Dell to offer Linux on its new PCs

From the Desktop Linux website (edited): (28 March 2007)

Dell will be releasing select desktop and notebook systems with pre-installed Linux as an option in the coming weeks.

We do not know at this time which Linux distributions it will be supporting, or what Dell desktop and laptop machines will have pre-installed Linux as an option.

David Lord, a Dell spokesperson, did say, however, that Dell has been listening to its users and that the users want home and office desktops and laptops. Dell's current offering in this area includes the Inspiron and Latitude laptops and the Dimension and OptiPlex desktops.

The new systems, Lord added, will be true pre-installed Linux systems -- and not just a PC with a blank hard drive and a bootable CD or DVD. Software support is likely to come from the community, however, rather than from Dell. Lord added, however, that hardware support on the Dell Linux systems is likely to be the same as it offers on its Windows-powered systems.

According to Lord, Dell will also make buying the new Linux-powered PCs as easy as possible for customers.

In a note on its Ideas in Action Website, the company stated, "Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today."

However, at his blog, Matt Domsch, Dell's Linux software architect, did go into more detail on how Dell will be approaching the problem of Linux device drivers. First, given a choice in the matter, Dell will support free software drivers over proprietary drivers every time.

Domsch wrote, "For device types where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, in our Linux offering we'll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver."

"It's been our standard operating procedure for the last 8 years on PowerEdge servers, which today have no closed-source drivers necessary, [to insist on open-source drivers]," said Domsch.

"For new Linux desktops and notebooks, we'll use drivers already in the mainline kernel.org kernels for as many components as possible. In these cases, the drivers will be included in your distribution of choice. This includes storage, wired networking, power management, USB, and more."

For cases such as 3-D drivers for video cards, where the best possible drivers are proprietary, Domsch said, "while we continue to encourage the development (by all parties) towards open source drivers, we will provide the closed-source drivers for people who wish to use them."

For cases such as WinModems, for which there are neither open source nor proprietary drivers available, Dell will be encouraging users to substitute a hardware-based modem. "However, we can't substitute hardware-based modems in our notebooks without redesigning and significantly increasing the price of the system. If it's important to you to have a hardware-based modem, you would add one into your PC Card or ExpressCard slot."

While the Texas-based computer company was unwilling to go on record as to which distributions it will support, comments from Dell officials indicated that it is likely to offer support for multiple distributions.

Recently, Dell asked users which distribution they'd like to see out of a selection of Novell/SUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu. The results of that survey are still not known.

It does seem likely, based on comments from Dell insiders, that Novell SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) will be one of the supported distributions. Dell is already known to have been working with Novell to certify SLED on its business desktop line, including OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks, and Dell Precision workstations.

Novell executives, at the company's recent annual BrainShare show in Salt Lake City, said that they were working on getting Dell and Hewlett-Packard to commit to Linux desktops. In an interview last week, before the Dell news broke, Roger Levy, Novell vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions, said, "We're talking pre-load with everybody. Customers are now beginning to see that we have creditable alternatives on the desktop to Windows, and they, in turn, are talking to the vendors about these options. We expect the desktop Linux business to jell in 2007."

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My Comment:

This is great news for computer users and especially for the Linux community. For a major PC manufacturer to acknowledge that PC users want choice is fantastic news, and finally we may see an end to the monopoly of Microsoft Windows being shipped with every new PC. Dell have listened to customers and PC users and the message is clear to them: give us Linux as we do not all want to use Windows.

Until now I have resisted buying a new PC, preferring instead to build my own or buy second-hand and reconfigure. Although recently I bought a small Compaq Ipaq PC which someone had pre-loaded with Zenwalk Linux instead of its original Windows OS. It works great and only cost me £40, although so far I have really only used it for web surfing when my main PC is busy doing something else, such as burning another Linux distro CD or DVD.

