I usually build my own machines but now that Dell is offering Ubuntu, I am looking at buying one. I will buy a Dell laptop if I can just get them to install a japanese keyboard in it! They are telling me that I have to order a laptop from japan in order to get the keyboard. Too bad they dont offer Ubuntu on the japanese computers…

You can order a keyboard separately. Just order a US laptop and then order a Japanese keyboard in Japan. I did that for a French keyboard that I ordered in France and installed in a US-bought D610 laptop.

Hmpf.

I don’t buy garbage. I build my own.

I have not forgotten who testified in Microsoft’s behalf when they were convicted even though they got off with a wrist-slap.

And Ubuntu? If I pay for a linux distro, I will get one with more polish. Ubuntu and Kubuntu are noble efforts for a certain segment of the population, but are more likely to make linux LESS popular with the WinSheep than say, ARK or Mandriva or MEPIS.

Dell offered Linux before, picking the worst possible distro at the time for the application they put forth, then withdrawing it saying Linux wasn’t popular. I have not forgotten that, either.

At least more works out of the box with Ubuntu than with say FC6.

Margrave

Unfortunately, I can’t even afford to upgrade my computer right now, let alone buy a new one. But if I could afford it, I would grab up one of the Ubuntu laptops in a heartbeat. (I’m with some others on this forum when it comes to desktops, I prefer to build my own, but laptops are a different animal.)

I did say that I would keep Ubuntu on the laptop, but that may not be technically true (it depends on how you look at it). It depends on whether Kubuntu qualifies as “a different distro”, which I don’t think it should, and I wouldn’t remove Ubuntu, I would just add the Kubuntu desktop to the Ubuntu installation.

I have 5 dells at home and will not buy another due to the worthless support from India.

Bryan,

Example, possibly fixed by now. Windows user tries Ubuntu.

Plugs in a USB Drive
Doesn’t know
sudo fdisk -l
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/sdf1
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdf1 /mnt/sdf1

On windows (or MEPIS, or ARK, or Mandriva), a window pops up saying “What do you want to do?” and displays all sorts of choices.

What would your conclusion be?

Margrave

I’d buy another laptop from them if they offered SLED (the supported SUSE version).

I need a reliable linux with support options. Sorry, but Ubuntu isn’t it. Just because Ubuntu is popular (only due to its good forums), doesn’t mean it is mature.

I’m not a big fan of Dells, but I do have one of their laptops and I’ve been happy with it.

I collect curbside donations, recycle them with MEPIS installed, through charity thrift shops, (3 Saints, SA) if they’ll have them, and, private schools, local businesses, kids, or turn the Optiplex’s into IPCOP boxes. Hey, have 100 PC’s on hand, currently! Plus 4 Macs.

Dell kinda made their own trouble, being that I have so many Dells… But, I do recommend to my hundreds of clients, friends, that any computer running Linux from the factory, is a better machine than anything ‘ConvictedfelonM$” from HP/Compaq or Sony!

I ONLY do Open Source *BSD and GNU/Linux. So do all my 5,000+ clients, friends, family members.
You’ll see me giving liveCD Linux Demos in major
Office and Computer or warehouse stores.

One question no one answers, in Costco, Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Target, Walmart, CompUSA, or BestBuy, is “will they offer Dells with Linux?”. I’ve asked. They’re mum.

Has “multiple convicted felon Microsoft” really got that much power as a “protection racket”?

Now, I think I comprehend why “multiple convicted felon Microsoft” fears the Open Source movement so much! We can break their hold on our society, our governments, our schools, and our charities!

To quote the great Mahatma, M. Ghandi, I AM the change I wish to see in the world!

I love LINUX, and used Ubuntu for some time. However, I need apps and that is the kicker. I don’t like XP, but my apps run fairly smooth. If my finance, Adobe apps, printer drivers, scanner software, calibration equipment, digital camera utility software would run I would run LINUX full time.
If Dell offers Ubuntu then great!! Perhaps the application houses will notice and start porting over to LINUX.
My next computer acquisition will most likely occur in 2008. If significant progress isn’t made then I’ll buy a MacBook Pro.

