the day dell refused to sell a computer

[Ultra Magnus]

To be honest I suspect this is just an honest blunder by a less informed dell employee - How many times have you gotten all the facts, called support for something and they tell you it isn't the case until you show them they are being idiots - A few people here seem to be pretty paranoid, I don't think Dell is out to undermine Linux or open source - I suspect there may be a bit of pressure from Microsoft to not promote this too much - But they do have an ad for Ubuntu on their front page (on the bit which changes every time you refresh the page) - Given how many people has read this thread and seen it on digg, I suspect they will say that it was a mistake. Critisism is good but remember Dell has been only offering Ubuntu for a short while and low level employees are sometimes easily confused.

[prizrak]

Only if we make it fail.

Releasing a 'new' consumerside o/s (okay, it's not new, but it is new to Dell) is a massive undertaking. Any deja vu's of win98, winme, winxp and winV anyone? Each time there was a learning curve to smooth out the 'bugs' (heheh).

The point is their intention is sound, if not the implementation.

These sales reps are clearly not up to speed.

It's hard to believe a company refusing money based on the type of client account.

"The way to hell is paved with good intentions" --no clue where it's from. When I "intend" to hit the brakes but hit the gas instead the cops won't say "oh ok, we understand you ran over that old lady on accident you can go free".

Intent means Jack Schitt, I want to see action. I want Dell to allow non-profits and education organizations to order Ubuntu based machines. Considering that their hardware is pretty much the same it wouldn't be that much of a problem.

[vexorian]

I didn't know we already got the "Ubuntu bussiness" distro, I mean, is Ubuntu really meant for bussiness?

[prizrak]

Perhaps that's the plan exactly and offering home systems is just the first step.

if that is the plan then they are very much expecting Linux to fail miserably.
1) An organization that has it's own IT department is much more likely to switch to a different OS if it can save them money and provide higher availability. Home users didn't give Linux a 49% server market share and 62% (I think that was the latest) for Apache.

2) Dell has been offering LInux servers and FreeDOS business desktops (for use with Linux obviously) desktops for years with RedHat and now SuSE. They ALREADY know that there is a market for Linux on the business side, it would simply be the matter of offering ANOTHER distro in addition to the first two. No one is telling them to support it, they are selling home support through Canonical anyways wtf would be the difference for organizations?

3) They could have easily expanded the range of their products to use Linux from the get go. For the most part all you would need is Intel Wi-Fi, nVidia or Intel video card and drivers for the modem and special keys. There are plenty of Windows systems that would fit that description so it would really only be the matter of providing the special keys driver and setting the shortcuts up correctly (in my experience half the damn keys are setup correctly as soon as the driver is loaded).

4) Marketing - every single OEM website had huge ads for Vista months before it came out. In order to get to Ubuntu Dells you pretty much have to know where to go.

This is a very half a**ed attempt to support Linux and it really means nothing. They know for a fact that a handful of Linux enthusiasts will order the laptops. Another VERY tiny percentage might get the desktops. They know most Linux users build their own machines or know enough about hardware research to not worry that something won't work on their new laptop. They also know that despite Ubuntu's relative lightweight most Linux fans will want something with a bit more power than what they are currently offering.

I didn't know we already got the "Ubuntu bussiness" distro, I mean, is Ubuntu really meant for bussiness?

Is Windows?

[3cwired_com]

For many years I have looked up to dell, and have appreciated their customer service, I think like someone else said, this may have been a miseducated worker. Most likely though, once you look at it, the decisions made by dell are obviously based upon business. They are obviously focusing on the big bucks.... I think it makes sense, i could be wrong.

[ignignokt00]

What company goes around telling its customers how they can use their products? What business model does that fall under?

hahahaha, Have you ever heard of the RIAA or MPAA?

[cosborn72]

Wow....who would have thought my one little vent over a sales call gone bad would have prompted such discussion? Web 2.0 is scary.....

Anyway, I am still glad Dell decided to sell Ubuntu-installed computers. I still intend to buy one for home use, even if they won't let me buy one for my business.

If it is their policy to not sell their open-source computers to business users, I would certianly not recommend changing the policy on my account- I was only going to buy one $850 dollar computer. That hardly qualifies as a demand for a product.

[Cheese Sandwich]

Wow....who would have thought my one little vent over a sales call gone bad would have prompted such discussion? Web 2.0 is scary.....

Anyway, I am still glad Dell decided to sell Ubuntu-installed computers...

Ditto. I hope other major vendors aren't thinking "what a huge hassle & PR risk to sell FOSS OS's - let's avoid that altogether". Seems Dell has suffered more of a negative PR hit then if they had not decided to offer any ubuntu in the first place.

[Conficio]

When you configure a Dell Dimension E520N with Ubuntu, the last step is additional software packages. Interestingly it offers "PC Tutor: Learn Windows Vista and Office 2007". I think this is not compatible with Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org

[vexorian]

Ditto. I hope other major vendors aren't thinking "what a huge hassle & PR risk to sell FOSS OS's - let's avoid that altogether". Seems Dell has suffered more of a negative PR hit then if they had not decided to offer any ubuntu in the first place.

heck indeed, someguys in the OS world are actually spreading FUD against dell all the time when what we should do is support dell as much as possible since this way of distribution is the best possible for Linux desktop OS, without the issues with hardware and installation, etc