How does Ubuntu get support from People like Dell

[jsmidt]

You know massive numbers of people would use Ubuntu if when you got on a Dell, or HP, or Toshiba, etc... website to purchase a computer it said something like "Dell Recommends Ubuntu" or "HP Recommends Ubuntu", etc... and then sends the computer pre installed.

How can Ubuntu do to get this to Happen?

[maniacmusician]

we can't.

the only way they'll do it is if they're convinced it will help them make more money. So we can either pay them huge amounts of money to do it (Even mr. shuttleworth's pockets arent that deep) or get them to think that linux has a future. I personally dont see any of these two things happening in the near future.

actually, there is something we could do. We could all send them emails talking about how dissapointed we are that they don't ship linux on their computers, and that we are opting to buy from system76 instead. And include a link to system76 in the email. it wont have a lasting impact, but it might stir them a little.

[aysiu]

It can't.

Microsoft has a choke-hold on Dell and the like.

[slimdog360]

give them lots of money

[Quake]

Well, Ubuntu has to become a giant software company like Microsoft is today. Then bully the manufacturers into only supporting its software. Then they will be able to have "Dell recommends Ubuntu"

[Carrots171]

How can Ubuntu do to get this to Happen?

By getting some aliens to fly over to earth in thier flying saucers, abduct all of Microsoft's employees, beam up Microsoft's headquarters and factories, and fly them away to some distant planet forever. :twisted:

In reality there's nothing we can do. We can't get rid of Microsoft's stranglehold on PC manufacturers.

[ago]

By having the chinese flood the market with $100 machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. You cannot put Vista on $100 machines because of cost cuts and hardware requirements. But with Linux there is no problem. In the near future (probably within 2-3 years) you will see $100 machines capable of Beryl... It will be a nice wake up call for Dell and the others. Gotta love the chinese...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060425-6675.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6372429785.html
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6301677114.html
And let's not forget the OLPC (http://laptop.org/), particularly if Quanta decides to also produce a commercial version...

http://laptop.org/OLPC_files/nigerian-machine.jpg
$100, Linux inside...

[Kateikyoushi]

Neither hardware nor software can work without the other therefore these companies exist in a symbiosis.

Ms needs this guys because of their huge market share and to sell preinstalled windows office. The hardware companies need good MS OEM deals.

This industry does not want to give people what they want, and can use and uses people's ignorance that they actually do not even know what is best for them.

You need lots of ram fast HDD and a quad core cpu and a fiber to house to play minesweeper while listening to internet radio, right ?
Now you need a 64MB graphics card for transparent window borders.

I think a PIC (http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html) could be enough for most office or home use, they could threw in a decoder chip for video playback in the home versions.
Why didn't MS come out with an O(ffice)-Box ?
Would a 100$ computer upset these good old companions ?
How would they sell a 200$ OS and a few hundred $ office if the hardware itself costs only 100$ ?

I do not see chance for a big linux breakthrough in the US, on the other hand India and especially China looks promising.
Their Godson Cpu isn't even X86 compatible so windows goes out the window in 1 billion market. :twisted:

Ah yes I saw the intel 2-400$ pc, for the same price you could get a PIC and a normal display.

[ago]

Wait until you see $100 machines as big as couple of card decks, capable of Beryl (= better effects than Vista) + Office + VOIP + Gimp + a few thousand Linux/Emulator games (optionally bundling legal rom packages) + media center capabilities... Then let's see if US consumers prefer to shed $1000 to have the same thing...

To answer the OP, nope you cannot directly convince Dell and HP, they are in symbiosis with MS. Linux will be delivered by the chinese... The big names will be forced to follow.

What you can do in the meantime: call the big names to order a machine, then ask to have it with Linux, if they say that it is not possible, say that you are not interested and cancel the order, they will get the message this way... :twisted:

[Kateikyoushi]

Wait until you see $100 machines as big as couple of card decks... The chinese will do the work....


I do not see chance for a big linux breakthrough in the US, on the other hand India and especially China looks promising.

I guess you did not read the second half of the sentence.

[ago]

I guess you did not read the second half of the sentence.

I did, I simply do not think that the $100 pc revolution will only apply to developing countries...

These machines will be capable of doing anything their big brothers can do... Think of a shelve where you see a tiny machine displaying Beryl costing $100, next to it you see a $1000 machine with Vista. Vista will look even worse than Beryl, and it will come with very little software. The linux machine will be packed.

Are you so sure US consumers will pick up the second one? I appreciate US consumers do have more money to spend, that does not imply they should waste it.

[Erik Trybom]

When there is enough demand for Linux, Dell will come to us.

