Ubuntu need not be purely community-supported, as you can contract with Ubuntu to provide the software support.  This (software support parnering with Ubuntu, Red Hat, or Novell) should help make supporting Linux easier.  Linux isn't Windows; you're not stuck with the support of the software.  Just support your hardware and contract with another vendor for the software support.

 Could you please discuss with us what all of your partnering with Microsoft requires, and why your no-OS (let alone Linux) offerings tend to be buried and hard to find unless you know where to look?  I'm very curious why so many steps you've taken have been seemingly so half-hearted.
 

The choice of laptops, desktops and servers with linux/bsd is important to me. Specifically, I would like to be able to purchase laptops and desktops supporting Kubuntu. (I prefer KDE over Gnome)

I would NOT want to see any "bleeding edge" stuff. It is too volitale. Fedora is a great example of this. Kubuntu is supported for three years from the date it is published (v6.06) and doesn't try to be everything to everyone.

But I really want a choice. I do in the server area. Purchasing Windows 2003 is an option. This is not the case with desktops and laptops. I am "stuck" with XP/Vista. (Note: I will not buy Vista. I specify all purchases for my company.)
 

Good evening,

    The greatest gains from Dell's use of linux will be that of hardware support.  The majority of us really don't have a preference of distro.  All that matters is that the underlying hardware is properly supported in the linux kernel (or via CUPS/ SANE/ XORG).

   Different linux vendors seem to have localization, language, and application support pretty well covered.

 
    In the spirit of choice, I recommend the following distro selection method.  Make a pie chart of all distros from distrowatch.org's popularity rating.   Tape the pie chart to the wall.  Stand back approximately 3 meters.  Throw a dart at the pie chart.  You have now successfully selected Dell's OEM linux offering.

Thank you for your time,

Frank Russo
 

I am most interested primarily in budget-model laptops. My distro of choice would be Ubuntu. I was able to get Ubuntu 6.06 dual booting on my Inspiron 1100, but I could never get the modem working. However, I did have to edit the xorg.conf file before running install to get 1024 video. Using the install script only provides 640 resolution in the 1100.

 Although 6.10 will install and run, there are problems with video, so I dropped back to 6.06.

 I will be replacing the 1100 soon, and I would be interested in a low-to-medium priced laptop capable of running Ubuntu, including modem and wireless networking.

 Support would not be an issue for me as long as I knew the hardware was compatible with Ubuntu.

I don't care about Linux coming pre-installed.  I can do that for myself.  However, it will be nice when I can order a machine for family members with a linux flavor pre-installed though.  

Please get your hardware vendors to cooperate with kernel developers and release specs that everyone can use.   I'm using a M65.  I can't get the mic input to work. The modem is useless without spending $20 on a driver, if it even works.  I don't expect everything to work right away with bleeding edge hardware, but I do want it to work eventually.  Sooner is better than later.

Suse an Fedora are the two most popular, select either. And The KDE desktop is the most popular

among Linux users, not Gnome, don't listen to

the Fedora Project on that issue. 

It doesn't really matter, if the PC or Laptop has

Linux compatible hardware, the user can install

any version of Linux he wants, if the one installed is not to his liking.

Most all Linux Distro's are easy to install anyway.

Believe me if the units are bought by individuals

they are going to experiment anyhow.

If the units are bought by companies, Fedora and Suse are much easier to modify to fit there

needs .

Jim Tate 

     I have been using Linux since 1993.

     Favorite distributions are Debian or Gentoo or any derivative of either.

     Red Hat is not worth bothering with. Fedora has no continuity, is just a beta for the overpriced enterprise version.

     Uses include Open Office, Flightgear, Mythtv.

     Desktop - Kde.

     Window manager - Enlightenment
 

The key for me is not the software.  I can handle that (I use gentoo linux).  Instead the key is that the hardware is supported.  So ati graphics are bad nvidia is ok.  I don't use modems, but winmodems are a problem.

 The broadcom wireless minipci are problematic (driver in kernel is ok but you must get other firmware and when difficulties occur, it is much harder to handle than truly open hardware.

DELL should concentrate it's efforts on ONE Linux distribution as supported and factory installed by DELL. Without any surprise today, "Ubuntu" is by far the Linux champ on Desktop as it's :

• The world's most popular Linux desktop
• The most user friendly Linux distribution 

Beside that, Ubuntu represents the PERFECT balance between "Commercial and Community".

Distrowatch and many other Linux magazines show that "Ubuntu" is the real champ, so they already did the survey for you about your last question 6). Pretty sure that on your Dell IdeaStorm "Ubuntu" was number 1.

Regards 

Regardless of which Linux you choose to support (my favorites: Fedora+RHEL), the real issue is that there must be NO BINARY DRIVERS. Linux support means to me that everything works with free software and I think you will get negative feedback if you rely on binary drivers.

 

Dell when it comes down to it all you have to do is make sure all the hardware is supported. No "Win Modems" etc.

