Ubuntu On Dell After Four Months 378
mrcgran sends us to LXer for an interview with John Hull, a manager of the Linux Engineering team at Dell, where he reports on how the Ubuntu machines have been working out for them so far. "Embracing Ubuntu Linux on our desktops and laptops seems to have really raised Dell's visibility within the Linux community. We have been supporting, testing, developing for, and selling Linux for 8+ years here at Dell, but before the Ubuntu announcement, a lot of people didn't know that we did any of that... Previous to our Ubuntu product announcement... we would have a conversations with vendors about pushing Linux support for their hardware, but without a Linux product offering from Dell for that hardware, it was very difficult to convince them to release Linux drivers. That has certainly changed now... The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu, but it certainly won't overtake Microsoft Windows anytime soon."
I for one... (Score:2, Insightful)
Before the Ubuntu announcement (Score:3, Insightful)
Nonetheless, kudos to Dell and here's to hoping more vendors pick up this trend.
It doesn't have to take over... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:okay... (Score:3, Insightful)
Your experiences with Dell and their hardware applies to Windows boxes as well usually, and Dell may influence other vendors to try Linux in the same way, thus the issues with support may get remedied in the long run as well.
What about dual boot? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm completely pro open source, and started off with Ubuntu as my first linux distro about a year ago, as everyone was raving on about it. Really impressed with the package manager, but I was completely lost when it came to installing stuff that wasn't in there.
I'm on Mandriva now, which is a massively improved user experience, where most of my stuff worked perfectly out the box (except my wireless, which took a bit of work, but I got there eventually). However, I'm now in a position where I want to install subversion and tomcat, and it's really not easy. Windows wins in this situation, because of the ease of automated installers. Which is a great shame, and I know I'll get lambasted because I haven't done enough research or put the effort into to learning the basics of installing on linux properly, but for it to ever be accepted in the mainstream by your average Joe, things like that need to "just work".
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tomcat and SVN probably isn't part of what average Joe will use.
While it's true that "professional" or "power user" software isn't that easy to setup (messing around in the configs with an editor, etc.), I don't think it would bother the ordinary desktop user very much, because he'll probably never need it.
OTOH, installing everyday software like OOo, Gimp, Firefox, small little games etc. is extremely easy on linux in comparison to windows. Browse repository, install and forget. With the added bonus that the software you get is very probably free of malware of any kind (if you use $DISTRO default repository) and same goes for updates to that software.
So what! I expect it to work, so where's the beef? (Score:1, Insightful)
A product has to solve a real world problem AND offer some measurable benefit. So to offer Linux on Dell hardware - server of desktop - solves ONE of the real-world Linux problems: hardware compatibility. But in my view this should only be just the beginning, a good first step. What I am personally looking for is additional benefits on top of plain simple compatibility. Offer me a Linux Laptop that works in all hardware aspects as well as a MacBook, then top it with proven (i.e benchmarked) performance increase. More runtime and bandwidth, faster startup times, additional gadgets or security features, etc. Offer me a software update service that is top-notch (i.e. a distro mirror operated by Dell) and betters the community system. Offer me a software bundle that drives all my hardware seamlessly, i.e. if the Ubuntu distro doesn't have the webcam tool to compete with "Photo Booth", hire 5 programmers and develop it. It's demonstrated real-world betterment over the competition that will sell me for a Dell - compatibility, freedom and $50 off is not enough. So until that time comes, my Linux boxes will be whitebox PCs where I choose the components and my laptop will be a MacBook with a full 'port' install.
--AS
A missed opportunity (Score:5, Insightful)
A perfect opportunity for Ubuntu I thought! Or not, as it turned out.
I downloaded and burnt the latest CD image and installed it. Everything was installed fine, except the network card was not detected, rendering the machine even less useful than the butchered ME installation that was on it before. She only wanted to browse the net and read GMail basically, so without a network connection, the laptop was now as good as a large paper-weight.
Now, this is by no means a flame against Ubuntu at all. Before it turned out Ubuntu was compatible, I was thinking to myself that if there's one area Ubuntu could really grow in is the "too old to run Windows x/y/z" which sets the hardware requirement bar higher & higher with each release.
Despite what Microsoft say, Vista is not suited to all PC's - but arguably, Ubuntu is suited to run on almost anything assuming you don't mind common commercial apps/games aren't going to run for newbies (for obvious reasons).
So, if I had one suggestion for Ubuntu/Linux is please, get it to run on shite hardware! Refurbished machines are overlooked if you ask me as many people really can't be bothered to buy new hardware, and Windows really isn't so suited for them in many cases.
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:1, Insightful)
Linux distribution have developed an over dependency on package management as a cure-all instead of trying to fix a few of the underlying problems. Namely, poor standardisation, a poorly defined baseline and poor componentisation.
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not in norway. :-( (Score:3, Insightful)
So far - no such luck. I'm looking forward to that day, so that I can just order one. But until they ship it, it's difficult.
Hey DELL! We norwegians want Ubuntu on our laptops too!
Why am I not surprised? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:2, Insightful)
Overall, installing software on Ubuntu isn't too bad. But there are still lots of cases that could cause problems for the average user, that the competing OS's don't generally suffer from.
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:4, Insightful)
Please, tell me one thing that putty can do that ssh, telnet, and xterm can't.
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ubuntu, on the other hand, doesn't have that option. It does, however, have the option of pointing users in the direction of certain software by making it easy to install: repositories. Things that go into the repos are tested for compatibility, they install smoothly, and yet there are literally thousands of programs in the repos.
If you want something outside the repos, you have to install it yourself. Which is not that easy unless someone has packaged the application properly.
I like to look at this as a way of helping the Ubuntu user experience become as seamless and smooth as possible. Wide array of hardware, specific array of software.
Re:A missed opportunity (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
Try doing that with Windows Installers - just keeping a Windows box up to date with security fixes (beyond Windows and MS Office) is quite time consuming, whereas on Ubuntu the system actually prompts you like Windows Update *for every app you have ever installed* from an Ubuntu repository...
Re:Within the retail sector... (Score:3, Insightful)
Expect a wider variety in the near future (Score:3, Insightful)