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Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World)
PC World
reports on Dell's plans for offering pre-installed Linux systems.
"Thanks to requests by its customers, Dell Inc. is going to start offering Linux pre-installed on its PCs and notebooks, the company said Wednesday.
Based on customer feedback Dell began soliciting last month, Dell said that top of mind among customers was that the company should begin offering Linux as an alternative to Windows on its personal computers, according to a posting on a company blog. Dell said it "has heard" what customers said and will act accordingly."
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Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 17:42 UTC (Thu) by macson_g (subscriber, #12717) [Link] Linked article points to Dell's Blog (http://direct2dell.com/), which contans even more spicy details:> For new Linux desktops and notebooks, well use drivers already in the mainline kernel.org kernels for as many components as possible. In these cases, the drivers will be included in your distribution of choice. This includes storage, wired networking, power management, USB, and more.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 18:37 UTC (Thu) by ewan (subscriber, #5533) [Link] You can take that two ways though, either:- We'll use as many components as possible that are supported by in-kernel drivers, or: - We'll use what components we feel like, then use in-kernel drivers for as many as possible, and binary blobs for the rest.
Neither would surprise me, but I'm going to hope for the best.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 19:11 UTC (Thu) by eli (guest, #11265) [Link] Looks like it may be the best:For device types where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, in our Linux offering we'll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver. Wireless network adapters is one such example; Printers are another.and they go on to seemingly "get it" in terms of video, etc. This sounds very promising!
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 23:11 UTC (Thu) by AJWM (guest, #15888) [Link] > where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, [...] we'll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver.
Even though Dell's Linux PC sales will be a small fraction of their overall sales (although we can hope otherwise), that sends a clear signal to component vendors: open up your drivers!
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 23:46 UTC (Thu) by job (guest, #670) [Link] "Bundle" with a Free driver? Call me suspicious, but that doesn't sound too well. "Publish specifications" would be better.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 1:43 UTC (Fri) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link] Dell doesn't create the specs and so isn't the one to publish them
they are a reseller, not a component design shop.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 2:19 UTC (Fri) by ajross (subscriber, #4563) [Link] Yes, exactly. People (some of the commenters at the blog link above especially) seem to be misunderstanding the value here. Dell is not going to be able to write us drivers for their hardware, nor can they force ATI or NVIDIA (for example) to open up their drivers for us.What they can do is promise us that linux works on their hardware. That creates an internal pressure to select components that, y'know, work with linux. That, in turn, pushes pressure out to their suppliers from a direction that the developer community simply can't apply. Broadcom (for example) doesn't give a hoot about linux developers and probably never will. But they do care about landing that next Dell contract. The best we can expect from Dell specifically is the same level of service they provide their windows customers: they should ship us working machines with working, licensed software. Asking for anything else in the name of software purity is, to my eyes, looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 6:11 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Keep in mind that Dell _does_ understand the GPL and the significance of kernel modules and their relationship with the kernel.
If their lawyer says that such and such hardware's propriatory drivers are a a violation of GPLv2 license they will not ship that hardware.
Also Dell does actually make, or at least commision hardware for themselves. They've always had their own special motherboards and things of that nature. They do design the cases and will have impact on hardware designs that go with their machines.
So this means that Dell also does extensive testing.
How it works with a good Linux vendor, like System76 (from interviews I've heard), is like this:
1. They go to their supplier and work out a deal to evaluate new hardware.
2. They test it, figure what drivers are required and how well supported the machine is by Linux.
3. Based on that and how apealing the hardware they feel will be to their customers they buy the hardware.
Now this is the part were it gets into about how the drivers _realy_ suck about Linux. (not omg-we-need-propriatory-binaries included stuff)
The thing is that kernel development is rapid. So Distributions choose to standardize on a paticular kernel back port drivers and such things to that paticular kernel version.
Well what ends up happenning is that new hardware is released and distributions don't support that hardware even though there exists Free software drivers for it. This is because unless the drivers are aviable at that time of that distribution's paticular release they will not be included. Thus it becomes that much harder for end users to find support for that paticular hardware.
So in reality Free software support in distribution releases comming even from rapid distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu perpetually falls behind Free software driver _development_ in X.org and the Kernel.
How System76 deals with this is that they test and hardware driver bugs they find they try to get solved. They backport missing drivers. Any lacking hardware support they try to get drivers written for it.
They take all these normally non-included kenrel modules they compile and include them in a single .deb file they simply call their 'drivers' file. (or something like that).
So if users reinstall and loose the cdrom they provide or something like that they can just go online download that deb file and have all the drivers they need for any of system76's hardware.
