“It has been over four months since Dell started shipping computers preloaded with Ubuntu GNU/Linux to home consumers in the United States. Lets take a moment to look at the progress that has been made so far. John Hull, manager of the Linux Engineering team in Austin was kind enough to let me interview him by e-mail. Besides commenting on the current state of affairs with Ubuntu on Dell machines, he also offers some insight in how the Linux team at Dell works and opens a small window into the future of Linux at Dell.”
I bought an inspiron 1420N from http://www.dell.com/ubuntu and I love it. I think buying the computer preinstalled with your favorite distro is a very good way to show your love for the OS you use.
Beside that, the laptop comes with a menu entry in grub that redeploys the preinstalled ubuntu installation made by dell in case you mess up yours. That’s the only dell specific thing I’ve seen on the laptop. Beside that, it just works…I know dell preinstalled some driver stuff of I don’t know what but for linux users like me that want a linux distro with minimum hassle, I found that a prefect fit. Open the box, turn in, use.
I also bought an Inspiron 1420N. But here in Malaysia, Ubuntu is not offered pre-installed. So I settled for one with FreeDOS OS.
It wasn’t that much cheaper compared to the one offered with MS products. But hey, I’m happy I’m not contributing to the treasure chest at Redmond
Dell Linux Engineering team has also remastered a copy of the Ubuntu 7.04 Live CD, and it’s available for download.
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.04#Dell_Remastered_Ub…
Thanks for the love DELL
Edited 2007-10-12 16:08
Did they supply you with a recovery disk in case HDD fails; if not, did they offer that for a small charge?
I really hate OEM leaving one life support for me in case of disasters.
There was an ubuntu CD in the box :-). I wonder if it’s the normal ubuntu or if it’s the dell remastered edition though. I haven’t tried it.
Wow. I just read that interview. It was believable and articulate. I think both the questions asked were mature and relevant, and his answers were great. Not a lot of hype and a lot of solid realistic answers.
It once again gives me real hope for consumer Linux, unlike the half@$$ed stuff we have seen over the last couple of years from both Dell and HP.
I am one of the people that wanted to buy a Dell laptop a few years ago with an AMD processor and ended up with an HP NX6325 with all sorts of problems (Google it…all the problems were on mine too…fans, wireless, et cetera)…
If they can master wireless and still pop an AMD chip in their laptops, I am so there in 2 or 3 years when I am once again in the market…
I recently bought an Ubuntu XPS system from Dell. It’s a nice machine. It’s only about $50 or so more then building it myself, and it works out of the box.
I have also installed OpenSuse 10.3 on it and that works good as well. It’s nice to see the major vendors supporting Desktop linux, it’s been about 10 years of desktop linux and it’s nice to see progress.
I’d like to see this across the board. I had to do a little hacking to get Gutsy working 100% on my D630 but it was worth it.
Hi Mr. Hull, thanks for being very sympathetic..
I’m a very patient person.. but does it really have to take so long to launch Dellbuntus in Europe?
regards,
herman
(from the Netherlands, the most Microsoftified nation on the face of the planet. Save the neediest first!
)
Dell Ubuntu PCs are currently available in three localisations in Europe: English, French and German.
I expect that other localisations will follow next year, most probable candidates IMHO are Italian and Spanish.
Why aren’t they selling those laptop with ubuntu pre-installed in Canada ?
Is this because the market is higher in Europe than in Canada ?
The European market is even bigger than the US market, though more complex due to a lot of different localisations.
Additionally, due to EU intra-trading agreements, customers can buy from shops in a different country, thus already reaching quite a large portion of the population with just three shops.
While Canada also has some trading agreements with the US, they do not seem to include this kind of provisions.