[Kateikyoushi]

I did, I simply do not think that the $100 pc revolution will only apply to developing countries...

These machines will be capable of doing anything their big brothers can do... Think of a shelve where you see a tiny machine displaying Beryl costing $100, next to it you see a $1000 machine with Vista. Vista will look even worse than Beryl, and it will come with very little software. The linux machine will be packed.

Are you so sure US consumers will pick up the second one? I appreciate US consumers do have more money to spend, that does not imply they should waste it.


AMD has the PIC for two years, it is only sold in the developing countries.
Did US consumers pick it ? No because they did not have a choice.

The only machine I saw with geode was for 40 000Y without HDD.
I could buy a used notebook for that price with the screen and peripherials included.

The Chinese rig won't be sold in the US until production ramps up and the home market saturates. They do not benefit as much from exporting as selling it home and killing the foreign import.

[ago]

AMD has the PIC for two years, it is only sold in the developing countries.
Did US consumers pick it ? No because they did not have a choice.

Just look at the PIC software, not much more than a pocket pc (windows CE + word/ppt viewer + browser) and it costs $2-300 (with little more I can buy a PC from Dell outlet)... I am talking about a machine capable of running full blown Ubuntu with 100% eye candy turned on (which, as MS taught us, is a big seller) and retailing for $100.

IMO it will take ~ 2-3 years.

[Kateikyoushi]

I was talking it's hardware, actually it can run linux with the new BIOS so software is checked.
I am not sure how much it actually costs and it would be much lower if it would be produced masses, but it is not meant to be sold everywhere.

2-3 Years is possible if godson yields are good after they take the market by storm we could see intel and amd solutions appearing magically but I doubt they would do it till the last moment.

[jsmidt]

we can't.


actually, there is something we could do. We could all send them emails talking about how dissapointed we are that they don't ship linux on their computers


Actually they do ship linux: www.dell.com/linux

Unfortunatly they don't support Ubuntu. This is what I would like to see happen first. How can we accomplish that.

Next, as suggested, it has to make companies like Dell money. How does MS do it and why couldn't Ubuntu do that better?

[aysiu]

They don't ship Linux.

If you click on the Dell n Series Desktops (http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd), you'll see they ship with FreeDOS, not Linux.

[maniacmusician]

windows had the advantage of being one of the first user-friendly OS's that became wildly popular, and they've used that to create a huge monopoly. It's too hard to take that away from them. I dunno, maybe Canonical should talk to Dell. I didnt know they shipped with Linux on their systems.

On the one hand, Dell has contract deals with commercial distros like red hat and SUSE enterprise, which requires Dell to make a monetary investment by shipping those OS's with their system. But Ubuntu is free in every meaning of the word, and it would cost less for them to implement it. So if they were really interested in getting Linux to mainstream consumers, they would already have done that.

but the fact of the matter is, they're advertising their linux systems as high end servers, so it'll never reach a mainstream consumer. they're not selling it as a desktop, they're targeting businesses and corporations with that...

[maniacmusician]

They don't ship Linux.

If you click on the Dell n Series Desktops (http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd), you'll see they ship with FreeDOS, not Linux.

as you can see in the attachment, some of their systems are linux while others may be FreeDOS.

But what I said still stands. they're targeting businesses and corporations with the linux campaign, not an average user.

[jsmidt]

They don't ship Linux.

If you click on the Dell n Series Desktops (http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd), you'll see they ship with FreeDOS, not Linux.

Aysiu, I don't men to argue with you, but isn't this a dell system which comes with linux: http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/pelinux?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

I believe you, but I am confused.

[aysiu]

Isn't that a server?

[confusimo]

The under offerings why does it say Dell and Redhat.

[marli]

My understanding is that Dell is making HUGE money off of shipping microsoft. They offer a prepackaged deal including demos of many other products from companies willing to chip in for the potential of making money later (mcafee, microsoft office, aol, quicken, just to name a few).

I recently purchased a laptop from Dell and was informed that they could NOT ship it without any OS. I would assume that shipping no OS would be the cheapest possible system to build. Also, my only options for this model were either XP home or XP pro. This has led me to believe that Dell actually makes more money by shipping a system with microsoft than without it.

Considering ubuntu is completely free and doesn't solicit future purchases or make bribes (that i am aware of) i am not very optimistic that it will be a choice from Dell anytime soon.

[hkgonra]

I thought Dell already sold linux systems ?

[mips]

I do not see chance for a big linux breakthrough in the US, on the other hand India and especially China looks promising.
Their Godson Cpu isn't even X86 compatible so windows goes out the window in 1 billion market. :twisted:

This looks very interesting, http://jcste.ict.ac.cn/paper/hww_071.pdf