So that is how they work around Linux distribution's driver obsolecence problems and introduce new drivers.
Dell needs to figure out something like that with Kernel/X/distribution developers. Some acceptable way that Dell can make sure that they get driver fixes and support for newer hardware they want to sell. (remember hardware supported in latest vanilla Linux kernel can be missing from distribution's kernels). And they need to figure out a testing and evaluation strategy to make sure that there are not serious regressions and such things.
And also probably figure out a effective way to be able to provide these drivers in source code form in a way that will more then likely compile and work for a while assortment of Linux distributions.
This isn't problems they had to solve for Windows, except for the testing part. One kernel to deal with only for desktop stuff. So this is new challenge for Linux support for them.
I think that is what he is talking about.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 13:33 UTC (Fri) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] > So in reality Free software support in distribution releases comming even> from rapid distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu perpetually falls behind Free > software driver _development_ in X.org and the Kernel.
Fedora Core 5 & 6 are at 2.6.20.x level
Find another distro "falling behind" than Fedora. They ship the drivers released upstream when they are released upstream, any lag between hardware release and driver propagation is 100% on the manufacturer side.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 16:24 UTC (Fri) by AJWM (guest, #15888) [Link] > Find another distro "falling behind" than Fedora.
But, a PC manufacturer like Dell is unlikely to want to load a bleeding-edge distro on their systems. Hardware model lines don't change that fast, and for support reasons you want reasonably stable and well-tested software. More to the point, though, drivers and subsystem development is often ahead of being merged into mainline.
Some years back I was somewhat involved in the 1394 (Firewire) development -- the company I was working for was developing a system (hardware and software) using DV and 1394, and I was developing using bleeding edge drivers from the 1394 subsystem development team, not yet merged upstream. Fortunately Mandrake came out with a release that they'd merged that code into -- almost a year ahead of SuSE or Redhat -- so that we could tell the customer to use that rather than providing the drivers separately.
> They ship the drivers released upstream when they are released upstream, any lag between hardware release and driver propagation is 100% on the manufacturer side.
No, it takes time for new driver code (ie code for a new device) to be merged upstream (unless it is similar enough to an existing driver that it can be merged with a small patch). Granted, with the current kernel development model it's a bit faster than in the old days, but there's still working driver code out there that for whatever reason isn't yet in the mainline kernel, hence not released upstream, and thus won't be in the likes of Fedora.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 16:48 UTC (Fri) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] >> Find another distro "falling behind" than Fedora.> But, a PC manufacturer like Dell is unlikely to want to load a > bleeding-edge distro on their systems. Hardware model lines don't change > that fast, and for support reasons you want reasonably stable and > well-tested software.
Read the messages users posted on the Dell site. They do *not* want Dell to do the support of the software. They *do* want Dell to take care of the drivers.
> More to the point, though, drivers and subsystem development is often
So what? You have the same problem on other OSes (Windows early USB support comes to mind). The OP singles out Linux distros for being responsible for slow driver availability, when distros "falling back" is a handy excuse to obscure the fact hardware vendors are not doing their work for Linux (both in code quality and in code availability). And justify half-backed out-of tree drivers (open or closed).
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 17:57 UTC (Fri) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861) [Link] > So what? You have the same problem on other OSes
No, you don't. The difference is that with other OSs, the kernel ABI is static or at least stable for a number of years at a time. Linux has no stable ABI, which means it's very difficult to distribute binary drivers that work for any length of time, across any wide cross-section of distributions.
That's all fine: I'm fully in agreement with Linus about ABI stasis in the kernel, and I want source code for my drivers as much as anyone. But let's not kid ourselves that this doesn't cause problems for even the most friendly hardware vendors, who are working to get their drivers into the kernel proper, as Greg K-H etc. recommend. Even with the advanced pace of kernel development there can still be a lag of a number of months before a driver for new hardware is accepted into the kernel.
And that doesn't do anything to help people who are using distros with older kernels: distros come out even less frequently than kernels, and by the time your distro releases (even if, like Ubuntu, it releases every 6 months) it's likely the kernel in that distro is 9 months or more old.
And of course, even the API in the kernel changes so drivers that you write for the newer kernel may well not work properly with older ones (and, to a lesser extent, vice versa), and that's not to mention that most distros are not configured by default to be able to build out-of-tree kernels: they don't install all the kernel headers or even, sometimes, a compiler. Yes, this is easy to remedy by the user but it adds a good bit of complexity to the entire operation.
Contrast this with Windows, where a hardware vendor can give a driver to Microsoft to be shipped with Windows, then put a disk or CD in their package with 2 or 3 versions of a driver, and cover all Windows systems shipped in the last 10 years at least, with virtually no support costs.
