Dell to Offer Ubuntu to Consumers May 1, 2007
Posted by Carthik in commentary, interviews, news, ubuntu.trackback
So Dell did not get caught in the storm of it’s making - it swept the storm off its feet! This is the day the scales started tipping.
Dell will start offering consumers PCs with Ubuntu 7.04 (aka Feisty Fawn) on its PCs for interested customers. The Dell Ideas in Action Blog announced as much earlier today, stating very clearly that Ubuntu was their distribution of choice, and that they have worked out the specifics of the deal with Canonical, the entity that support Ubuntu’s development. Read Canonical’s brief announcement here. According to Canonical’s Jane Silber, the timing couldn’t be better:
“The market is ready,” Silber said. “We think the combination of the timing, the technology and the partner are aligned to make it happen.”
There is a video interview with Mark Shuttleworth over at the Direct2Dell blog in which he talks about how the deal came about, and how this will make wide Linux adoption a much easier goal to achieve. He’s right when he says that this will increase Linux’s visibility across the board, and draw out closet Linux technologists who will now see some commercial benefit to advertising the Linux expertise they had, but never really talked about before.
I think this is a big step forward - hell, I look forward to answering, “what’s that Ubuntu-thing on your laptop?” with “Haven’t you heard, it comes pre-installed on some Dell PCs?”
Kudos to Dell for following up on their promise to listen to customers. My voted counted, for once. Depending on how many Ubuntu laptops get sold, Dell might just be the trailblazer in making and selling computers - once again. The interesting thing is, I wonder if Dell sees the future, can the others be far behind. Also, going by the example Mark states in the interview about how Linux adoption on servers led to hardware manufacturers ensuring that their stuff was up to snuff on servers, this can only mean better support for Ubuntu from the hardware component and peripheral manufacturers.
Congratulations Ubuntu - stand up and be recognized now!
I was actually terribly late to the party - I had a paper to submit for which the deadline was earlier today. Good thing I logged in to check my mail etc one last time.
I wrote about it on me blog: This is just what the doctor ordered - a major OEM shipping pre-installed Linux. THIS is what will bring Linux into the mainstream, not the fanboys (like me) extolling the virtues of open source, not the geeks pushing their grandparents onto Ubuntu, but support from major OEMs like Dell.
Someone came up with this response: Concerning Dell and Ubuntu, dream on. They will just continue selling XP until the climate changes. Vista becomes decent or people decide they want to pay for crap. It doesn’t mean they’re dumping Windows, that would be crazy, their whole business is based on it.
What it means in practical terms is that as the first OEM they are saying f off Microsoft we’ll decide what we’re shipping. This is risky, because their income is based on MS’ “subsidies”, basically they both need each other.
If Dell decided to just sell linux they would lose a lot in sales, it’s not worth it.
But hey, we are not interested in whether they sell just Ubuntu, we are interested in a level playing field. Ubuntu is a superior product when compared with Windows. It is now just a matter of time…
I do hope the Linux community will put their money where their mouth is, otherwise this will be the last time in a while a large computer manufacturer decides to ship Ubuntu. I know I voted for having Ubuntu pre-installed, but I won’t be buying a (pre-made) PC for a while….
I was shopping for a PC recently. And I faced this very challenge…Dell nor did HP seem to make it easy to purchase a PC from them without the Windows XP or Visita OS as part of the package. So I began my search elsewhere, and found a few smaller guys who seem to sell such combinations.
I will most likely support the smaller shop right now, until Dell takes this mainstream, then I will grab up any good deals being offered with Ubuntu.
Glad to finally see consumers may have a bit more of a choice.
Alright, this is a big break for Linux - but if it doesn’t pay off for Dell, they’ll stop doing it. If it doesn’t pay, Vincent might be right, and this might be the one and only chance for Linux to help take MS off its monopoly for quite a while.
[...] Dell to Offer Ubuntu to Consumers [...]
Check your first line.
http://www.angryflower.com/itsits
anonymous - right - since you don’t say “swept off it is feet”, I suppose “its” without the apostrophe is the right use.
Nice cartoon there!
Dell preloaded Linux on desktops, laptps, and workstations back in 1999 and 2000. If you attended the Linuxworld New York show back then, you could see their Inspiron models running Linux. Back then I worked at this Linux services company and we certified and supported many of the Dell Linux preloads. They started supporting 4 different commercial distributions but after some restructuring went down to RedHat if memory serves. We actually talked Dell Personal Systems Group back then into looking at Debian as a community-based alternative.
I too wish them good luck with this though. I like the concept. I hope they see success.
Please make a post telling “Ubuntu CDs fastly arriving”. I’ve got my CDs in 15 days! Check this out: http://forum.linux.org.ba/viewtopic.php?pid=30054#p30054
Thanks in advance!
P.S. Country in which I live is Bosnia and Herzegovina
You are invited to join the Ubuntu Tribe at http://www.ubuntutribe.com/. Thanks and nice to meet you!
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Hi, You wanted to know “how legitimate is this Ubuntu anyway” well now a “big” player has stepped up to the plate DELL … read the article, and DUMP windows fast !!! Phil
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