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Software Dell Expands Ubuntu Product Offerings
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - July 31, 2007 6:34 PM

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27 comment(s) - last by geddarkstorm.. on Aug 3 at 5:47 PM

The Dell-Linux partnership continues to flourish

Dell plans to expand its Ubuntu PC and notebook offerings due to continued demand Dell has seen for the Ubuntu products, said Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu creator. Shuttleworth also founded Canonical, the company responsible for offering support for Ubuntu Linux users.

"What's been announced to date is not the full extent of what we will see over the next couple of weeks and months," Shuttleworth said during an interview. "There are additional offerings in the pipeline," he added.

Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden did not make an official statement to Reuters about future products, but did say that Dell is happy with the response the company has received for Linux. Even though most of the products sold were likely to previous fans of Linux and open source technology, some first time customers also made purchases.

Dell currently offers five products which run the Ubuntu operating system. The company had egg on its face after Dell Ubuntu Linux customers discovered they apparently paid $225 more for an Inspiron 1420 notebook loaded with Ubuntu - Dell quickly fixed the error, changing the price so the Ubuntu version is now $50 cheaper.

Although the Microsoft Windows operating system still controls the PC operating system market, the Linux OS can be considered as Microsoft's biggest threat.

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Dell

By dicecca112 on 7/31/2007 7:04:20 PM , Rating: 1

now if Dell would just release either the full OS customized for downloads, or the packages they added for those who have notebooks with Windows from them.

RE: Dell

By phisrow on 7/31/2007 8:55:03 PM , Rating: 2

I'm pretty sure that Dell is shipping stock Ubuntu here. They are probably using the OEM install function in their image, and possibly a Dell utility or recovery partition; but they don't have any secret sauce in the OS.

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RE: Dell

By NickWV on 7/31/2007 9:02:38 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
now if Dell would just release either the full OS customized for downloads, or the packages they added ...

What?! Its an OPEN SOURCE Operating system. As such, you can download it from http://www.ubuntu.com/ its the same thing. DELL is using the exact same thing, only pre compiled to be optimized for a dual core processor.

If you want to run Ubuntu on your Microsoft-preloaded Dell laptop, and the hardware is supported (a lot of their offerings are), you can download the OS and install it yourself. If you have any problems, the Ubuntu community is pretty fast to respond.

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RE: Dell

By Zelvek on 7/31/2007 9:08:39 PM , Rating: 2

Even better yet they will ship you install disks for free so if your on a slow connection you have that option.

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RE: Dell

By NickWV on 7/31/2007 9:14:56 PM , Rating: 2

yep, the Ubuntu guys will ship you a free Ubuntu CD, although it may take some time to get the CD. But hell, its not like its costing you anything. :)

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

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RE: Dell

By EarthsDM on 7/31/2007 9:28:38 PM , Rating: 2

If you're installing Ubuntu on you Dell laptop, be absolutely sure to find out about your wireless card, and how to install a driver for it. Ubuntu doesn't come with certain drivers (because they are not OS) and you can't download them without resorting to ethernet ;)

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RE: Dell

By dicecca112 on 7/31/2007 9:57:30 PM , Rating: 2

Yes I know all that. There are some issues with the CD Drive not working, sound, but oddly wireless does. And you have to use the Alternate CD. I'm no noob here, don't worry experienced Linux veteran here.

I might just call Dell and see if I can weasel a free Ubuntu Restore disk out of them.

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RE: Dell

By smitty3268 on 7/31/2007 11:36:26 PM , Rating: 2

Their Ubuntu restore disk is the exact same one you can get from ubuntu.com, they haven't done a single thing to it. What they did was pick out their most linux friendly hardware to sell with it, so the more your machine differs from the ones they're selling the more likely it is you may have problems.

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RE: Dell

By Duraz0rz on 8/1/2007 8:59:53 AM , Rating: 2

Yea, my wireless card didn't work when I tried out Ubuntu, which sucks. I really liked the interface and stuff. I was planning to dual-boot...use Ubuntu for my programming environment, and Windows for gaming.