I'm not saying Windows has it right or that Linux should follow that model (I loathe Windows). I'm just saying we're not doing anyone, including ourselves, any favors by not admitting the truth: Linux is a more challenging environment for hardware vendors to support than Windows, EVEN IF they are completely committed to FLOSS principles (which is rare). That's a real problem and we need a real solution. I think DKMS, or something like it, is a good attempt to address this problem in a pragmatic fashion.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 31, 2007 11:27 UTC (Sat) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] >> So what? You have the same problem on other OSes> No, you don't.
Yes you have and it's proved every time a new major hardware family (usb, sata, x86_64...) is introduced. Once the base support is in the kernel all is fine but till it is hardware manufacturers have to wait.
It's a complex ecosystem, it's not a manufacturer-to-user one to one (it's not under windows either but that's less clear-cut). It works perfectly for server-class hardware because everyone involved knows its responsibilities (and you have cutting-edge hardware there too) but it seems desktop-class manufacturers still have their homework to do.
1. Manufacturers for a device class are collectively responsible to get the core infrastructure needed by their device class written (either inhouse, paid-for externalisation, documentation to interested developers, etc) and submitted to the core FLOSS project managing this kind of hardware (kernel, xorg, cups, sane...). This is where most of the time is spent and you don't see it overmuch under windows because it's usually done well in advance. You'll note even though Nvidia has a closed driver its people work with xorg to get the required infrastructure done (as do Intel)
2. Then when they're ready to ship one particular device the actual device driver writting and submission can be quick and compatible with time-to-market requirements.
3. Core hardware projects (kernel, xorg, cups, sane...) have to audit and integrate these submissions in a common source release.
4. System builders like Dell have to select hardware that went through 1. 2. and 3. to provide an incentive to their suppliers, and systems to their users distributions can support.
5. Distributions have to package the source releases and make them available to users, and do community or paid-for support.
Any delay before 3. is hardware manufacturer problem (and the system builder problem is he does not push its suppliers in the right direction). Delays at 3. are hardware manufacturer problem if the submitted code is not clean enough for quick integration, and community/distro problem if there's not enough people to audit it in time. Delays at 5. (what hardware people like to complain at) are distro-side, however major distros like Fedora have already make clear they'll pick up source release quick (not like in the bad old days). If the driver pump is correctly initiated at 1. and 2. every other distro will have to follow suit. They only get by with lagging because hardware manufacturers do not provide any incentive by failing to push drivers at 1. and 2.
Getting satisfied with a foolish distro shipping half-baked code only means others won't ship it any time soon because there's nothing working to ship (the mandrake firewire example is a good one it made everyone lose months/years, if we get proper support someday that's because Red Hat is restarting at 1. now and rewriting the base class support)
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 31, 2007 4:31 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] I am not saying that it's impossible, just that it's a difficult.
The kernel developement model nowadays, as I understand it, is:
1. Kernel developers have -mm branch for 'everything included' that they hack on. End users aren't suppose to use this.
2. Kernel developers have their vanilla kernel releases and have 'stable' support about 2 releases in the past.
End users aren't realy suppose to use this either.
3. Distributiosn take a kernel and then _those_ kernels are the ones that the end users do.
This is good because you have at least 3 levels of quality control. Hacker branches, Vanilla kernel branch, distro branch. Hopefully most bugs get found and fixed in those three things.
And it's not just the kernel. You have X. Don't forget that X has it's own drivers that are seperate from the kernel. So that is another layer of complexity.
Ok, so Fedora has 2.6.20.
At a minimum Dell is going to have to pick a professionally supported distribution. Either Redhat or Suse, or both. Then it's going to probably pick a 'free' one, like Ubuntu or (less likely in my opinion) Fedora.
So what I am talking about is a real issue. It's not a insurmountable issue, but it is a issue non-the-less.
The issue is that Dell is going to have to figure out a way to work with the kernle developers and the distribution developers to be able to provide source code-level drivers that will probably just work on relatively modern kernels irregardless of what paticular kernel version is being used.
This is a new problem for them.
The reason you don't deal with this with other operating systems is...
OS X -- Dell doesn't sell OS X, they aren't allowed to. As far as Apple goes they just are very carefull to select very specific hardware configurations.
Windows -- Dell has a sort of similar problem for Windows if they support 64bit. But otherwise...
The last desktop-oriented Windows release is 5 years old now. Vista is new and is causing all sorts of headaches for Dell.
But the headaches are just because it's new. It won't be at least 3 years for another Windows release. Probably 5 years.
That is Windows mythical 'ABI' stability comes from. They have _one_ OS at a time, and most of the time it's a old OS.