My experience with Dell hardware is based upon my employer’s equipment (Dell Latitude D800). Based solely on this, I would not buy Dell because of the hardware problems I have experienced (discounting the problems with Windows and drivers, I have experienced overheating, causing the paint on the casing to bubble off, display snow resulting in replacement of entire machine one component at a time, hard-drive failures). I take good care of my employer’s equipment, but replacements (I’m on my 3rd Dell Latitude in 2 years, without upgrade) continue to have problems with heat, battery recall and a flaky optical drive.

I will say that Dell’s customer support (at least for my large, multinational employer) is first rate.

However, this move to supporting and pre-installing Ubuntu is making me take a second look as I consider purchasing my own laptop. What ever I buy will be running a linux distro, probably either Ubuntu or Knoppix since those get the best reviews for laptop support, and being free of the Windows tax is a big plus on Dell’s scale

Proposing Ubuntu natively on a laptop (although not yet available in Europe) is certainly a good thing as it show the average consumer there is life outside Microsoft. But what I’d like to see is the possibility to buy a laptop with no OS installed. So I’m really free to install what ever I want, and don’t pay anything extra (there is still a cost for installing Ubuntu at Dell’s end).

As for the choice os distro, I think Ubuntu is as good (or as bad) as any other choice. I’m currently running Xubuntu 6.06 LTS on a Latitude D810, and it runs like a charm. But I’m always concerned with Dell’s very pour customer support: I have an older Dell Latitude with internal connection intermittent problems, and evnthough I bought the full next day, on site international service for 3 year (a very large fraction of the price), I never got Dell to cope with this problem (IBM was way more helpful with another laptop).

So, will I buy a Dell laptop with Ubuntu ? Maybe, when it’s available, and if there is no other affordable Linux offers on a laptop.

I feel that Dells Linux efforts are half hearted at best. If you go to their web site you have to KNOW that you want Linux and search for it in order to get to the area that offers a Linux box. Otherwise all you will see offered is Windoz.
If you do get to the Linux area the statements given would probably scare away any noobs who are toying with the idea of going Linux “…For advanced users and tech enthusiasts…”, “…The main thing to note is that when you choose open source you don’t get a Windows® operating system…”, “…A downside is that some open source software requires intermediate or advanced knowledge to use, and in the case of operating systems, may not be compatible with the same software applications and hardware as Windoz operating systems…”.
The kicker is that there are no bargains here. I priced out a bare bones Dell Dimension E520 for Vista and Ubuntu. I tried to keep the choices at the minimum values offered. (I could have upped the Linux box to the top offered processor of an Intel Core 2 E6420 Duo Processor(4MB L2 cache,2.13GHZ,1066FSB) but that was an additional $100 so I kept the base processor offered).
A Windoz box was $579 vs the Ubuntu box at $569. For that $10 savings the DIFFERENCES in the two systems were: The Linux box had an Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 @ 1.8GHz, an Intel GMA 950 Video Card and NO modem vs Windoz with a Pentium D 925 @ 3GHZ, an Intel GMA X3000 Video Card and an INCLUDED modem.
Go play with the numbers. You will see that Dell is giving you a lot less for your money if you want to go Linux.
I’d like to see Linx-Mag do a real comparison of Dells “Linux Support”. It’s really just a marketing ploy and perhaps an attempt at tweaking Bill Gates nose in the hopes of getting a little better deal from Micro$oft for being such fastidious supporters.

I’m not a fan of Dell’s since I bought two systems
for my kids. They were inexpensive, but Dell
intentionally crippled the agp interface and devices on the pci bus seemed to interfere with one another. In the end, I was forced to limit the
use of the pci bus to one device only (video). I had to discard my pci wireless boards and replace them with usb ones.

Of course, Dell never warned me that I was purchasing an inferior product and there was,
again of course, no available help from Dell.

These practices are those of a company that is
interested in the bottom line alone. Why let them
participate in the success of free software?

Linux does not seem to be offered on the Dell South Africa website. Strange given Mark Shuttleworths contribution to Ubuntu. But, on the other hand, SA also qualifies for M$ Vista Starter Edition as a 3rd world nation which I also don’t see.