1. Nvidia drivers works better than ati's drivers with the linux kernel and xorg. BFG or XFX both have great warrantys.

2. Sound Blaster sound cards or onboard audio with via or nvidia chipsets no "sis" via is the best supported.

3. Wifi cards any card useing the Atheros chipset is good.

4. Ethernet onboard is fine if useing a via chipset otherwise just pick any obscure card chances are it will work.

5. Seagate  hard drives  there very nice and have a great warranty. 

As far as hardware tech support goes have American's  give American's support  no more offshore support it sucks and  makes everyone mad.

As far as software support the community will take care of that but you will also have to contract with someone like ubuntu for those times when the user cant get online or what ever. 

My personal preference would go to this scenario:

 - "Linux-certified" hardware through the whole product range.

- the choice of "no OS installed" through the whole product range (at a discount w/r to a WinXX pre-install) -- I don't object to FreeDOS being installed, or a minimal linux of any denomination, but it's not a requirement for me.

 
- maybe the box could contain CDs or DVDs with the most popular community-supported linux distro (nice to have, not required).

 
Regarding support:

- phone-in support for the hardware is enough for my part.

- I don't see Dell as needing to invest anything in linux application support (that's already more than covered by the community).

- some form of mailing list / forum support (with Dell technicians on staff) for driver-related issues would be of considerable help.

Thanks.

 
Ph. A.
 

I do believe that Ubuntu is the way to go here.  If Dell would take the trouble to make sure that their hardware worked well with Ubuntu, we're home free.  Remember that the Linux kernel community has offered to write drivers for any hardware at all.  The Ubuntu support and documentation community would certainly welcome any help they could get from Dell.  I for one would be overjoyed to see Dell systems preloaded with Linux.  I can't imagine but that Dell would garner a large and highly influential sales force by firmly and convincingly committing to preload and support Linux on their systems.

 My only caveat is that the Linux systems should reflect the license savings in the retail cost.  Pocketing the customary M$ tax instead of passing the savings on to customers would be tragically shortsighted.

  I can't tell you how much I hope that this is not just a bargaining tool for use against M$.  I await events with interest.

As long as the hardware is fully supported under the current Linux kernel, I would be fully satisfied. I'm simply tired of buying a laptop only to find out that I need to play games with ndiswrapper and  the windows driver.

 Regards 

Polls like this a could make it look like they're just trying to "stir the pot" so that Dell can continue to claim that Michael just can't figure out which kind of Linux everybody wants -- so instead of making a decision (like he's never made a decision before?), Michael  can continue to talk the Linux talk, but fail to walk the Linux walk.  Which leads me to wonder -- is there an MS VistaBird in hand driving what appears to be a decision to make no decision? 

 

I agree with Frank Russo, Joe, and Allan Gottlieb. Let me start by saying that you should NOT preload Novell's SLED - you will get a lot of negative feedback if you do, and negative feedback means low sales.

It's just possible that you know from my blog that I am a (some would say "vocal") Gentoo user. Despite that, and my misgivings on the distribution, I'm going to recommend that you install Ubuntu. It's not one of the ones that will get people uppity because they, through you, have spent money on a distribution they don't like; it's not "difficult" like Gentoo, and it's just possible that given the right hardware support, my qualms about Ubuntu will disappear. (People choosy enough to install another distro will simply be happy that you have chosen one that's not controversial).

Don't get me wrong - it would be absolutely fabulous for me if you DID install Gentoo - but it's probably not something that should factor as your ONLY Linux choice.

One other piece of advice, if I may. If you don't include proprietary codecs, I would advise customizing (or working with Ubuntu to customize) the desktop so that you have a link called "watch yer dvd movies 'ere" or something (obviously you're not going to call it that, but you get the idea). This would enable people to get started right away.

Lastly, I agree with those who advise against the use of hardware which requires proprietary drivers.

Thanks for letting me comment and best of luck with your Linux venture.
 

Since the actual survey site is hosed.....

Preloaded Linux is important, especially on laptops.  Unless you like being flamed, you had better support one .deb based and one .rpm based.  Probably Ubuntu or Linspire for the .deb market and SUSE or RHEL on the .rpm side.  Fedora changes faster than Dell releases new models so that would be a nightmare.

 But if you do it you had better be prepared to really do it.  That means everything just works.  Modem, 3D video, suspend, WiFi.

But longer term just doing preloads isn't  going to totally satisfy.  Yes, the preload will work for for many folks, but we want to be able to load OUR distro of choice.  Having everyone on one software load is a big win.  And we need to be able to load new distros/versions as they come out.  This means the availibility of drivers and tech information is where you need to focus.  In fact if you picked a couple of product lines and made sure they were all supported by drivers in the default kernel/Xorg, etc. all you would need to do is have a chart online stating which models worked with what versions.  Plus links to download any blobs.  Yes we would prefer no blobs but until that happy day.....

Felix Schwarz said:

A few suggestions (for the free Linux flavors only)

Offer multiple levels of basic support, for example

- free community support

- per-incident and subscription email support

- per-incident and subscription phone support

Offer upgraded/escalated support in conjunction with vendors, for example:

- Ubuntu - Canonical

- openSUSE - Novell

- Fedora - None? good job, RedHat! 