With Linux it's always new.
This is a problem for Dell, but if somebody figures out a good solution for everybody involved then we all will benifit from it and probably Dell, distros, and the kernel developers will all be better off.
I don't think that ABI stability realy matters a whole lot, it's a non-starter as far as a solution goes. At least for Linux.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 1, 2007 21:17 UTC (Sun) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link] one thing you are missing is that device support in linux isn't one driver per model/manufacturer of device like it is in windows, it tends to be one driver for all devices that use the same chip.
while there are gotcha's with some hardware that requre work-arounds in the driver, they are a lot less common that you would think.
the end result is that a well built new card will frequently just plugin and work in an older kernel, no change needed.
not all the time, but if compatability with older kernels is an issue for you, and you are selecting the hardware, you can work with your suppliers to pick hardware where this is the case.
David Lang
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 14:04 UTC (Fri) by mdomsch (subscriber, #5920) [Link] This is exactly what our DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) tool is all about. http://linux.dell.com/dkms/dkms.html.
We backport drivers from later kernels onto the kernels for the distributions/versions we're shipping. We get most of them included in the next Update/Service Pack/errata from the distro. And we post drivers, source and all (when available, the few obvious exceptions), in a DKMSified RPM. When a new kernel is installed that doesn't have that driver, or a new-enough version of that driver, DKMS will rebuild the drivers for you (provided you've got a compiler and kernel source on your build/target systems).
We do this today on PowerEdge servers and Precision workstations. Backporting drivers onto several distributions/versions is a lot of work, but we do it. I expect to use the same strategy, using DKMS, on our desktop and notebook offerings as well.
DKMS is our solution to the backport problem. It's a stopgap mechanism between when there's a driver available you need, and when it's available in your distro-of-choice kernel.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 14:36 UTC (Fri) by eli (guest, #11265) [Link] Matt, I'm glad to see you subscribe to LWN. :)
Just to reiterate: a lot of us (particularly in this forum) value
(Oh, and working dual-head would be really nice. I haven't gotten that
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 31, 2007 4:47 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] I think it should be possible to get dual head working with Free software drivers (2d + 3d) if you use Intel integrated drivers combined with a ADD2 card and the 'modsetting' branch of the intel X.org drivers.
-- mdomsch
Very neat.
Like if you get Debian or Ubuntu to support it then it will get supported by all those debian variants. Then Redhat support for them to use.
That way you can get it having more widespread users and maybe get improvements back. I can see people using servers or Debian stable would be interested in it.. like they can download the latest kernel sources and compile drivers for their current kernel or something.
It seems to be a handy tool. Have you tried contacting the LKML and getting them to officially support it, maybe include it in their 'linux kernel driver development kit' or something like that.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 31, 2007 12:54 UTC (Sat) by mdomsch (subscriber, #5920) [Link] drag:
DKMS is incorporated into Fedora and Mandriva.
It can be used to build Kernel Module Packages for both Fedora/RHEL and SLES{9,10} distributions, so I'd love to see it in openSUSE too.
I haven't gone through the process to become a Debian Developer, but have posted debs of DKMS in the past on linux.dell.com. I'd really prefer a DD offer to package and maintain it in Debian, add Debian driver disk creation (it builds driver disks for Red Hat and SuSE now), and add a 'mkdeb' function analogous to its 'mkrpm' function. None of this is that hard, but there hasn't been huge demand for it in Debian/Ubuntu (yet) and I haven't had the time to go learn those aspects to do the code myself. DKMS is written in bash, so it's not hard for a talented sysadmin to add those kinds of features.
DKMS does build on top of the kernel Kbuild infrastructure, so it is usable with stock kernel.org kernels, as well as those of any distribution. A few of the out-of-tree features that Kbuild provides were explictly developed for DKMS use.
As for LKML, I've certainly pointed it out there several times, and have talked about it with prominent kernel developers. Thing is, for mainline, it's really uninteresting - just get your stuff merged into mainline. :-) DKMS is really useful as a backporting tool. Merge your code into mainline, then backport your driver to the kernel(s) of your distro(s) - which by definition are older than mainline. Then use DKMS to build and package out-of-tree modules for your distro/kernel.
Thanks,
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 1, 2007 4:41 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Very cool.
I'll have to take a strong look at it.