Previously Dell had sold PCs pre-installed with Linux, but stopped doing so in 2001 due to low demand, according to CNN. And Dell have continued to offer Linux on servers. But now that Linux has matured and become a viable alternative to Windows, it is good to see that Dell are going to offer what users now want.

If Dell go ahead with Linux on their desktops and notebooks, maybe my next new PC will be a Dell.

Some parts of the US govt are banning Vista

This is a condensed version of an article that appears on ZDNet.

As Microsoft is out touting the "wow" of Windows Vista, two federal agencies are among those saying "whoa".

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cite fear of compatibility problems as one of the reasons not to allow their tens of thousands of employees to upgrade to Microsoft's latest operating system.

"We are temporarily not permitting computers with the Vista operating system to be connected to our networks," Michael Baum, a NIST spokesman, said Tuesday. The organization's technology staff is testing NIST applications and evaluating the security in Windows Vista. The same holds true for Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007, he said.

It is not unusual that agencies aren't rushing to install major software updates. Large organizations in particular tend to do a lot of testing before upgrading.

The DOT also bans Vista, Office 2007 and IE 7. In addition to compatibility concerns, the department lists cost, available funding and a pending headquarters move as reasons not to upgrade, according to a DOT memo dated 19 January 2007 (click for PDF of the memo). The memo is still current, a DOT representative said Tuesday.

"There appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products," according to the memo. The department plans to issue an update next month to clarify its strategy for 2008 and beyond, the representative said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the largest organization under the DOT, is taking the opportunity to consider alternatives to Microsoft's operating system and productivity software, said Tammy Jones, an FAA spokeswoman. This includes including running Linux on desktops and using Google's online applications, she said.

Vista has been available to businesses since late November and was released to the general public at the end of January. About 90 million copies of the operating system will be installed this year, predicts IDC. Businesses should be cautious, IDC advises.

"Business customers should take a cautious approach to adopting new Windows technologies and need to go through a normal evaluation cycle," IDC analyst Al Gillen wrote in a recent report.

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My comments:

It is interesting to note that some large US Government departments are unsure about adopting the newest Windows operating system, and that at least one is considering moving to Linux. At this time, Vista remains a generally untested operating system, and one that is has not been around long enough for all the bugs to be discovered.

Any new piece of software will have bugs, as the testers cannot test for all eventualities and combinations of hardware and software.

But a decision to move to Linux will certainly be a good move forward. I am not saying that everyone should use Linux, as people and organisations have choice. But with Linux, you get more choice. With Vista there are choices as to which version of the OS you use, but if you want the features you have to go for the most expensive version and probably update your hardware.

If you go for the cheaper version that will work okay on your existing hardware, then you lose certain features.

With Linux, your choice is to which distro you want to use, and what software you want to run. Choices are wider with Linux, which means a system can be more customised the way you want it, and the cost of most Linux distros is free. But for corporations there are enterprise versions, which cost money, but the cost includes the best applications software and a certain amount of technical support.

With a free Linux distro you are unlikely to get much tech support, although online forums can be very helpful. But when I was only using Windows, I found it virtually impossible to get any technical support from Microsoft, at least not without paying huge fees. Online forums for Windows users are helpful too. But why pay a lot for an OS and then have to pay a lot more to get help in using it? Better to have an OS that, if it does not work, is easily replaced at minimal cost (i.e. with a different Linux distro). The only real cost involved in using Linux, is that you have to download the software, usually as an ISO disc image to burn to CD or DVD, and so there is the cost of the internet connection and the blank media to write it to. Or buy a Linux magazine which has a Linux distro on its cover disc that you can try out or install.

The good thing about Linux distros on cover discs from magazines, is that they tend to be the full complete version of the operating system. Whereas free software for Windows that comes on cover magazines is not an operating system, and usually is an application with limited features or a limited lifespan of perhaps just 30 days, or an old version of a program, with a special offer to upgrade to the newest one for a large fee.

