Dell to sell pre-installed Linux Desktops and Laptops

[TheTaz]

And I'm not talking about the "under the radar" server stuff.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...rce=rss_news50

I may get a Dell Laptop, with this news. My Old Laptop is, well... way old... and it's difficult to find Laptops that offer No OS, or Linux as a choice... without still paying MS.

Nice, as they're currently working with Novell on this, pretty safe to say it will be a Suse based distro?

Only speculation of course, but Dell has sunk a good deal of cash into wooing the gaming crowd. A cash infusion like this could lead to...well, would it be wild to see a "Games for Linux" sticker at the local EB?

[TheTaz]

Originally Posted by grey_1

Nice, as they're currently working with Novell on this, pretty safe to say it will be a Suse based distro?

Yeah... I figure SLED10 instead of Suse 10.x. Novell will want to try rope people into support subscriptions. But at least non-free media codecs would be included legally.

That said, though I do like SLED10... I'd probably install a different distro since I favor Debian based ones... specifically Xubuntu. But, at least MS wouldn't be getting an OEM payment (I hope), unlike most other places that offer systems with no OS that still have to pay MS.

Originally Posted by grey_1

Only speculation of course, but Dell has sunk a good deal of cash into wooing the gaming crowd. A cash infusion like this could lead to...well, would it be wild to see a "Games for Linux" sticker at the local EB?

Kind of doubt that will happen. Need someone with a couple of billion to burn, buy up a ton of old and fairly abandonded IP (Like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, etc. etc.)... choose a modern OpenGL engine... like whatever is coming after Quake Wars... and crap out a ton of native modernized linux games for $5 a pop... probably on something similar to STEAM. Basically flood the market with Native Linux commercial games, before current Devs would see it as a viable platform.

Originally Posted by TheTaz

Yeah... I figure SLED10 instead of Suse 10.x. Novell will want to try rope people into support subscriptions. But at least non-free media codecs would be included legally.

That said, though I do like SLED10... I'd probably install a different distro since I favor Debian based ones... specifically Xubuntu. But, at least MS wouldn't be getting an OEM payment (I hope), unlike most other places that offer systems with no OS that still have to pay MS.



Kind of doubt that will happen. Need someone with a couple of billion to burn, buy up a ton of old and fairly abandonded IP (Like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, etc. etc.)... choose a modern OpenGL engine... like whatever is coming after Quake Wars... and crap out a ton of native modernized linux games for $5 a pop... probably on something similar to STEAM. Basically flood the market with Native Linux commercial games, before current Devs would see it as a viable platform.

True dat, not to mention the face time Novell and Dell will have to get in advertising. I'm no pro with linux, but I do ok...so I still grin when I'm asked "isn't linux that command line thing?" Most recently my brother.

Bottom line atm is MS is a household name in most homes, Linux needs exposure.

I wish them lots of luck. I know how great a stable install can be and I would love to see what innovations real competition in the marketplace would bring.

[six_storm]

Not bad . . . I've used Suse LiveCD before (9.0 I think) and it was ok, it's based off of KDE. I like Gnome better but hey, more power to ya.

[TheTaz]

Actually... Suse 10.x and SLED 10 default to Gnome.

However, I prefer XFCE.

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by TheTaz

Actually... Suse 10.x and SLED 10 default to Gnome.

However, I prefer XFCE.

Oh nice! Gnome has been the best desktop environment that I've dealt with. XFCE though . . . I dunno if I've tried that or not. Isn't it supposed to be lightweight DE?

[evilghost]

I have mixed reactions about this. Is it a step in the right direction; no doubt. Using Novell certainly puts a bad taste in my mouth as there's no doubt there's collusion between Dell and Microsoft; now we've got Novell in the mix.