Dell moves 40,000 Ubuntu PCs
Dell agreed to ship PCs and laptops with the Ubuntu operating system after more than 130,000 people promoted the notion on the company's IdeaStorm web site. It would seem, however, that only a fraction of these zealots were willing to back their votes with cash. Dell has shipped close to 40,000 systems pre-installed with the …
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Considering how Dell markets Ubuntu...
Considering that Dell seems to have no interest whatsoever in actually selling its Ubuntu systems, I'd say that 40,000 is quite an achievement.
You have to go to a special site to buy them (they don't simply offer a choice of Microsoft or Ubuntu operating systems on a machine, which would allow you to see just how must you're really paying for M$ software), you're given a warning before you can even proceed to look at them, the small sub-set of their machines have limited hardware options, the Microsoft-based machines often work out cheaper when you take into account special offers, etc. (at best, the Ubuntu machines work out $50 less - here in the US - which surely means that Dell are making substantially larger margins on the Ubuntu machines) and their web-site carries the familiar "{Your PC make here} recommends Microsoft Vista..." on every page. I also doubt whether their tele-sales staff ever mention Ubuntu either...
I'd really like to buy an Ubuntu (or, at least, Microsoft Tax-free) PC from Dell, but they're going to have to expand their range and make Ubuntu an option on their main pages before I'll purchase such a system from them.
One might almost suspect Microsoft of dictating to Dell how they might "sell" Linux-based systems...
I'm one of the 40,000
I needed a new low end laptop for home to run Ubuntu so I put my money where my mouth is and went for the pre-installed route. I had no trouble finding it, either type "linux" in to the search box or select "open source laptops" from the drop down menu and it arrived in a week. The biggest benefit for me was that all the hardware worked out of the box: graphics, sound, modem, wireless, volume controls, etc. etc.
Given that it's only been available on two bottom end machines I just home the 40,000 number is enough to convince Dell to increase the range of machines on which it is available to make it a more attractive proposition for more people.
what did they say before?
Didn't Dell say a while back that they only expected to shift about 20,000 Ubuntu machines a year? If my memory serves me well then they have doubled their expectations in under a year.
That seems like a) they knew that not everyone would put their money where their mouth was, b) they underestimated how much the Bunty love is spreading.
Measure Percentages of Those Models for a True Comparison
Dell offers Ubuntu on only a limited number of models. We still use the old route of buying the higher end model with pre-installed windows and then re-installing it ourselves.
My point is, the numbers are still very biased. There are lots of "windows" sales that still end up with linux running on them.
What you need to compare is out of the sales of those three models of machines. How many were Ubuntu versus how many were the equivalent models sold with windows. That would give some idea of the true adoption rate.
I think...
... it should be a legal requirement for all PC hardware suppliers to supply the full range of their hardware without any OS installed at all. They should also have to supply them at a price = (hardware with OS price - OEM OS license cost).
Maybe this is something useful that the EU could enforce?
Then people would have the feedom to put whatever OS they wanted on their PCs without paying for a pre-installed OS they didn't want.
To make it fair for the hardware suppliers, they would only have to provide support for hardware faults, not OS / Driver issues.
PS. I put Ubuntu 7.10 on my Dell Latitude D820 and everything just works - including bluetooth which I actually do use :o)
Either you got it or you don't
The real issue here is intelligence of the public. Linux and FreeBSD are the best operating systems around. However it takes time and effort to learn how to use them. I good command of Bash is required at least, and for that O'Reilly do a good book. Distro's like Ubuntu or Mandriva are in the end missing the point of Linux.
Linux was never meant to be a "just works" system. The whole point of the Free Software movement was to get people to be able to not only use a system but understand and also have power over it. I believe the point here is that kids should be learning programming from a young age in IT classes not plays "See spot Run" or some other game.
Ubuntu et al are just heavily modified inferior versions of Linux. Once you know what your doing (and the best way to do this is to use the Linux from Scratch system or LFS if you really want to know what your system is doing) you can use a distro like Slackware which is so much better than anything else I've ever used, and I have all my hardware running with Fluxbox using compositing and Gnome with Beryl. It just takes passion, the point is we should all be computer Guru's because that's where the future lies.
I am not an IT professional in fact I'm a Historian by profession and I find things like GnuPlot very useful not to mention the whole host scientific programs that only work for Linux. I took the time to learn the system from scratch with no IT training. If i can do it then the rest of Joe Public can ! .
