Dell dumps linux? [but introduces n-series]

[warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)]

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).

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.

-derek, who'se talked to a bunch of people at a bunch of different
"big PC vendors" about the topic.

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available