Dell and Ubuntu Partnership

chauffeur2 · 05-07-2007, 09:24 PM

Dell® has announced that Ubuntu™ will be available as a pre-installed O/S on some of their computers.....

Here's the announcement...

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx

Regards,

**Bartender** · 05-08-2007, 07:50 AM

Yes, word I've heard is two desktops and one lappy. Since we're stuck in dial-up wastelands, I'll be very curious to see how Dell handles that. They've already stated they would use an off-the-shelf version of Feisty. If that's true, it means they'd (I hope anyway) have to find or contract out for a modem that "just works". Oughta be interesting.

**K-B** · 05-08-2007, 11:19 AM

Yeah I'm sure they'll find/have made a modem designed to work with Linux.

**Bartender** · 05-09-2007, 07:59 AM

I had a bad experience with Dell a few years ago and swore never to deal with them again. I bought something "interest free for the first six months". Got a bill for interest fees at month #4. I called all over the world trying to get one person to tell me, in coherent English, why I was being billed for interest when the salesperson had clearly said "no interest for six months".
Finally gave up, paid the $28 interest fee and the rest of the bill, and said "never again".

I'm weak. Yesterday Dell was offering a good price on a 20" LCD monitor. I tried to place order online but website kept trying to sell the monitor at full price.

So I called. Took 30 minutes to get close to finalizing the deal, when I find out they were gonna charge me sales tax. Other online vendors don't, or haven't anyway. (We live in Washington State)

I asked why they're charging sales tax. Oh, man, the sales rep wanted to close the deal but he finally gave me a number to call. I swear to God, the number took me to a "Hey, big boy talk with hot, sexy, chicks" line.

So I started OVER on the Dell phone prompt maze. Thru persistence and luck finally got to customer service. Cherry, who lives in Manila (when I was telling my wife later she asked, "Cherry in vanilla?!?") who couldn't tell me why Dell wanted to charge sales tax. She gave me another phone number, the Tax Division. That phone number didn't work. Disconnected.

One hour spent on the phone with Dell, talking to two people in far away lands and a phone sex line.

Finally googled the subject and it appears that Dell collects sales tax in about a dozen states, Washington being one of them. Anyone know anything about this? Does Dell have to collect sales tax in WA? Do all online vendors? Oregon is 80 miles from our house. No sales tax in Oregon.

EDIT: Ya know, if Dell introduces a "Linux option" so will others. Think I'll wait and see what HP comes up with.

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-09-2007, 11:34 AM

I would hope, another company other than Dell sells Linux based machines online & maybe something other than ubuntu (Nothing personal to those who use it).

I'm not a fan of debain's apt-get system, nor really fedora's yum/up2date system. Arch has an intresting (In that I'm not sure how it works as it has no physical intall) pacman package manager.

**TheMatt** · 05-10-2007, 12:28 PM

Very nice. I wonder if it will come with drivers that will allow for hardware 3D acceleration. I hope so, because mobile Linux drivers for most mobile graphics are often either not available or only provide 2D acceleration.

**Bartender** · 05-11-2007, 06:12 AM

Unless Dell's move turns out to be a total disaster, I think other vendors will have to follow.
And if they sell PCs that work with Ubuntu, chances are they'll work with whatever distro you prefer, don'tcha think?

That's what I find exciting about Dell's move. Not so much that I can finally buy Ubuntu pre-installed. That's not a big deal. My hope is that we see several vendors offering PC's that have been built to work with Linux.

Even the dial-up modem

**TheMatt** · 05-11-2007, 08:42 PM

And maybe vendors will start to provide linux drivers...especially graphics drivers.

**Bartender** · 05-12-2007, 06:29 AM

And wireless drivers

And drivers for peripherals, like printers and scanners and...whoah, my head's spinning.

~~PureEvilDan~~ · 05-12-2007, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMatt

And maybe vendors will start to provide linux drivers...especially graphics drivers.

Both nVidia & ATi have Linux Graphics drivers.

I've never had an ATi but the Linux Drivers are still really very new. nVidia have been running drivers for years.

Now if creative would just release X-Fi drivers :/

Oh and Intel have Linux graphics drivers :o)
Official Intel Site
Dedicated Intel linux graphics site

**Bartender** · 05-12-2007, 08:41 AM

There was a big stink on the Ubuntu Forums a month or two back, when an update borked a bunch of PC's. I didn't understand the whole thing, but apparently the only people affected were those who had added nvidia drivers from outside of the repo's.
There was talk of binary drivers rather than from source, etc. etc. like I said I didn't understand it...