Will I be using Vista? Only if the place where I work is using it, then I shall have to use it there, but on my own PCs I doubt if I shall ever use Vista. Or maybe a friend will buy a new PC with Vista installed and then I might get a chance to dabble with it briefly. But I will not be buying it and will not install it on my PCs.

For those interested in trying it out in a virtual machine, e.g. using VMWare in Linux (software which allows you to run another OS inside an OS on a virtual PC that exists only in RAM), note that the license for Vista forbids running it on a virtual machine unless you have paid for one of the top versions. So, even if you want to just try it out as a virtual machine, tough luck, unless you spend a huge amount of money, and then you might find that your PC cannot cope. And if you buy a PC with Vista on, you get only the second-worst version anyway.

I think it is best to avoid Vista; now is the time to consider the alternatives. Viva le Linux!

More on operating systems

What are people's thoughts on the new Windows Vista?
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-4_102-0.html?forumID=77&threadID=231162&start=0

And read some answers from people to the question "Is the Linux operating system for me?"

Various articles and info on Linux at http://www.desktoplinux.com/

New Windows

So Microsoft have now released their great new shiny operating system, with its WOW effect and aero-glass features.

But, do we really need it? I read reviews of it, I saw a programme on TV about the launch of Windows Vista, and there is a lot to be impressed by in this new operating system.

But I have also read many things about the negative aspects of this new OS. Such as the new hardware requirements. Although Microsoft will specify a minimum RAM and CPU that seems reasonable, unless you have a very powerful modern PC, you can forget about using Vista, unless you do not mind running it slowly and without its fancy effects. Please read the article at http://desktoplinux.com/articles/AT9727687530.html, read all the parts. That author says he tried Vista on a very new and fairly powerful PC, with 2 GB RAM, and yet when Vista was idle, the display that he pasted there of the Task Manager output, shows that there was only 776 MB free RAM. That means that Vista, when idle, and using all its special wow-effects, can be using up about 1.25 GB of RAM, which is more RAM than most PCs have.

And what is so special about the aero-glass transparency effects? What is the point? Does it make anyone more productive? If you are using Vista and the aero-glass transparency effects has given you a significant increase in productivity, please add your comment to this blog as we can know. But I really cannot see anyone benefitting from it, other than Microsoft. It is a gimmick. I think most of the new features in Windows Vista are gimmicks. It is full of gimmicks designed to lure the unwary into buying a new operating system on the grounds that it looks prettier than XP or other operating systems.

I was using Windows XP Professional on this PC, until it all crashed and I lost it all and could not boot it. I then rebuilt the PC and installed Linux instead. I actually purchased a modern operating system that has lots of great features, and makes me more productive than XP did. I bought Xandros 4 Home Premium Edition, which also allows me to write to NTFS partitions, something which previous versions could not do. So I can access all my files on the various NTFS partitions on my hard disks, and Linux partitions and use Linux to do almost everything I need to. It even runs Windows software, including Adobe Photoshop 7, Quark XPress 5, Internet Explorer 6, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX6 and IrfanView.

There are many great new features in modern Linux distributions, and many attractive interfaces, icons, etc. But the hardware requirements are not that great. Except for the 3D desktop effects which require a modern graphics card, but then so does Vista require a very powerful graphics card for its effects. And we do not even need those fancy effects anyway. For me, the only reason to have a powerful graphics card is for video editing. Which I still do in Windows XP Professional, on another PC, using Sony Vegas 6, which is the best video editing program I have used, and I am not giving up Windows XP completely. But for most day to day tasks, Xandros Linux performs very well and is worth having.

Of course, most existing Windows XP users do not actually need to upgrade their OS anyway. The whole Windows Vista thing of being a great upgrade, etc., is flawed in that anyone who is using XP and finds it meets their needs does not need to upgrade.

