Dell dumps linux? [but introduces n-series]

[ron.peterson at yellowbank.com (Ron Peterson)]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2002 at 07:21:02PM -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Ron Peterson <ron.peterson at yellowbank.com> writes:
> 
> > Buying a computer with Linux pre-installed is not analogous to buying a
> > grill item from McDonalds.  It is not difficult to get Linux working on
> > most PC's, but more importantly, you only need to do it once.  Dell does
> > not set up each computer leaving their premises individually.
> > 
> > Getting a computer out the door in working order is not the problem.
> > Supporting it is.  Dealing with MS contractual bullshit is.
> 
> The problem is that you're going to want Debian, I want Red Hat, my
> sister want's SuSE, my cousing want's Slackware...  There are just
> too many "Linuxes" out there.  Even worse, I might want Red Hat 7.3
> and you might want Red Hat 6.2 (perhaps you want a 2.2 based system).

True.  Let's say Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE, and Gentoo.  That's
five.  For a vendor like Dell, producing this many images would not be a
problem.  Support is.

> This gets to be hell for the big guys.  hard to maintain.  hard to
> support.  At least with winblows they have a single version and users
> are dumb enough to just take what they're given.

Windows XP Home, Professional, 2000, 2000 Server.  Plus they're still
supporting WinME, 98, etc.  I wouldn't say supporting Windows is a
picnic either...

But my point is simply that while Dell may (or may not) have valid
reasons for not pre-installing Linux, getting Linux to work properly on
a PC is not one of them.  If PC's are 'made for Windows', who's fault is
that?  Dell's!

It was nice to see Dell found a way to spite the MS legal twits this
round...

-- 
Ron Peterson                   -o)
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