05-07-2007, 09:24 PM	#1 (permalink)
chauffeur2 Manager Emeritus Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 10,180 OS: Xp Sp3 with all updates + Vista™ Ultimate SP1. My System	Dell and Ubuntu Partnership Dell® has announced that Ubuntu™ will be available as a pre-installed O/S on some of their computers..... Here's the announcement... http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx Regards, __________________ Dave T. Submit New Articles If it works, Don't fix it! Especially if Bill Gates had anything to do with it!!

05-08-2007, 07:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership Yes, word I've heard is two desktops and one lappy. Since we're stuck in dial-up wastelands, I'll be very curious to see how Dell handles that. They've already stated they would use an off-the-shelf version of Feisty. If that's true, it means they'd (I hope anyway) have to find or contract out for a modem that "just works". Oughta be interesting.

05-08-2007, 11:19 AM	#3 (permalink)
K-B Mod. Linux, Wrench Turner Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: NY Posts: 2,885 OS: Vista, Ubuntu My System	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership Yeah I'm sure they'll find/have made a modem designed to work with Linux. __________________

05-09-2007, 07:59 AM	#4 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership I had a bad experience with Dell a few years ago and swore never to deal with them again. I bought something "interest free for the first six months". Got a bill for interest fees at month #4. I called all over the world trying to get one person to tell me, in coherent English, why I was being billed for interest when the salesperson had clearly said "no interest for six months". Finally gave up, paid the $28 interest fee and the rest of the bill, and said "never again". I'm weak. Yesterday Dell was offering a good price on a 20" LCD monitor. I tried to place order online but website kept trying to sell the monitor at full price. So I called. Took 30 minutes to get close to finalizing the deal, when I find out they were gonna charge me sales tax. Other online vendors don't, or haven't anyway. (We live in Washington State) I asked why they're charging sales tax. Oh, man, the sales rep wanted to close the deal but he finally gave me a number to call. I swear to God, the number took me to a "Hey, big boy talk with hot, sexy, chicks" line. So I started OVER on the Dell phone prompt maze. Thru persistence and luck finally got to customer service. Cherry, who lives in Manila (when I was telling my wife later she asked, "Cherry in vanilla?!?") who couldn't tell me why Dell wanted to charge sales tax. She gave me another phone number, the Tax Division. That phone number didn't work. Disconnected. One hour spent on the phone with Dell, talking to two people in far away lands and a phone sex line. Finally googled the subject and it appears that Dell collects sales tax in about a dozen states, Washington being one of them. Anyone know anything about this? Does Dell have to collect sales tax in WA? Do all online vendors? Oregon is 80 miles from our house. No sales tax in Oregon. EDIT: Ya know, if Dell introduces a "Linux option" so will others. Think I'll wait and see what HP comes up with. Last edited by Bartender; 05-09-2007 at 08:03 AM.

05-09-2007, 11:34 AM	#5 (permalink)
~~PureEvilDan~~ Register user Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 229 OS: Gentoo AMD XP 2400+ 1GB Ram / WinXp Intel 805D 2GB Ram My System	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership I would hope, another company other than Dell sells Linux based machines online & maybe something other than ubuntu (Nothing personal to those who use it). I'm not a fan of debain's apt-get system, nor really fedora's yum/up2date system. Arch has an intresting (In that I'm not sure how it works as it has no physical intall) pacman package manager.

05-10-2007, 12:28 PM	#6 (permalink)
TheMatt TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,701 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership Very nice. I wonder if it will come with drivers that will allow for hardware 3D acceleration. I hope so, because mobile Linux drivers for most mobile graphics are often either not available or only provide 2D acceleration. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 [url="http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/"] If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

05-11-2007, 06:12 AM	#7 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership Unless Dell's move turns out to be a total disaster, I think other vendors will have to follow. And if they sell PCs that work with Ubuntu, chances are they'll work with whatever distro you prefer, don'tcha think? That's what I find exciting about Dell's move. Not so much that I can finally buy Ubuntu pre-installed. That's not a big deal. My hope is that we see several vendors offering PC's that have been built to work with Linux. Even the dial-up modem

05-11-2007, 08:42 PM	#8 (permalink)
TheMatt TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,701 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership And maybe vendors will start to provide linux drivers...especially graphics drivers. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 [url="http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/"] If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

05-12-2007, 06:29 AM	#9 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership And wireless drivers And drivers for peripherals, like printers and scanners and...whoah, my head's spinning.

05-12-2007, 08:41 AM	#11 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Dell and Ubuntu Partnership There was a big stink on the Ubuntu Forums a month or two back, when an update borked a bunch of PC's. I didn't understand the whole thing, but apparently the only people affected were those who had added nvidia drivers from outside of the repo's. There was talk of binary drivers rather than from source, etc. etc. like I said I didn't understand it...