And yes you can use Microsoft office in Linux, all you have to do is use WINE .
Why Dell isn't selling more Linux PCs
Here's my unpleasant experience.
For my work, I need and use a laptop that boots and runs Linux. Since Dell is on my employer's purchasing department's standard laptop vendor list, I had them contact their Dell representative, who at first said that they didn't offer a Linux laptop. Then, on a 3-way conference call with me and our purchasing agent, the Dell representative said that the Inspiron 1420N, which is advertised on the Dell web site as being available with Ubuntu Linux was not built to corporate standards. Then he said that it ran Ubuntu, not Linux. When I pointed out that Ubuntu was Linux, he said that it ran open source software for which a lot of problems were being reported.
At that point, I said I didn't want to do business with someone who was spreading FUD, and ended the conversation. I have had good luck acquiring laptops from
system76.com both for work and for home, so that's where I am purchasing my laptop.
This has left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth. That's the last time I will consider doing business with Dell.
When Dell and others support Linux properly!
I can only say thank you to Dell for choosing to sell Linux on their desktop, but in no way shape or form does the Linux and OpenSource community have to pour out from their wallets due to Dells decision to sell Ubuntu / Linux. This is a situation like any before it, Dell like anyone must gain it's customers trust and support the old fashion way, they must gain our respect by making every effort to support this OS and it's varing distributions the best it can by making sure that it's parts from many company's that it deals with in completing a system puts time and effort in to implementing Open Source drivers for their linux hardware and software products. Also Dell must keep the Linux distro competitive in true nature to it's ability to save them a number of major cost associated with it's development, deployment, distribution, and other savings, should reflect in the price of the Dell to the customer. If it is costing them more money to place Linux on a Dell then it does to place Windows on a Dell, there is a *serious problem*, one that I would be glad to research and assist myself.
When articles like this come out say something to the effect of it could be the customers fault for support problems or adoption of a technology, makes me want to puke, when it make it feel as they are asking the public to give a free hand out, when they themselves are not willing to give something such as incentives, support, or deals back to their customer, especially when they should be working to gain that purchase from the customer.
The fact is, the more Dell supports Linux on their desktop, the more they will sell. Now it's up to them to make it happen.
If the customer is wanting support for the distro, then I believe they can seek it in the distro's forums and the company of the distro it's self, such as Canonical Ltd / Ubuntu. These distro's if serious should take on the incoming support for their product. Having support according to the users wants and needs- including paying fees for direct support if needed.
Openoffice
Yes, Linux needs an office productivity suite.
OpenOffice, alas, is very slow and unbelievably bloated software. It should have been written in straight C++ with not a hint of Java or interpreted languages (say a guy who didn't write a single line of OO).
IBM has a thing called Symphony, it's free, not sure about OSS. But it is somewhat better than OpenOffice.
I tried, but it was back-ordered
I tried buying an Ubuntu laptop from dell but it was back-ordered for 6 weeks. I finally called them and told them to just ship me a computer with the specs I paid for, which got me a vista laptop in 3 days. I installed Ubuntu myself first thing which went fairly smoothly. I wonder how many people were put off by similar delay and back-order problems.
My dell laptop
has a windows XP sticker on it, XP got wiped (waste of disk space) and ubuntu is running. Same for everyone else at work (10+ dell laptops).
The 40,000 number does not represent the number of people running ubuntu (or other Linux) on dell machines.
@ Chris
Oh I have an idea, my friend. With that in mind, anybody who has a clue about which is the superior OS already knows that they can simply replace MS software with something more suitable to their taste. And I believe you could advertise until the last dog is hung and I think there would still be some trepidation, on the part of software publishers because the reward from the risk just isn't that attractive yet.
Yes, I will concede that 40K units is a wonderful number to see out of Dell... But once again, it all boils down to what the typical consumer wants. And most, at least in the US, users believe Linux was the kid from the cartoon "the peanuts", by Charles Schultz. To elaborate on that, 95% of the home users I've suggested migrate to Linux say "it sounds too hard".
Also, why are publishers staying away in droves from a virtually untapped market? There are a lot of us out there who want to escape the dependence of mediocrity courtesy of Microsoft, the continual hassles of security flaws due to lazy or poor programming or the integration of such a shitty browser like IE into the very core of the OS... Even with all that going against the Wintel platform, the vast majority of the world market is just too apathetic towards the notion of saying "not anymore" to Microsoft. Unless they know they have a truly viable alternative. And you can't have an alternative without some of the bigger players getting involved.
