Comments on: Dell, Red Hat: Discussing Desktop Deal?

By: HelloWorld

HelloWorld — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:38:28 +0000

Peace people

We love you

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:52:46 +0000

BTW dear Ubuntu users when was the last time you tried Fedora, CentOS or RHEL ?

You might like to try FC6, CentOS5 or RHEL5 or perhaps test the waters of F7

Cheers,

By: Duane

Duane — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:36:38 +0000

I have installed both Ubuntu Edgy and OpenSuse 10.2 on my Inspiron 1510. Of the two, the OpenSuse distro installed with the least amount of hassles (wireless setup went more smoothly with the OpenSuse box). The OpenSuse distro makes it easier to blend desktop and server functionality and makes a better developer box, IMHO. Ubuntu had broader support for multimedia apps (at least as far as binaries go) for tasks like CD / DVD ripping / authoring, etc. From a commercial perspective, it would make sense to install a distro with built-in support (Novell, Red Hat), and roll the subscription into the selected (1,2,3-year) warranty, just as they do with current offerings based on Windows.

By: WillieDaPimp

WillieDaPimp — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:07:29 +0000

Hardware support is (or should be) the number one issue. As for the desktop, Ubuntu is a good choice if Canonical offers a Dell a deal with 1 to 3 yrs of support from Dell’s Desktop Linux PC customers. In my experience with converting windows users over to linux, Ubuntu has turned alot of people I know away. Then when I have convinced them to try another flavor of linux I’ll usually install a Mandriva system for them. Mandriva probably doesn’t seem like a good distro for most, but it is VERY newbie friendly, and acts alot like a windows system. I personally use Gentoo but I doubt any one will buy a Dell with pre-installed Gentoo. I say go with Ubuntu and Mandriva.

By: tony

tony — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:40:56 +0000

I agree with above posters that Ubuntu is good, but certainly not the easiest for newbies.
I am doing Linux now in my 3th year ( windows free ) and for the last 9 months, I only install PCLinuxOS for total beginners, explaining to them that once they got the hang of it, they should try something else, like Mandriva, Mephis .etc.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:50:55 +0000

As others have already posted, just knowing that Dell has models X, Y, and Z running some form of Linux will be a big boost. At least those machines will very likely be able to run whatever flavor I want to use. But I do hope Dell makes a "practice" of giving deferential treatment in the future to vendors who supply Linux drivers with all of their hardware. If that large of a company began to demand Linux drivers for all products from their vendors, we would see a dramatic change in the landscape.

As for which flavor of Linux is easiest for newbs, IMO Ubuntu (which is what I use) is not the easiest. It gets better all the time, but others are easier. And Mepis is a better "KDE-Ubuntu" than Kubuntu. But of course that is all just my opinion.

By: xlinuks

xlinuks — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:55:37 +0000

Good. Ubuntu has its flaws too. However, the usual mistake when talking someone into moving to Linux is saying that it’s perfect or ‘much better’ than windows because the user inevitably thinks of this as of ‘the whole windows interface and widgets + bonuses’. IMO it’s important to let know/remind the user that he’s gonna have a learning curve, no matter how easy the desktop might be and also emphasize on the benefits of this learning.

By: Tom-Red Hook

Tom-Red Hook — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:37:30 +0000

I certainly wasnt saying windows was better by no means. Just thats what I have heard from new users, and that was one example of what happened. I put them on a different linux and they liked it better, easy to use ultimately….thats what my point was. Pointless to you, but it certainly wasnt to my mother.

By: xlinuks

xlinuks — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:24:35 +0000

Your ‘picture folder screensaver’ issue is pointless. It’s as right as one(some newbie) can say ‘windows is crap for it didn’t recognize my sound, I’m a newbie, how do I know which drivers it needs? And why would I know how to setup sound drivers?’
Or take it another way: “I’m a newbie, I can set my toolbar fully transparent in KDE making a right-click by customizing its properties, windoze is such a crap that doesn’t even have such an option”.
Got it? One has always to customize the desktop and depending on your needs/wishes it will be more or less painless, and windows is no better from this point of view.

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:15:29 +0000

I prefer RedHat too. But which Red Hat? Enterprise is expensive, Fedora is too cutting edge. Maybe Dell buyers can get Enterprise for cheap!

By: Tom-Red Hook

Tom-Red Hook — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:06:09 +0000

I would have to say from experience with newer users of linux that Ubuntu is not the easy to use choice for most. How do you explain a simple routine like setting the picture folder screensaver to point to the folder you want without making that newbie go to a terminal and do a bunch of hacking that is not necessary. I have seen many new people think linux sucks by starting out on ubuntu, even if I myself think its good. Thye’d be better off with a more better built out of the box distro with a nice control center and a more normal way of doing things.

By: tony

tony — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:49:57 +0000

Dell was suppose to this along time ago woth loading linux. I dont think it will happen I would like to see HP really push this too then giving dell some competion then maybe dedll will start loading it. There needs to be a marketing blitz too to promote linux advantages.