Coordinate with Open Source projects that enable downloadable drivers, for example the Ubuntu printer driver download project ( https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/printerdriverautodownload ), which in practice work very much like Apple's OS X printer driver auto-downlader.

Sorry, one other thing:

Please, Please, Please try to make sure your Linux desktops are as cheap or (better) cheaper than the equivalent Windows model.
 

Any distro will do, because most people will probably change it. The most important thing is that all the hardware must be FULLY working, with a vanilla Linux kernel and *ONLY GPL DRIVERS*. Everything else is secondary.
 
This means principally:

1) Modem must be a proper serial modem (not a Winmodem, not even if there are binary drivers available)

2) WiFi with GPL'd in-kernel driver. (Please don't rely on NDISWrapper - it's too ugly)

3) 3D graphics must also work. Please either use an Intel chip, or put pressure on nvidia to supply a properly GPL driver.

4) Full documentation. 

It would be good if Dell also provided a wiki, and some documentation on the setup required.

 As for the distribution, I'd probably say install a "fat" version of (K)Ubuntu, i.e. with virtually all the applications (including both Gnome and KDE) installed, so that the user doesn't have to download them (not everyone has broadband!).
You should also include all the restricted multimedia stuff. 

What kind of system I'd buy with Linux?

redundant hotswapable power, dual or quad cpu (xeon / opteron), nvidia dual setup (f.e. 2x 1950), dual serial scsi, raid 5, dual ethernet 1 gbps, dual fiber, dvd / blueray burner, 4x usb 2.0, external scsi

in a nice 19" 5u casing

As most have mentioned, hardware support is the most pressing issue.

Begin with the hardware so we can buy with the confidence everything will work. 

My previous laptop was a dell; my current one isn't (it's a vaio). What would have made the difference (or will make it next time - from this point of view the vaio was an awful choice) was not whether or not linux was pre-installed, but whether or not linux was guaranteed to be easy to install. I mainly use gentoo; whatever other version of linux was on there, I would probably take it off and reinstall. So what I want is not a preinstall; I want a laptop which is up-to-date with features, competitively priced (but not necessarily bottom of the range), and where I know in advance that drivers are available for all the hardware. A real killer would be if it could be guaranteed that free, non-proprietary drivers were available for all the hardware.  After that,  I'm happy not to have any software support - provided I haven't had to pay a premium for a bare machine with no software support.

Thanks for listening!

Graham 

You can't make everyone happy with choosing a distro, so don't try to. People who aren't happy with the choice and prefer another one know what they want and can install it for themselves, so don't worry too much about making the wrong distro choice.

Choose one that is preferred by users who don't know what a kernel, OS or IDE is. And for those users the IDE choice is more important than the distro choice.

I don't know how Dell install the software on the hardware, but technically it's quite easy to install multiple distributions on the same harddisk, though on different partitions. Then the user can choose which one to run. This can be done in multiple ways:

- At bootup the user can choose which one to run in Grub.

- At bootup the user can choose which distro to use and remove the others (and maybe moving the chosen one to the primary partition).

- Before the hardware is delivered the above step is done by Dell
 according to the user's preference.

 Assuming all harddisk receive their content in the factory, and not at their final destination, this has the advantage that only one image is needed, while keeping user choice.

For me personally the software choice doesn't really matter as I can easily install something else. What I care about is the hardware choice. I'm currently interested in a lightweight portable laptop that runs for hours on end, with only Linux friendly hardware. That's hardware from vendors who support Linux by providing specs or writing open source drivers for their hardware (with as result that their hardware works out of the box). So for me that means no ATI or Nvidia for graphics, nor VIA, so only Intel integrated graphics is left right now. Which is fine for me as I don't care about playing games. Other important components with the same restrictions are wireless and a chipset with suspend support. When having things like a fingerprint reader it also should also have Linux support from the hardware vendor.

In response to Richard Neill:

You can't include "all the restricted multimedia stuff" - that would mean license fees, and pricey boxes. What's so hard in downloading that multimedia parts, as it is done now?

My suggestion is to avoid going with the "most popular" Linux distribution and instead go and buy one. Dell Linux would vault you instantly into the Open Source world with your own set of developers ensuring that your Dell Linux distribution works on every computer you sell. Regarding enterprise and business customers, you need not jeopardize your current RH and SLED sales or agreements. Dell Linux would serve to cover the rest of your line up of products. The win-win is that an already successful and innovative Linux distribution (I'm thinking Mandriva here) would live on while Dell's paid corps of Linux coders would make the Open Source world stronger than ever.

Thanks for seeking or opinions.

The most important thing in my opinion is that all the hardware is supported and fully working out of the box.

Also that the customer knows that if they buy linux there will be linux hardware support.

Also it must be as cheap if not cheaper than an equivalent windows machine as linux is open sourse
 

Survey does not seem to work. I get an empty page.