Be that as it may I agree that offering Linux on a branded computer can only be good news for Linux in the consumer world and might get even get component manufacturers to offer Linux drivers for their offerings if they want to supply Dell.

If I was in the market for a laptop I would seriously consider Dell given their efforts so far.

I would be curious to know what Dell is calling support for the product. As I see it Ubuntu is an extremely flexible OS that has been able to run on anything I load it on. In some case it allows better performance than XP and the laptop I am using was “Designed for Microsoft Windows XP”. So is DELL just taking advantage of this flexible OS and calling it support, or are they actually researching hardware and loading optimal software?

Hell no! Dell hardware sucks!!! Why in the world will I buy the worst quality of hardware possible, worst technical support (Sorry Dell, your tech support is really clueless….) when I can use any hardware I choose, download and install Ubuntu myself?

I purchased a dimension about a year ago and found myself trying remove all the garbage software included in Windows when I decided to simply throw Fedora Core on there. It worked wonderfully. I did have some issues with the wireless networking and the wide screen resolution displaying correctly. Both issues taken care of in typical linux fashion (research ad nauseum, make educated guess on which updates will help, yum update, pray, repeat as necessary, and dance in celebration upon success). 3D supported with default installation (I later opted for beryl, which I think is awesome) and everything works really well. Its solid as a rock. I just hope that dell focuses on building machines that are generally linux compatible and not tailoring for any one specific OS/distro.

I don’t know what it is about Dell. Maybe it’s the fact that almost 98% of calls I get to “tune” and “repair” a client’s pc for some odd reason always turns out to be a Dell… I mean not that this is a bad thing for business mind you. Keep pumpin out those Dell’s with boat-loads of trialsoftware and an infinite number of startup processes. It’s good for business.

The reason I will never buy a Dell: I don’t trust a company that is pouring thousands of dollars into creating the cheapest systems possible. That’s a recipe for utter and total disaster.

I’m sure Dell’s business clients probably get a whole lot more respect and reliability then we do.

The bottom line: build your own.

Stop taking the easy way out.

Let me remind you.

Some of the benefits of building your own…

YOU KNOW what’s in the box.

YOU KNOW how much it cost you.

YOU KNOW how and where to get drivers.

YOU KNOW your way around your hardware.

YOU DON’T with some other brand, not least of which is Dell.

Putting Ubuntu on a Dell PC sounds like a wolf that just has better sheep’s clothing, or is probing for the “stragglers” that can’t decide whether it’s worth the money. I don’t think it will ever be.

Did you ever think about the fact that Dell is most likely using “wholesale motherboards”? If that doesn’t scare you and you’re still handing over your dough, something is wrong.

While I have no specific problem with Dell, I prefer leading edge hardware and software. My distribution of choice would be Fedora. As for the hardware, I can buy a well appointed Santa Rosa notebook for the price of Dell’s last generation notebook. Their product is simply not compelling or price competitive as far as I can see.

For many, Asus’ new $189 Linux MID laptop would be more than enough. Times are changing, and I don’t see Dell changing with them. They are reactionary, not proactive. This puts them well behind the technology curve. Maybe their slogan should be “We’re Dell, get off our lawn!”.

Simply the fact that a computer can run any GNU/Linux distro is a plus for me, and my hundreds of clients.

Now, Asus is trying to get into the game! Perhaps because their server, running M$, was pwned for a week?

Although M$ dominates the US market, GNU/Linux is affordable, and on the leading edge, in other places, such as China, India, Asia, Africa, the middle East, developing nations, the Rest of the World!

It is hard to shove the M$ FUD in the face of the reality of bad M$ experiences, and current government support of Open Source.

Yes, I have seen a lot of reports of bribery of officials, by M$, in the US, and in the world, as reported in the local press of those nations, that I find online!

I don’t think M$ has enough money to bribe 1 billion Chinese, 1.25 billion on the Indian sub-continent, and the billion other Asians and Africans…

My next laptop will be a Linux running Dell, unless Asus can get here quicker, cheaper, with their $189.00 Linux laptop!

I think what distribution of pre-installed Linux is unimportant, and instead it is important to sell a system which is full Linux compatible.

@Margrave

You build your own garbage?