You get an Adobe to buy in and some of the larger multi-media hardware manufacturers like Nikon, Canon (et. al), you'd probably see a mass exodus from both Microsoft & Apple OS's to Ubuntu, Fedora or others.
For a minority, you lot have got big mouths
All the shouting and whining you have done about getting a major supplier to take linux seriously, and when it happens you are still whinging. Be fair to Dell and think about it sensibly instead of ranting. Yes, it currently is only available on a limited range. Yes they are not the most powerful machines in the world, but isn't one of the points you always throw up is that you don't need a mega powerful PC to run it, unlike Vista. From a business point of view, Dell have taken quite a big risk to support a small minority of users. Why test something and pay for any fixes that may be required on every system in the range if you are unsure if anyone will buy it? How many other major suppliers have taken this risk? For those of you complaining that it currently costs more to buy one than a windows box even though it is free, you have overlooked some important points. Dell have had years to put together their support, website etc to support windows users. Training staff in the latest version requires only a little education so it doesn't cost that much. To implement a new OS, they have to make sure it works 100% with their hardware. This means testing, fixing any problems and creating a workable distribution. They also have to either 1) Retrain existing support staff to be competent enough to support any user technical support queries or 2) Hire new staff who know linux, but need to be trained in Dell support procedures and any issues that may be specific to Dell equipment. Not only that they have to have new documentation created, the support website updated etc and all of this costs them money. That money has had to be spent all at once to be in a position to offer linux as an option, whereas the Windows support money has been spent gradually over a number of years. You can't expect them to do all of this out of the goodness of their hearts, they are a business, so of course that cost has to be passed onto you. If offering linux proves to be a viable option over the next couple of years, you should find that the charge for it comes down as it will simply be a matter of updating existing skills and documentation, not doing everything from scratch.
Not even introduced in my country
As usual there is a english-centered focus on the article. However, there are a number of people in the world besides native english speakers that can read and interact with US/english websites.
I'm one of the 130 000 people that wanted a Dell laptop with Ubuntu preinstalled, but Dell has not even introduced the option in Sweden where I live. They are also unwilling to ship a laptop with a US/UK keyboard to me. Therefore I had to choose another brand of computer.
Also, it seems to me that the ubuntu choice can not be reached from the front page unless actively searched for. On the other hand, the front page says "Dell recommends Windows Vista® Business".
The conclusion to draw from all this is that Dell does not want to sell Ubuntu-PCs. I say that the focus on this article is a bit strange. It is when Ubuntu is introduced throughout ALL of Dells product line that a comparison can be made.
Instead one should ask why it is impossible to choose ubuntu in the normal configuration procedure.
What about the rest of the world, Dell?????
You mention that 130,000 people told Ideastorm they wanted Dell's with Ubuntu but only 40,000 actually bought one. Well I was one of the 130,000 who wanted Ubuntu on a Dell, but I can't get one!
You see, I live in Canada and Dell Canada is not selling Ubuntu PC's at this time. Maybe now that the Canadian dollar is higher than the American- we'll get some respect and a chance at one of these machines. Get your act together Dell Canada!
Before you and your readers assume that 90,000 people on Ideastorm were just blowing a lot of hot air- figure that at least a few thousand may be potential Dell customer who live outside the USA.
From the "fringes" of the Great White North!
What do they expect
After clicking through the 5th warning that "this product does not ship with windows" I gave up looking at what they were offering and bought a machine from efficientpc instead.
Fits and Starts
It's almost always tough, when a new player starts making headway.
1) General Motor's EV1 Electric Vehicle
They made under 50,000 of them, got a bunch of metropolitan transit agencies to pony up for the charging systems in public areas like at airports and so on, let the people who leased them have a great time with them for a couple of years, then recalled all of the cars for crushing (!) because "there wasn't a market for them". Despite the fact that literally every EV1 user loved it and that there were outstanding orders for more than 500,000 more.
2) Honda's new Hydrogen Vehicles
Has anybody seen the new hydrogen refueling stations? I haven't, either. I wonder how long these will last?
