Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

warner — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:13:34 GMT

Yes, I agree, the thing is to have and *communicate* the fact of hardware that is working with Linux.

As so many others have said if the hardware works with *one* distro it will work will *any* distro as long as heroic efforts wernt required.

IE. hardware supported in the mainline kernel, the same mainline kernel that is the basis for 99% of the distros.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

John A — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:38:53 GMT

No don't choose one distro and support it fully. That's a waste of time and money. Choose linux-friendly hardware. Anybody that has ever run Linux on anything knows how to install it and configure it. If you pre-loaded any version of linux 99 out of 100 people would scrap it and re-install any way, myself included in that 99. Use Linux Friendly hardware! That's it. No support really needed. Almost all linux users are completely capable of supporting their own computers, if the hardware is friendly. Just ship out a blank laptop. No os on it at all. I don't see what the big deal is about, other than "upsetting" M$. Make a single line of laptops with no os and Linux friendly hardware. End Of Story.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

james — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 22:41:07 GMT

well i just bought there so-called open source e521n. i will be installing ubuntu on it tonight. if all the hardware works i will be happy. if not its going back....and i will try to make it work. i have yet to get linux to work without messing around with it on any system so i will give it some time. but i do think dell should pick one version of linux and make a system that runs with it 100% they can pick any distro i dont care. or heck let them make a dell-linux.they then can support it.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Patrick Davila — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:35:28 GMT

So Dell sells servers with Linux, workstations with no OS and Windoze only on laptops. While this is definitely a step in the right direction more needs to be done. Dell should at least sell one distribution on the desktop and laptop offerings. Pick one any of the major distros (Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora) and make sure all the hardware works with it. If it works with one Linux distro it WILL work with the others. You don't need to have tech support except for enterprise customers. We Linux folks have learned to depend on ourselves. If Dell doesn't step up other smaller vendors will. When the time comes for a new laptop purchase I will look at the options. If Dell does not offer a system with Linux pre-installed I will go to a vendor that does. I will support a company that DOES THE RIGHT THING. Enough said.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Aaron — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:48:47 GMT

They sell two Dimensions, four Optiplexs with just a generic DOS load and three workstations with Linux.

http://www.dell.com/nseries

Right now, no portable systems are available because driver support is so limited for portables, but I would guess it is coming eventually.

Anyone who has put Linux on a portable will tell you about the headaches involved. Never tried it myself, but I have friends who have.

Linux is just a hobby for me, so if something doesn't work, it doesn't affect me much but everytime I play with my Linux system, I end up doing more tweeking and tuning that I do working, reminds me of the DOS days.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Yuriy — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:34:34 GMT

The best thing Dell can do about all this is to let customers buy Dell systems WITHOUT MS system... This will resolve all problems... People won't need paying for the thing they won't use and everybody'll be happy.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Dah-Veed — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:46:06 GMT

"Clearly you are missing the point of this article. The claim
was that Dell is fully supporting Linux on its product line"

no where in the article does it state that Dell is supporting Linux on it's whole product line. It only calls out that they fully support Linux on it's Enterprise products. Their support in this space is huge!

as for every feature of your laptop working with every version of linux, or even the most widely used, getting them all to work right and providing drivers or utilities to make them work would be considered asking support from Dell. even those m$ft monkeys as you call them can understand that.

Some of the people here got my main comment .... There is not really a market for Linux in the desktop or portables space. Dell sells Linux installed on it's Precision Workstation Desktops,( http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd) but probably not enough to make it on the radar of every Linux enthuiast. If there was a market for it, you have to admit that Dell would go straight for it. Look what they did with printers.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

David — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:57:44 GMT

Dah-veeds point is well taken. There are too many Linux distro's (versions) for Dell to support them all. But it would go a long way in supporting Dell's Linux claims if they would pick one of the major Linux distro's and support it fully. At least that would prove that Dell's hardware works with Linux. Linux user's could then be confident that they could buy a Dell that works with some version Linux without reservation. Most likely, if the hardware works with one Linux it will work with them all.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Aaron — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:11:35 GMT

DAh-veed is correct, there are just not enough people wanting Linux on desktops and portables to justify the added expense, but Dell has been pretty good (better than most, I think) at making it as easy as possible to get Linux up and running on their systems.

If there was only one version of Linux, it would be so much easier.

In my opinion, Linux will never be a serious desktop challenger until there is more standarization in place so that all drivers and apps work on all distros without tweeks.

re: Dell Open Source Community Contributions Overview

Linux Man — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 08:38:19 GMT

Actually DAh-veed, that's not really what the Linux community wants and as you mentioned, it's unrealistic for Dell to test all distros out there. What the Linux community wants are laptops and desktops from Dell with hardware that works well with Linux (everything on the laptop or desktop works). It doesn't have to work out of the box, but at least Dell could provide the instructions on how they got things working. Take a popular distro such as Fedora and show how you got everything working under it. Provide links to any additional tools / drivers needed (and write these drivers if needed - for example, a utility to allow users to enable the function keys which shouldn't be overly complicated). That's it. Once they do that, they can even give users an incentive to get things working on their laptops - ex. take the top 10 distros and the first person that can illustrate how to get the laptop fully working under each distro gets a free gift or a $100 reward of rebate or whatever. So with very little effort, each of Dell's laptops and desktops can have howtos on getting everything working on the laptop/desktop for the 10 most popular Linux distros. That covers 95%+ of all Linux users. Thus, with minimal effort, Dell's Linux users are a lot happier and can recommend Dell's hardware to other Linux enthusiasts :)

Thus, with minimal effort ($1000 or less / laptop / desktop) after their initial effort on getting a laptop/machine fully working on Linux, Dell's customers could be a lot happier.

PS. For things such as enabling the fucntion keys, they can make a small site and post the code. Linux distributions can then take this code and make packages for each distro.