Dell's "Open" Software

["Richard Royston-5" <user=1534@nabble.blu.org>]

 I just bought a Dell Inspiron 530 with Ubuntu already loaded on it. In the 
couse of exploring various (perfectly reasonable) problems, with good 
technical support from Dell, I learnt that the hard drive restore CD that 
Dell supplies only restores some of the partitions on the hard drive. There 
are two partitions, (sda1 and sda2 I believe) that contain diagnostic 
software, and sda3, which conains the boot directory, that are not restored, 
so if you destroy them by reformating the drive and loading another 
operating system you cannot restore them, and Dell, as a matter of company 
policy, will not support their restoration. They also will not support the 
restoration of the boot sector. 

The boot configuring system they use is grub, and the technical support 
person said that it is possible for an experienced user to restore the boot 
sector himself, but they will not support him. 

As a practical matter the diagnostic software is also available on the 
restore CD, but they do not support its reinstallation on the hard drive. 

For obvious practical reasons I have not verified this for myself, so some 
of the details may not be correct, but I believe the essentials are correct. 

This seems to be an even harsher attitude towards users than Microsoft's! 

Doesa nyone have anything useful or constructive to add? 


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