3) Dell + Ubuntu
As noted above, there are issues with locating and purchasing these machines, built on low-end hardware, resulting in relatively low numbers when compared with MS-installed product lines. Many people complain about how "hard" it is to install 'Nix and how their pre-installed MS systems work great. They have no idea how well a pre-installed version of 'Nix would be, because the distributors don't work at it very hard. Dell could quite easily put together a gaming MONSTER machine with kicking graphics and tons of power (plus WINE for PC gamers, wifi, bluetooth, et al.), and then simply tweak any 'Nix distro they wanted to until it worked perfectly on the machine ... then image that installation, build a bunch more killer machines and clone the image onto them. Doesn't get more simple than that, and it's exactly what they do with a Windows offering.
The new guys have to get the corporations to take more of a chance with them, because it's a tough business decision to spend a ton of money promoting something outside of the public consciousness. Shareholders don't like risk.
On the good side, however, I don't recall any major vendor even considering Linux pre-installed before 2005, so things are moving in the right direction. Maybe by 2010 we'll have a decent selection from which to choose.
(PS: Me = IT Director/250 XP+Vista workstations/8 Fedora servers; Home = Fedora/BigSlack/XP Pro/Win98 multiboots ... whatever works.)
Soon Dell will realise their error
Linux fanboys are actually few, but they scream and whine a lot like if they were ten thousand millions. I wonder what was Dell thinking. Face it guys... Linux on the desktop still sucks badly.
I fully intend to get a Dell w/ Ubuntu
As the title says, I full intend to get a Dell w/ Ubuntu. Or the Asus Eee 8-). I almost ordered one a week or two ago when my current Inspiron (with Ubuntu 7.10) acted up -- but, it quit acting up, and when I went to cancel my order, it turned out I had printed the "verify your order" page instead of actually placing the order....
I have noticed getting the Ubuntu Dells will not save cash, which is a shame. But I don't want to send my money to Microsoft:
1) They'll count it as a WIndows sale (even though the copy is unused), and use that stat in the FUD against everyone else "Everyone is using Windows, so why get anything else?"
2) They have a bad attitude regarding resale. It's my copy of Windows, I'm not using it, I should be able to resell it. But M$ says no, and in fact I probably won't even get a usable install CD, getting some restore CD or worse a restore partition, instead.
3) I don't want to send money to a convicted monopolist when I'm not even using the product in question.
4) Dell has not screwed me over, whilst IMHO Microsoft has. M$ have set back computer science at least 10 years. Dell has treated me decently. Therefore, I'd prefer they drop the cost of the system, but if they don't I'll send the money their way rather than Microsoft's.
.... Or not. Like I say, if some other Linux box (or bare box) is a good deal I certainly will get it instead. Dell's pretty big though, they can certainly stay in that "good deal" price range if they try.
Blame Dell, not the ubunteros
Don't be so quick to blame the ubunteros. As many people said in other comments, I voted in the IdeaStorm poll and I wanted to make good on my pledge to support them if they offered an open source alternative to Vole's wares. After the big announcement, I tried, and I mean really tried to buy a Ubuntu Dell computer. But I was given the run around on the phone and by email no less than three times by Dell Canada in the last six months.
To make a long story short, I finally bought an Inspiron Desktop 531S in early October, and of course it came with some OS called "Vista Home Something". I never even bothered activating the bundled crap. So I loaded a Feisty Live CD on it and never looked back. I think I did my part.
I'm one of the other 9 million Dell buyers.
I haven't considered buying any of Dell's mainstream linux systems, because they are all cheap, low-end stuff. I want something that at least can be vaguely described as powerful.
So, I bought a Dell Precision M90 laptop. 2.16Ghz dual core, 4G RAM, nvida quadro 2500xl, WUXGA display. Definitely falls into the powerful category. Sure, it came with Windows XP. So, Dell thinks they sold me a Windows system when in fact they sold me an openSuse Linux system. So much for accounting accuracy.
One of the "zealots"...
I'm one of the "zealots" mentioned - only, I'm not. I despise zealotry in any form - OS, religion, what-have-you. I bought an Inspiron E1505n because (a) I've been using Ubuntu since 2004 and like what they (Canonical) are doing, (b) I don't like what they (Microsoft) have been doing and (c) when I can, I prefer to vote with my wallet (in the commercial world), not my mouth.
But don't call me a zealot...
I voted...
But I haven't bought from Dell.
