Guest
|
 Posted:
Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:16 am Post subject:
Re: Even DELL says LINUX IS A DUD!!!! |
|
|
Sally Vadi wrote:
| Quote: | I just tried to order a Dell Desktop System without Windows installed
and asked if I could get Linux installed instead.
|
Unfortunately, there are certain prerequisites, minimum orders, and
specific channels which much be used. Dell has specific agreement
marketing agreements for which Microsoft provides consideration such as
discounts, reduction, and other favorable terms. Part of this deal is
that Dell is not allowed to sell computers with anything other than
Windows, specifically Windows XP home edition or Windows XP
professional.
It's up to the courts to decide whether this is a violation of the DOJ
settlement and the final judgement of the 3rd circuit appeals court,
but as we have all learned the hard way, the wheels of justice turn
very very slowly.
| Quote: | After the guy on the other end of the phone stopped laughing, he asked
me:
So which one of the 500 plus versions of Linux did you have in mind?
(I heard him laughing)....
|
This has been a big problem. Dell does offer two variants of Linux on
their server lines, Red Hat Enterprise server, and SuSE Enterprise
edition.
| Quote: | I mentioned Redhat Fedora and he burst out laughing.
|
Red Hat has not licensed any of the OEMs to publish Fedora, fedora is
the free "research" version of Red Hat. It's unsupported (though Red
Hat does provide a very good support network).
| Quote: | He told me Dell had tried to sell Linux on desktop systems in the past
but the demand was so poor they had to stop.
|
Actually, I don't believe Dell has ever offered DIRECT Telephone sales
offerings of Linux. Again, if you requested a corporate account,
committed to minimum purchases, and agreed to certain other terms, you
could purchase Dell workstations preconfigured with Linux. There are
some Value Added Resellers such as Penguin computing who do offer Dell
computers configured with Linux.
Dell also offers "Bare Bones" systems, which typically ship with
"freedos" which is an Open Source MS-DOS work-alike. I believe FreeDOS
uses the same drivers as Linux. The main point is that the end-user
can configure his desktop with the flavor of Linux he chooses.
Dell, Red Hat, and SuSE do test their hardware with Linux, and certain
hardware, especially "high end" products generally have very good
support for Linux.
| Quote: | No surprise there.
|
The person you were talking to has probably never worked with Linux,
never sold dell systems with Linux installed, and probably gets 20-30
calls/day from people like you who want unsupported versions of Linux
installed on their Dell.
| Quote: | Linux sucks, even Dell knows it sucks and for sure their clients know
that Linux sucks or else they would be demanding Linux and Dell wo
|
As I pointed out above, the Linux market seems to be better addressed
by Value Added Resellers (VARs), who purchase computers - often
licensed for Windows, and custom-configure them for Linux. They my
offer them under their own brand name, or they may offer them as OEM
machines configured for Linux. These are all a function of contract
agreements between OEMs, VARS, and Microsoft.
In most cases, the VAR is not allowed to advertize the Windows
capabilities of the machine, since they have not licensed the use of
the Windows trademark in their advertizing.
Dell also ship Lease-return machines to India, South America, and Asia,
where they are often sold as Linux desktops, very often, they don't
have enough memory or hard-drive to run Windows XP.
If someone, perhaps your friend, has an actual copy of the DELL OEM
license agreement, with Microsoft, this may shed some light on the
issue.
Very simple bottom line, Microsoft will do everything it possibly can
to prevent you from being able to purchase anything other than their
latest version of Windows directly from an OEM. IBM often had to make
special arrangements to sell the previous version of Windows for a year
because many of their customers weren't ready to take the leap into the
newest "Pre-SP1" versions of Windows XX.
On the other hand, most corporate customers are better served by an OEM
who is really committed to supporting Linux on the desktop. Generally
the prices are a bit higher, but the VAR is often more willing to do
customizations, to fix problems, and to make sure that upgrades and
security fixes are tested before passing them on to end-users or
corporate administrators.
Often, if you are getting a large number of identical workstations, the
cost of installing Linux can drop significantly.
Another very popular trend has been to install VMWare and then install
Linux on the VMWare machine. This assures a consistent "Virtual
Machine" regardless of how proprietary and bizarre the actual "Windows
XP" hardware might be. It's not as secure or stable, but it does
provide a huge increase in functionality for a modest price.
Microsoft sells their own alternative to VMware for about $95, which
runs under Windows. I haven't worked with it recently, but the version
I took for a test drive right after Microsoft bought the company -
worked fairly well.
It would be nice if the OEMs could tell us which machines were "Linux
Friendly" and which machines were "Linux Hostile", but I don't believe
they are allowed to do that either.
It doesn't look like things will be changing any time soon with regard
to Microsoft's policies of excluding competitors by any means
necessary. OEMs are still not allowed to install Firefox, Mozilla,
Netscape, RealNetworks, and other 3rd party solutions that compete with
Microsoft's preinstalled/preconfigured environment. About the best
they can do is provide a toolkit CD which can be used by the end-user
to install the additional applications once they have completely booted
Windows XP.
I guess you really can't fault Microsoft for doing it. It's a bit like
the looters during the New Orleans flood. They were doing what they
had to to survive, and if they could pick up an extra color TV while
they were shopping at WalMart with their five-finger credit cards,
there really wasn't anyone there to stop them. Microsoft has been able
to get away with these tactics for 25 years, and when the courts do
rule against them in preliminary judgements, they simply craft a
settlement which redefines these same actions and motives using new
language, which then makes the previously illegal act - Legal.
You have to admit, it's very clever. |
|
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in