I see that the Ubuntu fanboys are quite present in the comments. I find the American Ubuntu PR bubble always quite entertaining. Looking around in Europe I see Fedora Core (and CentOS/RHEL) being used more widely than anything else. Second place goes to OpenSUSE. Someone suggested that the two "leading" distro's from distrowatch.org should be taken (guess which one is their #1). If you read up on *how* Distrowatch determines their ranking it becomes clear why it would be a rather silly mistake for a serious business to base their decision on that ranking.

Both Fedora and OpenSUSE are backed by leading corporations that Dell can easily (continue to) work with. So there are only two distro's worth considering (with all due respect to the others) and those are Fedora & OpenSUSE. And there is only one desktop that you want to ship to new customers that may have little experience with Linux. And that is Gnome. Simple, efficient and clean. It makes sense for Dell to do the sensible business thing and use Fedora 7 and OpenSUSE 10.3. Anyone that loudly disagrees can probably install their flavor of the week on the box anyway and probably even assemble their own PCs from parts.

Selling to the average *majority* is where the money is made. Mom & Pop that want to buy a new PC for the family. And with Fedora and OpenSUSE they will get something that will work for them out of the box. Something that has considerable brand recognition. Both Red Hat and Novell are well known names and it is safe for Dell to tie its name to both vendors. Does Dell want to spend its marketing dollars on selling the box or on trying to explain what, for example, Ubuntu is and why the customer should take the next step of considering a Dell PC with Ubuntu which requires another round of marketing dollars. Makes no sense. Dell, I appreciate your efforts and if you need any help shoot me an email. Be happy to pitch in and contribute.

i think dell should concentrate on offering a few desktop and laptop computers which only have hardware which is supported in the standard linux kernel (and debatedly nvidia graphic cards, though i could understand why that would be a bad idea).

if the hardware works in a vanilla kernel, then support for the software can be outsourced to canonical or whoever (I'd be in favour of ubuntu).
 

it would also be really nice if dell could get rid of these "dell recommends microsoft whatsit" from the site, but i imagine there are legal reasons for this. 

In my opinion the list of distributions is very limited for people like me who prefer KDE over Gnome, arguably the majority of Linux users. OpenSuse is not a preferred option for those of us who oppose Novell's deal with Microsoft.

I think at the very least you should include Mandriva, Mepis and Kubuntu as options.

I would recommend Ubuntu simply because I think it is and is continuing to be the easiest to use and if anyone runs into a problems, the Ubuntu Forums are community-renowned for their ability to assist people who are having problems with Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

I do like OpenSUSE and Fedora Core also, but believe that Ubuntu is a better alternative for your average ex-Windows user.

ALL machines should be available:

1) bare, at a discount compared to a Windows-based machine

2) with appropriate hardware drivers for Linux and popular BSDs.  No-cost drivers and a bare-bones "howto" should be available on the Dell web site and on a CD included in the box.  If drivers are not available, a detailed specifications necessary to write a driver should be available without charge or NDA restrictions.  Distro vendors can incorporate these drivers or not as they see fit.

Also:  Hardware that does not have drivers and for which cost-free, NDA-free specs are not available should be labeled as such, e.g. "3D graphics capability requires Microsoft Windows XP or newer."  The amount of such hardware should be minimized and NO essential hardware or hardware common to most PCs should ever fall into this category.  This means all PCs should have Linux and BSD drivers or "open" specifications for USB, 2D video, sound, networking, drive subsystems, keyboard/mouse, etc.
 

As far as I'm concerned, Dell can arbitrarily pick any of the popular Linux distributions, as long as at least some laptop and desktop models are available that work out of the box with only free software drivers (including the tricky bits, video and wireless). As long as this is made available, those who don't like the distro you choose can easily replace it with another distro.

Another thing you could do, independently of whether you even bother to support Linux at all, is to make sure that buyers have enough information before their purchase to determine whether Linux is likely to work for them. This includes info on chipsets used for wireless, Ethernet, video, etc.

Hardware support is the key. Use *your* purchasing power to influence your providers to provide specs  (or open drivers) to the community.  As far as video is concerned, it depends on the market - nVidia binary drivers are better than ATIs at this point, especially for gaming and HD, but the hardcore group wants stricly open drivers... Similar  issues  exist for WiFi, sound cards, etc.

As stated before go with both a .deb and .rpm distro. Red Hat is ok but probably not Fedora. Suse will work for some, not others, but I suspect the most vocal anti-novell-MS will use a Debian-based distro anyway. Look at Linspire (or Freespire) on the .deb side for multimedia capability or one of the Ubuntu options. 

Here's an idea - support RedHat (and/or Suse) and Linspire but offer unsupported installation DVDs for Fedora, Freespire, and Edu/K/Ubuntu. Just make sure you provide driver support.

