"Dell will pick Ubuntu", says DesktopLinux.com

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:51 am

jaz wrote:Hopefully Dell won't make Linux look bad by cutting corners on the hardware. I get a new Dell every year at work and without fail they are junk (in my opinion).

We have used Dells at work for about 6 years, and they seem OK. I had a hard drive die once, but otherwise no problems. Considering how much I use my work computer, that's a pretty good test.

I'd certainly rather have something I built myself, but for a name brand system it's fine. Certainly better than the HP I had.

schotty · Post by **schotty** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:09 pm

Snarkout wrote: I assume you're speaking about Ubuntu here, not Kubuntu. While I haven't installed the Kubuntu final, I did install the RC, and was not at all pleased with it. I simply do not understand why they do the things they are doing to kde. It's a shame they can't offer a vanilla install along with their confugulated one.

Yes I was, I prefer GNOME over KDE, so I tend to not touch Kubuntu for any real reason other than to hand off to a buddy that does want a KDE based buntu.

schotty · Post by **schotty** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:12 pm

Gomer_X wrote:
jaz wrote:Hopefully Dell won't make Linux look bad by cutting corners on the hardware. I get a new Dell every year at work and without fail they are junk (in my opinion).
We have used Dells at work for about 6 years, and they seem OK. I had a hard drive die once, but otherwise no problems. Considering how much I use my work computer, that's a pretty good test.

I'd certainly rather have something I built myself, but for a name brand system it's fine. Certainly better than the HP I had.

Thats pretty much my experience. But at my work, GE Healthcare, we have custom Dells. They require special chips to talk to the custom WLAN. Its a govt mandated thing I think, for privacy and security reasons.

But nonetheless aside from spilt coffees or sodas, the computers are pretty darn resilient and reliable. I am happy that a migration to a VMWare thin client or Citrix solution has been put in place. Makes the computers alot less likely to be borked from virii or spyware/malware.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Mon May 07, 2007 9:16 am

It could be just me, but this whole Dell / Ubuntu / Linux thing is making my "Spidey sense" tingle...

Dell Joins Microsoft and Novell Collaboration

REDMOND, Wash. and WALTHAM, Mass., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Novell Inc. today announced that Dell Inc. is the first major systems provider to join the business collaboration that was formed by Microsoft and Novell in response to customer demand for greater interoperability and intellectual property (IP) assurance. As part of the agreement, Dell will purchase SUSE Linux* Enterprise Server certificates from Microsoft and establish a services and marketing program to migrate existing Linux users who are not Dell Linux customers to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

This kind of news actually makes me glad Dell didn't pick one of the distributions I prefer.

elgordo123 · Post by **elgordo123** » Mon May 07, 2007 1:38 pm

So does that mean that they will be using Novell-Suse? Otherwise that would have to cover Ubuntu and I doubt MS will want to do that. My money says that Dell will be using Suse now.
Repeat after me in your latest godfather voice..........You are now officially under the protection of Microsoft.....let's just say this is a favor to you...one day I might need a favor....
Until MS can figure out how to charge for this or atleast try..

chuck · Post by **chuck** » Mon May 07, 2007 1:53 pm

elgordo123 wrote:So does that mean that they will be using Novell-Suse? Otherwise that would have to cover Ubuntu and I doubt MS will want to do that. My money says that Dell will be using Suse now.
Repeat after me in your latest godfather voice..........You are now officially under the protection of Microsoft.....let's just say this is a favor to you...one day I might need a favor....
Until MS can figure out how to charge for this or atleast try..

Part of the Novell/MS deal was that MS purchased a boatload of SUSE licenses to resell. This is one of the ways that MS is reselling those licenses by going through Dell servers. For the out-of-the-box ready-to-use server experience with the corporate network, SUSE is probably the right decision for Dell to go with.

That said, for the desktop the best choice, in my opinion, was made. That being to use Ubuntu. It has the traction and name recognition at the moment. It's arguably the best out of box solution for the widest audience. If you have a target that you're aiming at, you may want a different distro.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:19 pm

Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise that Microsoft is selling all those licenses to people who'd be buying Suse anyway, so Microsoft is hardly out there drumming up new business for Novell because of all those licenses they bought. Once again, Microsoft is the only company that really benefits from a business deal involving Microsoft.