Firstly I'm not actually looking for a new laptop at the moment and secondly if I'm going to get a laptop I want one with a nice spec. Dell's rather stupid idea of restricting the Linux installs to the bottom of the range models means that even if I do buy a laptop from Dell its going to be one which I've had to pay Microsoft for an operating system I don't want.
Dell obviously don't actually understand the Linux market.
In summary...
Forty thousand is better than forty. Or none.
To make a success of this initiative, Dell needs to make the ubuntu option more widely available, advertise/promote it more agressively, and - above all - reflect in its pricing the fact that Windows is a paid-for product and Ubuntu (and many other Linux distros) is free.
Linux vs....
Most of the conflict between Windows and Linux from the user's point of view is look and feel, which most can't get past.
If you run Windows you might consider dual-booting, which Linux handles well. But leaping from Windows to Linux is not a good idea except for the few who are really willing to work hard at it.
MS puts a lot of effort and money into making sure of its position in primary education in the 3rd world, and that will keep it on top forever.
Dell moves more than 40k Ubuntu PCs, but just doesn't realize it...
Ken Jennings is spot-on in what he alludes to-- that a lot of folks went unaccounted-for because they didn't want to settle for a low-end system. When I voted in their polls, I did so from an XPS laptop I'd already bought, and it was running Kubuntu rather flawlessly. That purchase didn't factor into their numbers either because it was made before their roll-out. The situation is basically that regardless of which systems Dell offers Linux on (or that it doesn't), most run it pretty well with negligible driver issues, and as long as Dell keeps that up, I'll likely continue to purchase their products even if I have a Windows license rammed down my throat.
Why blame Dell?
Why should Dell care what OS you use?They sell hardware.They control their costs by multi-sourcing the bits.When MS deepen the discount for Dell, the Linux option will disappear.
They install Windoze because most people want it. When most want Linux, they will go with it.Meanwhile they use it as ammo in price negotiations.
Linux's savior will not be a hardware company, it will be a distro which works for non geeks.
Would have been 40,002
It would have been 40.002 if the final price had not worked out more expensive than the equivalent XP machine.
Check your facts: 130,000 points != 130,000 people
130,000 points != 130,000 people At one point during the poll, an unregistered vote counted for 3 points and a registered vote counted for 10 points.
Ubuntu machines have been available from May in USA but only since August in UK/France/Germany. They are still not available in countries where many of the voters live but the poll was global.
Various discounts on their Windows machines were not applied to Ubuntu machines. In some cases this made it cheaper to buy with Windows and install Ubuntu yourself.
Dell seems to have gone out of their way to hide the Ubuntu option on their website.
I am one of the voters and I will buy an Ubuntu laptop from Dell when they decide to make them available in my country.
Seperation between consumer and IT markets?
Its drivel like some of the comments here that make people pay no attention to "guru" comments. Blame Microsoft for bad software? No, blame yourselves. You're all continually complaining about Adobe only supporting one or two OS's, and then you run off to make your own distribution of linux -instead- of trying to make a contribution to the major software linux distros are missing.
And then, THEN, when you've made your new Gurunix system, you realise that, OMG! There's even -more- dilution on the linux market! Oh noes! Its bad enough with Redhat linux being ever so slightly different to say, Debian, the major houses have yet another incomprehensible OS to nurture. Hm. Even a 1% difference in flavours can add up to a buttload of investment for people to learn, but oh no, that's not your fault, is it?
People may cry about Windows and perhaps MacOSX, but at least there's only one current major flavour of each that are 95% compatible with previous versions, where each release from Adobe is still pretty much a write-once and sell affair.
@greyskull
"OT - I resurrected an old laptop and put PCLOS Linux on it. I gave it to my dad who was having no end of grief from his Windows system (poor performance, bubblefests, adware, crashes, BSOD etc). You know what? He hasn't had ONE SINGLE PROBLEM with it in over 6 months."
Oddly enough, the WinXP Pro machine I have at home has not had a BSOD for more than 6 months too...
Where do you get this crap that Windows BSODs all the time? It screws up when the hardware screws up (just like your precious Ubuntu), or when new hardware is added (which is more of an issue with Linux).
of course sales are low!
Dell simply refuses to sell their Ubuntu -preloaded computers outside of specific countries such as US and UK, at a time when the largest demand is in Central and Eastern Europe. No wonder the sales are not what they expected!
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