I really hope you actually follow through with this. The things I would like to see are:

1) Hardware support

    - webpages showing how to configure the video or modem or network  card or wireless

    - hardware should BE supported. It is very annoying to have a great laptop with the wireless with no drivers because the chip set maker is too short sighted to provide any support for their device. (Nvidia has a good starting compromise for their hw, they provide a binary and a compatibility layer that is open)  

2) Phone support. When I call up my DSL provider for support I am very frustrated by the utter stone wall I get if I mention Linux. (The problem is consistently on their side) Please acknowledge Linux. You could provide differing levels of support. IE for the basic factory config you could have a reinstall like they do for windows (BUT have your default install put the home directory on a DIFFERENT FS  so it is not wiped by a reinstall) A simple thing like that would go A LONG WAY to making customers happy. (hehe you could do the same for windows too BTW) More intricate configuration you could charge for. 

3) I prefer Fedora, but for whichever distro you choose, please preload all the codecs and Mplay, and xine and such so that all that cool web content works out of the box. I am comfortable with doing that myself, but many aren't.

4) Be honest about your offerings and intentions. I know some want software to be utterly free. Thats fine. But I realize that people need to eat. So if you need to keep part of the MS tax to pay for this effort on your side, be honest and say so.  Say how much you are keeping and let the market decide. I for one would appreciate the honesty.

5) Support a dual boot option. ITS NOT THAT HARD TO DO.

6) Listen to your internal people who know Linux. I bet they could give you a BUNCH of good ideas.

7) Participate in the Linux community. Embrace it. Learn it and Love it. This would be a mindset change for Dell. Your company would be the better for it I think, even your Windows customers would benefit I think.

A lot of the things I mention here would benefit the Windows user I think.

Lastly THANKS!!!!

Thank you for listening to your customers. I have bought Toshibas in the past, but would give SERIOUS consideration to a properly supported laptop from Dell.

Eric 

Here's how I would place Dell's priorities in supporting Linux (in order of decreasing importance):

• provide the "no operating system" option on all hardware that doesn't include the Microsoft tax. If Microsoft is afraid that people might use this "no OS" option to install pirate copies of their OS, then simply add a declaration during the online sale that that hardware will not be used with pirated OSes.
  
• provide hardware compatibility testing for the big 3 Linux distributions: RedHat, SUSE, and Debian since if you support RedHat then Fedora will be automatically supported, and if you support SUSE then openSUSE will be supported and if you support Debian then Ubuntu will automatically be supported. Such compatibility tests are easier than you'd think since hardware support is determined mostly by the kernel version, so supporting the oldest kernel version of Debian, RedHat, and SUSE is enough to support them all. Just knowing the compatibility level is a big help.
  
• once the results are known, the next priority should be to replace incompatible hardware with  hardware that's compatible.
• once that's known, the next step should be to give RedHat, SUSE, and Ubuntu early access to your hardware (under NDA if necessary) so they can certify your hardware. This might be done in parallel with the previous step. This certification Logo would help sales of your hardware even if you don't preinstall or ship an OS.
• Make arrangements with RedHat, SUSE, and Ubuntu to ship a copy of their installation CDs with each "no OS" computer and provide information on support options from the vendor (yes, Ubuntu has support too).
• Provide the option to preinstall one distribution (RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu) and provide support information.
• Provide the option to preinstall any of the three distributions.
• Provide direct support for a distribution. The only distribution of the three (that I know of) that welcomes multiple support resellers is Ubuntu, but it might be possible to make arrangements with RedHat and/or SUSE too. WRT supporting Ubuntu, the long term support versions is likely the best one to pick since you'll only have to worry about one release every few years (just like RedHat or SUSE).

With all the problems using any microsoft os, having a choice of using linux or ms would be a great selling point for Dell.

don 

I'd like Ubuntu preinstalled since it seems to be the most popular distro nowadays.

As for the drivers, I woul like if you did put some pressure on nvidia or ati to supply an open source drivers. With open source drivers your notebooks would work much better than with the best proprietary drivers. And possible problems or instability with the new or older releases of Linux kernel would be eliminated. Or consider including Intel chips instead, which have fully functional open source drivers.

I vote for the Ubuntu distributions, providing only distributions linked to corporations wouldn't be such a strong action.

The most popular desktop Linux vendor choice appears to be Ubuntu (Oct 03, 2006). Ubuntu is also one of my favorites.

Vendor count offering desktop Linux:

Desktops:

24 (18.05%) Ubuntu
20 (15.04%) Suse
19 (14.29%) Fedora
18 (13.53%) Linspire
11 (8.27%) Redhat
8 (6.02%) Debian
8 (6.02%) Xandros
6 (4.51%) Mandriva
5 (3.76%) Gentoo
4 (3.01%) Centos
4 (3.01%) Slackware
2 (1.50%) mephis
1 (0.75%) ELX
1 (0.75%) Frontier
1 (0.75%) Icepack
1 (0.75%) PclinuxOS


Laptops/Notebooks:

13 (22.03%) Ubuntu
10 (16.95%) Fedora
10 (16.95%) Suse
5 (8.47%) Debian
5 (8.47%) Redhat
4 (6.78%) Centos
3 (5.08%) Linspire
3 (5.08%) Mandriva
2 (3.39%) Gentoo
2 (3.39%) Slackware
1 (1.69%) emperorlinux
1 (1.69%) mandrake

http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/

I just bought a Compaq notebook. Well, my next machine will be a Dell.  (A few months down the road). Please give this some time, and focus on compatibility of hardware with Linux - i.e., open source drivers - because it's very easy to install most Linux distributions. Most serious users don't care which distribution is shipped/supported so long as their hardware works.