My wireless card, for reference, is a Buffalo WLI2-PCI-54G I believe.

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RE: Dell

By omnicronx on 8/1/2007 2:52:00 PM , Rating: 2

Alot of wireless cards do work with ubuntu, its just setting them up that is the problem with some cards. Yours happens to have the broadcom chipset which doesnt play nice with ubuntu.
Lucky for you if you still want to try, many others have had the same problem.

Here is are step by step instructions for broadcom devices (i.e your buffalo)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=25683

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RE: Dell

By Duraz0rz on 8/2/2007 9:04:43 AM , Rating: 2

Thanks! I will try this out when I get home today :)

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RE: Dell

By geddarkstorm on 8/3/2007 5:30:55 PM , Rating: 2

My laptop has the broadcom chipset for its wireless card as well. I'll tell you, it was a pain, but I got it working fine in the end--flawlessly. You just have to get the most recent version of ndiswrapper and compile it to the t. Remember to do the "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" (without the quotes) to actually turn it on!

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Biggest threat

By mirarissl on 7/31/2007 9:59:16 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
Although the Microsoft Windows operating system still controls the PC operating system, the Linux OS can be considered as Microsoft's biggest threat.

no.. no... MacOS can be considered Microsoft Biggest threat.

RE: Biggest threat

By Scrogneugneu on 7/31/2007 10:18:07 PM , Rating: 1

They meant threat as in "People might find it better than Windows".

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RE: Biggest threat

By drebo on 8/1/07, Rating: -1

RE: Biggest threat

By sc3252 on 8/1/2007 2:12:38 AM , Rating: 2

Considering all the products that are launching soon with Linux installed it is easy to say that Linux is their biggest threat. Probably their biggest threat is how popular the eeepc is. No matter how stupid you may think it is its going to be a laptop for $200-250 shipping with a customized Xandros, dont tell me no one is going to want a cheap notebook that is actually portable.

Also to your statement that Windows does everything better then Linux is false. Not only can linux distro's run on pc's that are under powered, but also most giant clusters are run on Linux or a unix derivative. Windows is trying to get into that feild more recently.

There are also very anoying problems with the windows os(I am talking about xp, i havent uesd vista yet), most notably how windows will start paging to swap when there are still hundreds of MB's of ram still available. I felt this many times when I used to play world of warcraft in windows, while windows would page to the swap for no reason having over 800 free megabytes of ram. That problem did not show up while running wow under wine in Ubuntu.

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RE: Biggest threat

By Amiga500 on 8/1/2007 6:21:04 AM , Rating: 2

Absolute utter rubbish.

Go look up how Windows uses memory address space and compare that to linux.

;-)

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RE: Biggest threat

By Moishe on 8/1/2007 8:08:10 AM , Rating: 2

wow... something important that consumers know and care about!

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RE: Biggest threat

By Amiga500 on 8/1/2007 8:50:42 AM , Rating: 2

Well - it (windows) stops me from doing certain things I NEED to do.

As a result I have to use linux for those tasks.

So yeah, something important.

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RE: Biggest threat

By geddarkstorm on 8/3/2007 5:42:16 PM , Rating: 1

Wow, you really don't know how windows or linux works at all, especially not the kernal levels. Let me tell you a secret. Why is Windows so full of security holes, slows down over time, and is in all things slower than linux?

Windows parces every GUI command through the kernal. If you click something on your desktop, the kernal gets called. Linux, on the other hand, keeps the GUI and the kernal seperate. This means, in windows, you can attack the kernal, and thus the entire system, by using simple GUI manipulation codes whereas that isn't half as easy in linux. Linux, as you may not be surprised to find out, can therefore completely exchange and change what GUI system it uses while Windows is stuck in the same system (though you can cosmetically change the look, it isn't a different GUI). Look up Beryl if you want some insane eye candy that runs wonderfully smooth and far superior to anything Windows can do.

