Number one Dell customer idea/request: Pre-install Linux

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:51 pm

Following up with my Linux on the Business desktop helps Linux on the consumer desktop, this leads us to what linux might be lacking for businesses. Is it really just Active Directory that seems to make things so tough to switch? I know niche applications are a problem, but surely there are plenty of workers who just need the typical word processor, spreadsheet, and email clients. I still need to look into LDAP…

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:51 pm

Vogateer wrote:Yeah, 16,000 people just isn't a real number for them. 160,000 might have been a little different, but not likely. Like I said, of the options I saw, there's really only one that I'd see them do, and that's making their laptops and maybe their desktop machines look a bit more stylish.

I see 66373 votes for "Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot", and 30127 for "linux laptop". if you add the two together, you get 96,500 votes, which is no small number.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:53 pm

That's right, not 16,000 votes, 66,000. Not sure what number it would take to turn Dell's head, but that still seems like an awfully low number when they're mainly concerned with huge volumes.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:58 pm

Wait, now that I look at it, sometimes a vote brings the number up by ten, what's up with that?

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:59 pm

Vogateer wrote:Wait, now that I look at it, sometimes a vote brings the number up by ten, what's up with that?

9 other people voted at the same time you did?

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:01 pm

Well, I don't think so. If you look at a lot of the recent ideas, or sign on and vote yourself, you'll likely see the same thing I do. I've voted on several different ideas, and it always goes up by ten. All the lower ideas are divisible by ten. Then the linux idea ends with a three. I don't get it.

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:36 pm

"Dell censors IdeaStorm Linux dissent"

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/20 ... x-dissent/

Someone using the alias Beer28 (who is not affiliated with TECH.BLORGE.com) posted a negative ”idea” with a link back to my article Dell makes excuses for backing off Linux on IdeaStorm. Both Beer28’s post and my article criticized Dell for back tracking on its decision to offer Linux preinstalled on its PCs and notebooks. Within hours the post, which was here, was deleted “merged”.

No matter, I have helped Dell with their technical difficulties by providing the screen shot below (click on it for a full sized version).

"Dell responds to accusations of censorship"

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/20 ... ensorship/

Commenting in response to our post Dell censors IdeaStorm Linux dissent, Dell spokesperson John Pope said that the company isn’t censoring dissent on IdeaStorm.

“If ideas are submitted and they turn out to be the same, we have been asked by the IdeaStorm community to merge them — as well as any votes cast and comments logged — for simplicity,” said Dell spokesperson John Pope.

“To be clear, all votes and comments tied to an idea are added to the merged idea — they do not go away. In this case, that is exactly what happened.”

According to Pope, IdeaStorm is moderated by “open-minded individuals who do not censor”.

Pope did make the point that Dell has the right, as per the site’s terms of reference, to delete input that is not an idea or merely a “digital reprint” or link to a news article on its IdeaStorm web site.

While I applaud Pope for engaging with the wider Internet community, by selectively “merging” and deleting ideas, the company is in fact manipulating how ideas are presented to the public, and that is censorship.

I just searched IdeaStorm to see if I could easily find Beer28’s Feb 28 ”idea” merged into another entry. Beer28 articulates a specific argument that involves concepts like economic theory, Steve Ballmer, the Department of Justice, and closing factories. For all intents and purposes, Beer28’s ”idea” of Feb 28 is not there.

If it’s been merged, it’s been merged into oblivion. Contrary to IdeaStorm’s tag line “Let your ideas reign”, Beer28’s idea has not had the opportunity to reign, or even to ne discussed, or corrected (if that’s what needed to be done).

IdeaStorm is Dell’s site, and of course the company can edit and manipulate the content according to its discretion. I can understand that Dell might “merge” ideas that contain profanity or are overly rude, but Beer28’s article was neither of those things. Though I do admit that it was controversial.

Why doesn’t Dell follow a laissez-faire approach?

Let the community decide what’s important and what’s not; that’s how most social news sites work. Articles that add little or no value are soon forgotten.

At least for the rest of us, it’s become very clear how the IdeaStorm web site actually works.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:42 am

Well, looking at the jpeg of the post, it doesn't look like it's an idea, it's just a criticism without any idea or action suggested to remedy what's being criticised. It looks more like a comment that should have been posted under the "Preinstall Linux" idea than a seperate idea. I don't blame Dell for deleting it myself, and wouldn't call it censorship, just editing.

Also, he makes the comment that "supply does not push demand" which is obviously not what supply-side economists think.