I wounder how hard it would be to incorporate into module-assistant program that debian made. (It'll go and download kernel module source files, compile them into a deb package, then install the deb package as well as download any dependancies needed to accomplish that)
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 14:42 UTC (Fri) by eli (guest, #11265) [Link] ""Bundle" with a Free driver?" Hmm... I took that to mean they would bundle the component that had a Free driver. (The bundling being the set of hardware they use.) You took it to mean they would bundle the Free driver with the hardware. (The bundling being that component and the driver.) Looking at the original quote:For device types where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, in our Linux offering we'll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver.I think it could be read either way... so I wonder which was intended.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 1, 2007 3:12 UTC (Sun) by mdomsch (subscriber, #5920) [Link] Eli: you're read is correct. I mean to say that components with a Free driver are preferred over components that don't have a Free driver (or no driver at all).
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 29, 2007 18:19 UTC (Thu) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] It's a small but very important step towards eating away at Microsoft's "tax" base. I'm looking forward to being able to buy my next Linux system from Dell without having to put money in Microsoft's pocket for something I never used or wanted. Yes, there have been alternatives for several years now but Dell is a very large segment of the PC market. Having this option on laptops and non server systems from them is something I've been hoping would happen for a very long time.
And they've done it in such a way that Microsoft will have to tread very lightly.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 3:16 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] While I welcome this move by Dell, I'd still rather see quality suppliers like System76 ( http://www.system76.com ) grow and flourish.
My money is still going to them.
Dell *could* raise public awareness of Linux. But it remains to be seen just how deeply they bury these offerings on their web site to avoid confusing their "real" customers with non-Vista choices.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 18:43 UTC (Fri) by bfields (subscriber, #19510) [Link] System76 still doesn't indicate which models are supported by free drivers; they ship models with nVidia drivers, for example, with no special mention that that might be a problem.
As someone that cares about getting hardware with free drivers in mainline, this means that I have to go through their specs, google for each part, and verify for myself whether it's supported.
So if you really want to run, you know, an operating system that's actually completely free, rebuildable from source, etc.--you're not better off than buying from anyplace else.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Mar 30, 2007 22:18 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] No problem. The models that use Nvidia are clearly labeled. The models that use Intel graphics are clearly labeled as well.
My next laptop purchase will be a Gazelle Value unit (or maybe a Darter), which does not require any proprietary drivers to deliver excellent hardware support.
I believe that the Pangolin and Darter are also completely supported by OSS software.
System76 does sometimes include hardware for which a Linux driver is not available. But they write their own, when possible, and release them as free software.
So I would say that you are *much* better off buying from System76. You *can* buy a machine which needs proprietary drivers to deliver full support of the hardware. But it is easy to avoid that.
And even with the Nvidia based machines, you can run them just fine with the nv driver unless you want to play Doom 3.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 12, 2007 23:10 UTC (Thu) by bfields (subscriber, #19510) [Link] No problem. The models that use Nvidia are clearly labeled. The models that use Intel graphics are clearly labeled as well. Yeah, but they're not clearly labeled as supported by free software or not. So if I care about that then I have to go do that research myself and find out that nvidia isn't supported and intel is. This is one of those small annoyances that I would hope a "linux-friendly" vendor could save me from. That's not so difficult for video drivers these days. Slightly more confusing for wireless. Sometimes machines (especially laptops) will have other odd bits and pieces that need to be looked into. The sad thing is that this kind of research is actually *easier* with the big vendors--google any Dell laptop and you'll probably get half-a-dozen web pages with all these details. System76 does sometimes include hardware for which a Linux driver is not available. But they write their own, when possible, and release them as free software. That's good. Do they write good stuff? Does it get into the upstream projects and distros, or two years from now am I still going to be dealing with these things manually when I want to upgrade? Anyway, people are telling me their support people are pretty responsive, so next time around maybe I'll try just asking them for this information and see how it goes. And even with the Nvidia based machines, you can run them just fine with the nv driver unless you want to play Doom 3. I'm no big gamer, but every now and then I like to play around with tuxracer or whatever. And I do have a weakness for silly 3-d desktop tricks.... (Wobble those windows! Spin those cubes! Whee!)
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 1, 2007 15:51 UTC (Sun) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link] The problem I see with System76's current laptop models that is a dealbreaker for me: No display better than WXGA (1200x800). Our 3 year old no-name ODM banias laptop has a beautiful SXGA (1400x1050) display that I steadfastly won't back down from. Maybe I'm just too picky, but the extra dpi in the 15.4 display just keeps everthing much clearer.
Dell Promises Pre-Installed Linux (PC World) Posted Apr 1, 2007 17:16 UTC (Sun) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] Send them a note or post about this in the System76 support area of http://www.ubuntuforums.org
Carl and the gang are quite responsive, and would be interested in your input.
There is a 17" model planned, BTW. No details as of yet, and no idea what the resolution might be. I don't think they have even made a decision on the hardware. But they do want to offer a 17".
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