[CoLoCo] Dell moves 40,000 Ubuntu PCs

[Kevin Fries]

On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 07:13 -0700, phillip tribble wrote:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/30/ubuntu_dell_sales/
> 
> 
> "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." - TFA 

Here is the questions I would love to see Dell answer...

If those machines were placed right on the front page, along side the
Windows based machines (instead of being relegated to a special
"alternative OS" part of their site), including the price breaks for not
having to include Windows and Office licenses... Now how well would they
sell.

John A Consumer comes to the Dell website, and selects the features of
he is interested in.  He is now presented with 7 machines all of which
serve his purpose.  Two of the three least expensive machines run linux.
One of the three is barely in the category in the bottom three (as far
as price) and runs Windows.  Now how many Linux based machines would
they sell?  When the consumer can compare side by side, and get a true
sense of their options, the real revolution will begin.

Dell is still too Microsoft centric.  They are pandering to the Linux
community.  We want real competition, because we know we will win.
Microsoft doesn't want real competition for the same reason.  When you
factor feature per value received, neither Steve (Balmer or Jobs) want
to see Linux given a fair shake.  For then they would be forced to
justify their prices and profits against the value received over Linux.
I don't believe either one has a sustainable answer for that.


-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.