Linux has the potential to be a far superior OS than Windows--it's just not as widely known and thus supported so it doesn't have that "just works" attitude that windows employs (and quite well I might add). Windows has done a great job in making every action and every user input GUI driven--you almost never have to even think about the command line in windows--while in linux the command line (called the terminal or console) is absolutely integral and you will resort to using it at times. That means that Windows is just easier to use. This is rapidly changing due to the efforts of Ubuntu, and once that change is complete, you'll see Windows as inferior in almost every respect as it is now.

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RE: Biggest threat

By herrdoktor330 on 7/31/2007 11:23:33 PM , Rating: 2

<rant>
Mac OSX would be a big threat to Microsoft if they would sell the operating system independently of their hardware. I think that if they would get away from marrying their OS to their hardware, they could rock Redmond pretty hard. But I don't believe that Apple will ever sell a cross-platform OS to compete with the open x86-64 market. That would require all hardware vendors to get onboard with making drivers for Mac. Then Mac would start getting their own tastes of the BSODs, random lockups, and all the other problems that Microsoft has.

I don't think that Mac will ever be a real threat to Microsoft because of their closed choices in hardware. Don't get me wrong: Apple uses nice hardware in their Macs... but you don't get the virtual salad of cpus, chipsets, gpus, and the like that Microsoft has to get support for. It's the nature of the beast. And you can't get a Mac for less than $300 (unless you hack your AppleTV). You can get a Windows/VIA C7 powered PC with DVD burner for that price at Wal-Mart.

But anyways... Ubuntu has the ability to drive PC costs further down when you eliminate Windows licensing. I'm sure you can get that VIA C7 system for about $260 USD if they were selling it with a free Linux distro.
</rant>

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RE: Biggest threat

By mlau on 8/1/2007 2:48:19 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
but you don't get the virtual salad of cpus, chipsets, gpus, and the like that Microsoft has to get support for

MS doesn't support shit... its the HW vendors who design
their crap around the deficiencies of windows (why do you
think ACPI support is so flaky under linux? Linux adheres to
the acpi spec, ms does not. So the bios people add hacks until windows boots and then ship it.
Same goes for things like HPET or MSI. Linux could use
those but chipset vendors don't test them because windows
cannot use them. Windows is the reason commodity PC hardware is stuck in the 90s)

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huh?

By kenji4life on 7/31/2007 9:41:53 PM , Rating: 2

Although the Microsoft Windows operating system still controls the PC operating system, the Linux OS can be considered as Microsoft's biggest threat.

Did you mean "PC operating system market"?

It's good to see that Dell is jumping on the linux bandwagon. Ever since I started using ubuntu a year or two ago, I've sworn by it as a more than adequate replacement for Windows 99% of the time.

RE: huh?

By TwistyKat on 8/1/2007 6:49:16 AM , Rating: 2

I'm still waiting for a 64-bit Linux Flash plugin from Adobe.

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RE: huh?

By Merry on 8/1/2007 10:24:59 AM , Rating: 2

I've sworn by it as a more than adequate replacement for Windows 99% of the time.

Correct, if, like me, you dont play games/use specialist software. I've used Ubuntu for over 6 months now and DSL on an old Gateway laptop I run for taking notes in lectures (P1 133mhz!) and i've never had a problem with either distro, well apart from the odd niggles I'd expect with any OS. However, in Ubuntus case i think it still lacks the polish of Windows in some areas. But thats just an opinion. More of a worry is the fact that the 'normal' computer buying public doesnt have any idea as to what Linux is and how its different, and i for one wouldnt want to be on the recieving end of a customer service line when one of the said customers rings and asks why x program wont install, mainly because its written for Windows.

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RE: huh?

By geddarkstorm on 8/3/2007 5:47:44 PM , Rating: 2

Thankfully, programs like WINE, which emulate the Windows API completely independent of Windows coding, can easily make windows programs useable in Linux--many times just as useable and sometimes even faster. There's a lot that isn't supported, but as WINE advances, that's changing. Of course, as you put it, Linux isn't even close to being as polished as Windows, though Ubuntu is driving that effort apparently. Alot of work remains to be done before it can challenge windows--but once that work is complete, it really will be window's biggest threat.

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