Re: Dell stops offering Red Hat on desktops

["James L. Burke" <jburke@burkepoirier.com>]

Amen, Brother Steve!  No, seriously ... it's good to read some serious
discourse instead of:

"whose on first" (a.k.a. - where's the meeting) and
"what's on second" (a.k.a. - what shall we talk about)

Thanks for your thoughts Steve.

jburke.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-silug-discuss@silug.org
> [mailto:owner-silug-discuss@silug.org]On Behalf Of Steven Pritchard
> Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 11:40 AM
> To: silug-discuss@silug.org
> Subject: Dell stops offering Red Hat on desktops
>
>
> You may have seen in the news stories about Dell dropping Linux on
> desktops, apparently due to weak demand.  Today I noticed that the
> opinion pieces about how this wasn't a surprise and Linux isn't ready
> for the desktop have started to appear.  (Nevermind that these stories
> are written by people in the business of selling Microsoft technology.
> One author listed an email address at "mspros.com".  You do the math.)
> Since I don't have some random website handy to post an opinion piece
> of my own, I thought I'd just post it hear for discussion.
>
> I can agree with these random Microsoft fans to a degree...  It was
> probably a dumb idea for Dell to preload Linux on desktops to start
> with, and I'm not at all surprised that they've dropped it.  Of
> course, my reasons are totally different...
>
> 1) Dell was never serious about Linux on desktops.
>
> I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't recall ever seeing a
> Dell ad on TV that mentioned Linux as an option.  I don't recall ever
> seeing it on their web site either.  You had to go to some special
> Linux section of their web site to get the option, and it was usually
> for just certain models (at least on laptops).  That special Linux
> section was not readily accessible from their main web site.
>
> In fact, I still sincerely believe that Dell only went this far in
> response to "peer pressure".  For a while there, every hardware vendor
> was bending over backwards to try to prove that they were supporting
> Linux.  Dell was only hedging their bets, basically doing the bare
> minimum they could do and still say "we support Linux".
>
> 2) Linux just isn't that popular as a *primary* desktop OS.
>
> Yeah, we all like Linux, but I've come to accept that not everyone
> wants to run Linux all day, every day.  I know many (probably most) of
> you dual-boot your systems with some form of Windows.  Others don't
> even run Linux on their primary systems, but instead have another
> (usually older) box dedicated to Linux.
>
> For people who are going to dual-boot, there's no point getting Linux
> pre-loaded...  You get the box with Windows, wipe it, and reinstall
> Linux and Windows, or you get a copy of Partition Magic and free up
> space for Linux.  Either way, you want that license for Windows and
> whatever software that is packaged with the system, even if you plan
> to primarily run Linux.
>
> Of course, servers are a completely different issue...  Nobody
> dual-boots a server.  Servers are supposed to just run.  There's no
> advantage to getting a Windows license that you'll never use for a
> server.  (Plus that Windows license adds a *lot* to the price.)
>
> 3) Installation is a personal thing.
>
> We all have our favorite distribution.  We all have our preferred
> filesystem layout.  We all have a certain set of packages that we like
> to have installed.  I could go on...  There are so many places where
> we like to personalize our installations that I just can't see many
> people wanting Linux pre-installed.
>
> In fact, I don't remember anyone really pushing for the big hardware
> vendors to pre-install Linux.  Most of us just wanted the big hardware
> vendors to ship a box with no OS.  Oh, and it would be nice if they
> wouldn't hang up on us when we said we ran Linux on a box when we
> called for tech support.
>
> When I was buying servers from Compaq, this is exactly what I got...
> They shipped with no OS installed.  I did the installation myself, and
> Compaq still let me call them for support.  (Of course, the call would
> just get sent off to Red Hat, but that's OK.)  HP and IBM were
> starting to do the same thing back when I was still dealing with their
> hardware.
>
> So, again, this news is no surprise.  Is it a sign that the popularity
> of Linux is waning?  I don't think so.  I'm certainly not alarmed.
>
> Steve
> --
> steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
> (618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
> Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/
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