Matt Domsch on Linux support at Dell

Matt Domsch on Linux support at Dell

Posted Oct 8, 2007 1:30 UTC (Mon) by moxfyre (subscriber, #13847)
Parent article: Matt Domsch on Linux support at Dell

> While our sales of desktops and notebooks with Ubuntu pre-loaded have met our expectations, I personally hoped that Ubuntu sales would be through the roof.

I'm very enthusiastic about Dell's support for Ubuntu and Linux in general, but one thing frustrates me: they only offer a few models of laptops and desktops, and they are Intel-only.

I bought a new laptop a few months ago, right after Dell started offering Ubuntu pre-installed. I *really* wanted to show my support by getting one of the Ubuntu models, but the only laptop is the 1420N (http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&...). It's really nice, but I wanted a 15" screen, and as cheap as possible (I'm a starving grad student :-).

Instead I got a Dell Insprion 1501, which has a 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 instead of Intel C2D, ATI graphics instead of Intel, and Broadcom wireless instead of Intel. I got it for about $600 total thanks to a promotional code on edealinfo.com, which has a frequently-updated list of Dell Deals.

Thus, although the Linux boxes may be cheaper in theory, there are more choices available if you go with a non-Linux system, and more coupon codes and such available. So I imagine that the number of people who buy Dell systems to run Linux is significantly greater than the number who've bought them with Ubuntu preloaded!

I understand that Dell can't support all the hardware it sells under Linux (yet!), largely due to holdouts who won't cooperate with open source driver development... in particularly, Broadcom's continued opposition at this point is just bizarre, given that their major wireless chipsets have been reverse-engineered and fully-functional drivers are available for Linux! I'm grateful to Dell for using their considerable market clout to push for more open drivers, in particular from ATI/AMD!

So, please count me as another satisfied customer running Ubuntu on a Dell machine... just not the model that Dell intended!

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