. Write some drivers. Post some instructions. Instead they're doing a big public song and dance. I predict they will wave this website at MS during price negotiations. MS will drop the price. Then that's all we'll hear of this preinstalled BS. But that won't preclude TRUE Linux support like I've outlined here, and hopefully that will be forthcoming.

Re:I'm so excited!

[newdsfornerds]

Dell threatens to offer Linux pre-installed about every other month and there's a knee jerk reaction here at Slashdot every time. Bah. It will be news if Dell SHIPS a laptop with Linux pre-installed. Until that day, Slashdot stories on this subject do nothing but serve Dell's marketing division.

Re:So...

[Knuckles]

I won't rush out to buy a preloaded system -- why bother?

To have a laptop that works.

Re:Now, if only...

[ady1]

The word laptop doesn't mean what you think it mean. The lap actually needs to be under the laptop for it to not break.