 Something not addressed: will there be an option (for a fee) of having codecs on these pre-installed machines? That is probably a big issue to consider.

 I appreciate your efforts.

 

    I personally tried several distributions before deciding that SuSE's offerings were the "best bang for the buck".  Each had both strengths and weaknesses, but being new to the Linux World gave me different desired qualities, support and documentation being among the highest.  With a company like Novell currently backing it, there are few which can compete with SuSE on every conceivable level.  While I realize the question of favorite distro can get quite heated, we're looking for one which can perhaps spread Linux to those who would otherwise not try it.  Ease of use, included software, maximum support - this is what each distro should be measured by.  Linux users have a tendency to forget that - while Microsoft gets bigger.  While I laugh about it now - trips to the command line to load software used to scare the .... out of me.  Your average Windows user has no idea what the command line is, what it's for, or what to do when it's open.  It's like some secret black opening into the soul of the computer to them.  Keep telling newbies "it's soooo simple, just open a shell prompt and type...", and we'll lose completely.

Might I recommend a preloaded version of Open SuSE, complete with proper hardware support (especially for the wireless cards), better documentation, and some of the included software.  I can't imagine a Windows user ever needing Apache loaded on a laptop, for example - but at the same time, they would like to be able to actually watch a DVD while on that long flight - and without having to download this file or configure that file.

Having Dell move to accept Linux as a viable OS is exciting.  Maybe, just maybe we can pull more people from the "dark side".  First though, we need to give them something they can use...without the scary shell prompt.

As a lot of people have already said, please make sure every piece of hardware on the system you'll preload with Linux works on FOSS drivers. Basically every distribution uses the same upstream projects, so if your hardware is completely supported by FOSS software, then nearly all distributions will eventually support it.

If you want to offer official support, I'd encourage you to look at Red Hat. It's the biggest distributor and also gives a lot of their code back to the community. It's the biggest company to contribute to the kernel. Ubuntu/Canonical never give anything back and seem to always tell people to use closed source drivers. Not really what you'd expect from a sensible Linux vendor.
 

Basically, if Dell offers a functional (decent 2D video and wireless) machine with GNU/Linux pre-installed with no proprietary drivers (wireless/video) or non-free BIOS, they will have my business indefinitely. And as an influential purchaser for computers in schools, I would do my best to recommend Dell as well.

I think using gNewSense as a base may be a good start. If you can offer a functional machine with gNewSense, then those that wish to forfeit their freedom can do so on their own by wiping gNS off and installing Ubuntu, FreeSpire, or Linspire as they are all a part of the same stack built originally from Debian.

I think it would be a mistake for Dell to underestimate the growing market building around the demand for a 100% free system. I don't see that market doing anything but getting stronger as time goes on. I think it would be wise to grab that base and build on it over the years. If Dell simply goes for the "Linux" crowd and aims for mediocrity by not working for a 100% free system, I think they lack vision. Again, I can't stress this enough - The demand for thoroughly free systems will only continue to grow.

I think Dell is "concerned" about the wrong things.

 (1) We're not asking for techinical support, so don't worry about that.

 (2) We don't care which distribution you use.

 
What we care about is:

 (1) Hardware that works with the Linux kernel itself.  This means Dell could select hardware that already works with Linux or put pressure on hardware component vendors that don't have Linux support to do so.  E.g. use Intel wireless chipsets instead of Broadcom

(2) Don't make us pay a Microsoft tax.  Even if you can not reduce the price, promise us that none of the money we pay for the computer will be forwarded to Microsoft.

(3) Let us select Linux instead of Windows for OS selection in the ordering process.

 Rick Niles.

The choise of Linux distro doesn't matter all that much. The important thing is that the hardware in the laptop is supported by the standard Linux kernel and the need for closed source separately installed drivers are minimized. This will ensure low support costs over time.

The hardware should also be specified at chip level.

Since it wasn't addressed in the survey, and as many others have said, I would suggest:

1) making sure the hardware is supported in the Linux kernel

2) this probably means making more information available to the Linux developers and possibly  working with them to make sure all the custom pieces "just work" (suspend/resume, extra keys, audio specs, video specs, network, modem, etc.).  We really are good at software and Linux development, but it is such a pain to have to figure out how the next rev of some modem or motherboard work without proper specs

3) I want support for laptops and desktops, but I install whatever distro makes the most sense at the time I acquire the hardware (based on who it is for, what they will be using it for, etc)

4) it probably is wise to offer the options for windows xp/vista, no OS, whichever Linux distro is best for masses who won't be installing from scratch

5) determine the best Linux distro for the masses based on community sources (I personally use Ubuntu and OpenSuse for many machines)

Thanks for continuing to pursue Linux on Dell machines!  I have put Linux (Redhat and Suse) on many Dell servers, desktop and laptops and I am at the moment trying to decide what to upgrade my personal laptop to (and soon my home media server) and your interest in our interests keeps me looking at Dell products.

