[nzlug] Dell and Linux

[Simon Bridge]

On Fri, 2007-03-30 at 11:50 +1200, Vik Olliver wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-03-30 at 11:41 +1200, Philip Charles wrote:
> > BBC link on the subject.
> >
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6506027.stm
> 
> 
> Available on "selected" systems. Hmmm, why does my dead rat detector go
> off? One presumes that they know if they dick around to make Linux PCs
> unattractive it'll damage their credibility and sales. The question is,
> do they care?

One can hope that "selected" means they will build linux machines on
linux compatible hardware... not all their hardware works so well.

If that 70% figure it good, it will be hard to ignore. They are now
going to be under pressure from MS sales as per the "identify the type"
program we saw earlier... I wonder what type Dell are? Probably the
linux experimenter: an established MS customer who feels it cannot hurt
to try another system. The strategy is supposed to be to direct them to
the "get the facts page", and point out the advantages in offering
customers windows products, and spell out the dangers in selling non
windows products (with an undertone of losing discounts). But this is
Dell, not some corner computer shop.