Dell dumps linux? [but introduces n-series]

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

| From:  http://www.msnbc.com/news/794137.asp#BODY
|
| )B?Dell?s approach has been to sell customers what they want.
| They)B?ve done pretty well with that,? said Loren Loverde,
| director of IDC)B?s PC Tracker service. ?Times are such that
| (PCs without) OS may be an avenue for Dell to work around
| Microsoft)B?s licensing terms. Ultimately, PC vendors have to
| respond to their clients, and it)B?s not in their best interest
| to force something on their clients the clients don)B?t want.
| At a certain point they)B?re not going to back up Microsoft.?

This doesn't agree with my experiences.  When I tried  to  tell  them
what  I  wanted, their response was "You can't have that".  They were
only willing to sell machines from their fixed list of pre-configured
systems.

Presumably, when I went away and didn't buy, I  was  added  to  their
list of evidence that "Linux doesn't sell well".

One of the problems here is that in the unix half of the market, most
of  the customers are somewhat knowledgeable and have an idea of what
they want.  A company that won't permit any customer options  is  not
likely to do well in this market. They're probably best sticking with
the MS part of the market, where most of the customers are willing to
take whatever is offered.