[Nottingham] Dell supplying preloaded Ubuntu PCs... or not

[Martin]

On 24/07/10 14:56, Paul Tew wrote:
> Either:
> 
> 1) Can't be selling that well in these straitened times or
> 2) Microsoft applied some pressure
> 
> or both.
> 
> I tend to favour the second over the first; the Dell page comparing the
> two systems was horrendously biased. It might has well have read - 'Use
> Windows if you are normal, use Ubuntu if you are myopic and have a brain
> the size of a planet'.

My cynicism would suspect "2", but then again, is there also an element
of user perception that has known nothing but Microsoft for the last two
decades?


One of the comments from another article on Dell's skewed comparison page:

Windows vs. Ubuntu: Dell's New Confusing Take
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ubuntu-windows-comparison-open-source,news-33905.html

"I don't blame Dell for the U-turn, there's no real benefit from them
providing machines with Ubuntu at all, after you subtract the additional
costs in support it's going to cause them, and complaints from customers
who don't understand the difference in OSes and are wondering why the
hell their new computer behaves totally differently from what they're
used to and wont run any of their old software.

Basically Dell might as well say "here's Ubuntu, if you know this is the
OS you want then by all means go ahead, if you're unsure then just get
Windows"."


Is that effect one of the things that helped Microsoft wipe out netbooks
with WinXP and now Win7?

Meanwhile, Mandriva 2010.0 + KDE4 works very nicely on my SSD netbook.
Along with the original Linspire, and (already old) Moblin, and an XFCE
desktop if I'm in a hurry!

Cheers,
Martin

-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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