Why doesn't Dell mention the option of commercial ubuntu support?

 http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid 

 PriceChild

Ubuntu Member,
ubuntuforums.org Staff.
ubuntu-irc operator.
 

I've bought a Dell 1150 and it a little nightmare linux-wise:

1) I've paid for Windows XP and have no use for it (I've not accepted the EULA, not used it and won't)

2) The wireless card does not work correctly and ATI proprietary drivers crash (not that I care much, but...) (I'm wondering whether there is a hardware problem). Obviously no modem: included is not supported and I think there are no PC-Express modems.
 

What I'd like is:

1) Not paying for OS: I can install it myself if need be.

2) Better Linux compatibility of the hardware.

Hardware compatibility is essential.  Knowing that you can put on your favorite distrobution and that it will work with minimal effort would be worth the money.  If you can smooth out the set up of modems, WIFI and video, you will draw a lot of Linux users.

 As far as preloaded distrobutions -

(K)Ubuntu

Opensuse

PCLinuxOS

 Knowing that you have hardware compatibility really leaves the choice of distrobution up to the user.

 Barry 

I'm a big fan of Ubuntu pre-installed on hardware that it has been tested to work with. If I'm buying Dell, it's because I want a cheap computer that can be unpacked, plugged in, and used.

One specific area that's especially important is laptops. Supported hardware is pretty common, but a Dell Laptop with Linux would have *no* problems with broadcom wireless, ATI graphics, or whatever random stuff still doesn't work perfectly.

I would suggested, personally, 2-4 offerings.  This gives variety but keeps your requirements low for supporting when you have to.  Most flavors of Linux have as many true differences as all of Microsofts offerings (XP Home vs XP Media Edition vs XP Pro for example).

My personal suggestions would be the following :

Red Hat

Ubuntu

Mandriva

SUSE

I'd really like to see Mint Linux (www.linuxmint.com).  It's especially tailored for people switching from Windows to Linux, and is very simple to install/maintain (although I think Linux is really getting to be simple to install/maintain in any flavor). 

MDT 

All this discussions about which distro and what to preload. Wouldn't it be nice if every machine (laptop or desktop) would come with a CD or written instructions on how to make all the hardware work. Sometimes trying to find the right drivers can be a time consuming task. We do not do it anymore for windows, since we get a driver cd with the system. How about a driver CD for linux.

And which distro: who cares.

Several other problems you may run into include:

1. Multimedia viewing software - several of the Linux media views need codecs installed to view .wmv, .avi, ,divx and other media types. In addition, viewing DVD's may also be a problem. I use XINE, however, several of the XINE DVD decryption libraries are not included in default installations.

2. Office software - OpenOffice.org, by default, wants to save in their format. For "more experienced" users, changing this action isn't a problem, but for individuals looking for alternatives, you may need to configure the default save actions to something readily recognizable.

 3. Compressed files - various vendors support different compression formats. Uncompressing RAR extensions or multi-file spans that are password protected will be a problem.

4. Wireless drivers - if you are going to include wireless cards, the ndiswrapper or the bcmwcw cutter applications and other WLAN software stink. Please help open or support WLAN drivers based on Broadcom or Intel firmware.

5. WINE or other x86 emulators - for those who want or need to install MS-based applications, please help validate those apps that are WINE compatible, or include docs to help support running Wintel software on emulators.

6. DSL or broadband - for those systems directly connected to broadband, you may want to include a "secure by default" option from the beginning, similar to OpenBSD, otherwise the default install will be bombarded from the beginning.

7. Upgrades - pick a distribution that allows simple, yet up-to-date upgrades. Command line options like rpm -iv, or yum, apt-get... while popular with experience users does not necessarily penetrate into general user population. Something similar to RedHat's up2date taskbar icon is nice. Also a GUI-base backout tool would be nice too.

8. Dependancy hell - expect dependancy hell when upgrading software and apps.

9. Partitioning scheme - there will be arguments over a default vs. experienced default partitioning scheme as well as installed tools. Command line installer tools like fdisk, while extremely valuable, require a certain bit of knowledge. YAST or Anaconda are other nice installers with partitioning tools.

10. Add some sexy to the hardware - since Dell bought Alienware, make some of the Alienware hardware options and cases available.

11. Vendor support - Fedora via Redhat and community and Suse via Novell would be able to provide an escalated software vendor support. If bugzilla is enabled, application crashes can be forwarded similar to MS responses.

12. Binary-only drivers - you'll get alot of arguments here whether to or not to support. If you do decide to support binary-only, be prepared to support them with updates, upgrades.

