Dell selects Ubuntu for its desktops
Dell announced at the end of March that it would sell some PCs pre-installed with Linux, after its IdeaStorm feedback web site was deluged in its first few weeks with requests for Linux PCs. After that it became a matter of which Linux distribution the company would go for. Dell’s chairman and chief executive, Michael Dell said: “When asked which distribution of Linux Dell should prioritize on, Ubuntu was the most requested option,” the company noted in a short statement on Tuesday. “Today, we are excited to tell you that Dell will begin offering Canonical’s latest version, Ubuntu 7.04, as an option on select Dell consumer models in the US in the coming weeks. We are announcing very shortly a joint effort to put Linux more squarely in the consumer space in the US,” said Ubuntu founder, Mark Shuttleworth, in a video presentation. “It is aimed at, initially a subset of the desktop and laptop devices that Dell sells in response to an extraordinary volume of requests on the Dell IdeaStorm site.”
IdeaStorm was launched in February as a means for the Round Rock, Texas-based hardware vendor to keep tabs on customer feedback, and was immediately besieged by requests for Linux and open source software. As of May 1 the pre-installation of Linux remains the most promoted suggestion, with over 130,000 promotions, followed by pre-installed OpenOffice.org with 95,000 promotions, and pre-installed Firefox as the default browser with 70,000 promotions. Dell also said it will continue to support Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux on its Precision workstation line, while Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is certified on its Linux systems. Nevertheless, the choice of Ubuntu is a significant endorsement for the community-driven Linux distribution. I’ve already seen many manufacturers selling desktops and notebooks withtou any OS, but not many of them tried to distribute their products with Linux. Let’s see if this is the beginning of a small revolution or just a wrong step.
now that’s great news, a new step towards open source!
wrong step?
ha!
it’s an OPTION.
nothing wrong with more options…
that’s just awesome…can’t wait to see them selling more linux machines than windows ones
Yes, really cool idea . But it took too long, that’s the problem. How is DELL going to get away with doing this, since Microsoft is going to backlash totally ?
When I can buy an AMD + Ubuntu system from DELL, I will no longer think of them as sucky.
I don’t think you want an AMD system from them. AMD owns ATI. If you get an AMD system, you get ATI graphics, and what Linux user wants ATI graphics?
now if dell would just go back to selling good hardware we’d be all set.
I agree that this is fantastic news. There are so many people out there who have never even heard of linux and think computers end at windows. As soon as the drones who buy from dell realise they can save some cash by buying an alternative OS, Linux might finally get a toe, mayble even a foot into the mainstream market. While it may not (and problebly won’t) be as sucessfull as I hope, at least it’s somthing. Microsoft had better get their priorities in order. Meanwhile, I can smell a customer support nightmare brewing for dell…
“how do i install microsoft office?”
“you have to install a window emulator such as ‘wine’. you can do this in at least two ways: 1) open up your terminal console, then ‘etc/apt/sources.list’, add the following depository….OR: 2) start Synaptic Manager, go to Manage Repositories….”
*LONG PAUSE*
“how do i install Windows on this damn thing?”
hahah.. so very true.