Dell To Offer Open Source Bundles 84
ruphus13 writes "Dell has been offering Linux-based machines for a while, especially its Server-class machines. Now, Dell has decided that there are several open source applications that are ready for mainstream consumers. From the post, 'While we've all been speculating about whether Dell is working on Android netbooks, the computer hardware and software vendor was busy bundling open source applications to offer to small- and medium-sized business customers looking for low-cost alternatives to commercial software. The pre-configured "SMB-in-a-box" software is only available in the US for now, but Dell expects to launch a similar offering in Asia by the end of 2009... Although no specifics have been given about which apps are included in Dell's first bundle, it is aimed at the retail sector.' It is going to be interesting to see what Dell picks as the 'must-have' applications for the SMB market."
Re:Bad Move, Mr. Dell (Score:3, Insightful)
What I really want to know is why would someone spend their time posting this tired old drivel over and over... and over... and over again. It's not really going to work very well as astroturfing... and it's certainly not funny.
Ultimately, on the scale of what's "cool", pressing submit on the parent post is about as far below a "level 5 dwarf" as a "level 5 dwarf" is below a threesome with Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson.
Re:Bad Move, Mr. Dell (Score:4, Insightful)
1998 called. It wants it's FUD back.
Hardware might work better in OEM Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
The average user doesn't want to spend months learning how to use a CLI to cut their wireless card's firmware
mr_mischief wrote:
That's funny, because even so minor a distro as Puppy works with my wireless immediately upon installation.
Some people are lucky to own WLAN or 3G hardware manufactured by a company friendly to free software. You are; Anonymous Coward likely isn't. But if you buy a PC with free software preinstalled, you can at least have some level of assurance that free software supports your hardware.
Sounds like my policy (Score:3, Insightful)
Less money on software = more money for hardware. I can see how this can benefit Dell.
Re:Another experiment (Score:3, Insightful)
My workplace has a robust wifi system in place, but still has ethernet switches on the conference tables. Wired ethernet is much faster, less flaky in all OSes, and more secure than wireless ethernet.
Open Source Apps, what Operating System ? (Score:3, Insightful)
I suspect that it could be Thunderbird, Firefox, Gimp, OpenOffice under MS Windows.
Given the close relationship between Dell & MS (read: Dell accepting MS money to decide what software it pushes on its hardware) I would not be surprised if the ''open source applications'' were things that did not really compete with MS offerings, eg: Gimp, pidgin, games, ... and avoid competing with the MS cash cows that make up MS Office & things like MS IE & Outlook.
Re:So, is this a Dell distro? (Score:3, Insightful)
I kind of doubt it's a new Dell Distro, but my guess-- just from the term "SMB-in-a-box"-- is that it might be their normal Linux desktop/server configurations with some of the configuration done ahead of time. Getting email (including POP3, IMAP, SMTP, spam filtering, webmail) and other groupware up and running in Linux can be more daunting than setting up an Exchange box. I hate to say that because I'm not a fan of Microsoft generally, but it's true. Knowing which email packages to install and how to configure each optimally can be a little confusing.
I'd really love to see some OEM (Dell or HP seem like good candidates) roll their own distro based on the market they plan on servicing, provide their own repositories, and generally take responsibility for making the setup and maintenance of their clients and servers as painless as possible. In short: do what Apple is doing, but servicing a different market. Apple kind of has the high-end consumer locked up, they're making some headway into the high-end SMB market. Dell could use all FOSS to provide integrated solutions of the market that wants greater freedom (no proprietary pieces) or lower-price solutions.