Aloha,

   I want to Thank you for taking the time to bring this type of offer to the table. I have been looking at my next home system and frnakly do not like what I see. A system with Linux, I don't care which distro, that has multimedia working and good 3-D graphics that will be about equal to the multimedia edition of windows would be awesome. I have all this already. But preloaded and working so that it is plug and go would be great. For me distro does not matter nor does the choice of Gnome or KDE. As long as I can get the apps I want and I can, easily. Perhaps even working with Ubuntu and Linspires CNR would be awesome as well. Then I would be able to buy or otherwise get the software I want. Thank you for listening. Customers do have opinions. :)

Mahalo,

Edward

http://www.dell.com/linuxsurvey

 The survey doesn't appear in my browser.

The Linux option has to be cheaper than the Windows option. If it isn't I'll just continue to throw away hundreds of copies of Windows. I hate paying Microsoft for software that ends up in the trash.

 I would be perfectly happy with bare machines and Dell drivers for the hardware.  But Dell will need to become part of the driver writing community; binary blobs aren't going to cut it. But isn't that part of what you pay for in a machine, functioning device drivers? If Dell employees participated more in the Linux driver writing community you might discover that you actually like participating. It's way more fun than dealing with Microsoft.

Hi,

I personally don't care whether the DELL systems comes with Linux pre-installed as I am so used to installing Linux. But I do appreciate  if DELL certifies all it's hardware are compatible with most versions of Linux (openSuSE, Ubuntu, Fedora notably).

But I guess pre-installed linux is a great idea too since I can suggest to buy a pre-installed linux laptop to someone who is far from me since I can't go and install for them.

On that way, my way of preference would be openSuSE, Ubutnu and Fedora.

I guess as long as you certify that the hardwares work flawlessly with these distros, i guess online community can take care of OS support.

Adios. god bless you for this great attempt to bring Linux OEM come true.
 

I would like hardware that is capable of running a 100% free operating system.  I would choose Ubuntu, but I'd want to able to run it with no proprietary drivers installed.  As other posters have mentioned, the distribution you choose doesn't matter as much as the fact that Dell provides some level of support for some version of Linux.

Thanks,

  Seth
 

Hi,

I'd like to strongly agree with Uno Engborg and many other posters. What I want is machines that work, not preinstalled machines. We purchase work machines from you and, whether they're to be running linux or windows, the first thing we do is reformat them and install the company standard setup on it. 

That means even if we bought a machine from you running Ubuntu, we would wipe it to install it ourselves.  So, what is necessary for us is not linux preinstalled (though it might be for others, I'm only claiming to speak for myself.)  Instead, it is for machines that work really easily and really well with linux.

We have a low-end server (which, incidentially, we didn't by from you) that crashes too often.  Its motherboard sensors are not supported by lm-sensors so we cannot monitor it correctly to work out why.  We have a laptop that we're not installing linux on because the WiFi drivers are in beta and this laptop is used for client demonstrations - we cannot risk the wifi failing.

I have one of your computers as a personal workstation (BTX based, I think).  It has lots of things I like about it - the thing that is most important to me is it is almost silent and I can't stand computer noise.  But it has a fair chunk of things that don't work too:  the audio out port on the front is extremely noisy while the one at the back isn't.  The suplied keyboard would occasionally stop working and need to be unplugged/plugged in again (I've replaced it with a Logitech I found in work's odds'n'ends pile.)  I haven't checked the sensors since it is a workstation.  None of these faults would be improved by you installing ubuntu for me - they all require the chipsets used to have better linux support (UHCI and ALSA in my case I suppose).

1) Give everyone the option of OS or no OS. everyone will appreciate to have the choice and not being forced to pay Microsoft.

2) Make sure all hardware will work with Linux, preferably with open source drivers. You can encourage your suppliers to cooperate the open source comunity is ready to write the drivers.

3) Pre-install a popular linux distribution for those who want or just include a life DVD that can install one or other popular distribution. (K)ubuntu or other.

4) Let people know where to get support, community or paid.

5) Run some support website bulletin board as a service and allocate few Dell technicions to be there and help.
 

It is obvious that Dell cannot support every Linux distro and should focus on one. My preference would be Ubuntu. However, at very least there should be an option of purchasing a machine (a laptop in particular) without any OS installed at all; this would likely be acceptable to those who would rather install their own distro of choice. To that end Dell should also endeavour to use hardware supported by Linux, or at least clearly denote which of their products are Linux-friendly, thus eliminating a lot of guesswork from purchase decisions.

1.  You will probably need some OS at to run hardware diagnostics and provide hardware support.  Red Hat or Ubuntu/Kubuntu is fine ( under no circumstance use Novell-Suse, we won't buy them with Novell products ).

 2.  Permit a no OS option but compatible with the Linux Kernel

 3.  Don't worry about software support - just provide drivers and sell us the best hardware you can make

 4.  Please streamline the purchase of equipment and remove all that extraneous garbage you force people through today

The survey is down :( 

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