I should add that my Windows XP installation for using Sony Vegas is only SP1, I do not like SP2 nor the WGA (Windows Genuine [dis-]Advantage) tool, which is spyware planted by Microsoft to stop people using XP without paying for it, although they can use it to spy people for other things too, in theory. I did find though, when using XP SP2 and WGA that things stopped working, including Sony Vegas, even though my XP is genuine. So I had to reinstall Windows XP and this time not install SP2 nor allow WGA to enter in.

And on a third PC I am trying out various other Linux distributions. One of them is PCLinuxOS, which has the transparency effect on the edge of windows and the taskbar. It looks cool, great, etc. But this is a free OS running on an old PC @ 1.1 GHz, and it has transparency like in Windows Vista (but probably not exactly the same), and without the need for any special or modern hardware. The VGA card is fairly low-spec but it works very well in Linux. And then there is Freespire, a free version of Linspire, both of which aim to be Windows-replacement-OSes, but based on Linux. Freespire is very good and features click and run technology to locate and install software very easily. In fact, installing software in Freespire is easier than installing software in any version of MS Windows. Installing software in Linux in general can be difficult for new users, but Freespire makes it easier than anything. Then there is Mandriva, a good quality Linux OS which comes in paid for and free versions. The paid for version has lots of extras, such as LinDVD, a commercial software DVD player like WinDVD to play all types of DVD videos, including commercial disks which generally do not play on Linux due to the encryption used. I installed a free version from a Mandriva DVD I downloaded, and it has great software and features, including firewire networking, something I had only previously seen in Windows XP and Windows ME (although I could never get it to work in WinME).

There are many Linux distributions to choose from. Just go to Distrowatch.com to see a list of various ones available, and find one that suits you. If you like the Apple Mac OS interface, try Dreamlinux, which is Linux, runs on a PC, but its interface is very heavily influenced by Mac OS X.

I am going to try out more Linux distros as time allows, and I hope to install Dreamlinux soon. Most distros will offer a Live CD version that you can boot from in your PC, which does not add or alter anything on the hard disk, so is completely safe to use and not disrupt what you have already. I have used the live CD of Dreamlinux and from that I can install it to the hard disk, and then try it out fully and install more software on there. Most Linux distros have a package manager of some sort, which allows you to browse and install more software, but it really only works well if you are using a fast broadband internet connection. I have 8 Mbit/s, which on average gives me a download speed of 7 Mbit/s.

Whatever OS you choose, I hope you choose the right one for you and your hardware. And if you do use Vista, just be aware that if it all goes wrong, you can only reinstall it once. If you try to reinstall it again, it will fail and demand you buy a new licence. Or get a Linux distro which you can install as many times as you like.

My Favourite Software

Here is a list of some of my favourite software:

For web browsing: Mozilla Firefox. It is free, easy to use, has lots of useful features, and outclasses Internet Explorer in almost everything it does. It has a search bar built in, rather than having to use a clunky sidepanel, and it can have any number of search engines added at a click of the mouse, from the Mozilla website.




For creating documents: OpenOffice 2. It is free, and easy to use, and compatible with Microsoft Office in most respects. I have yet to have any problem opening a Word, Excel or Powerpoint file in OpenOffice, and vice versa, i.e. I can save in those formats from OpenOffice and open the files successfully in MS Office. I use MS Office 2003 at work, because I have to, but at home I prefer OpenOffice which is more to my liking.

For PDF editing/creation: Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional. Nothing else comes close. I have tried various free programs and those which are paid for, but only on a free trial. I don’t believe in always going for the most popular or the most well-known brand, but for PDFs no one does it better than the inventors of PDF.

For Internet security: F-Secure Internet Security 2006. I have tried various anti-virus and firewall programs over the years, but nothing comes close to F-Secure. The software is easy to install, it runs in the background mostly without disturbing me, and has caught far more viruses and bad things than the other software I have used. I have used free software, such as Sygate firewall, Zone Alarm firewall, AVG anti virus, and paid for software like Norton anti virus, Norton firewall, Panda firewall/anti virus, Trend Micro firewall/anti virus; but nothing works as well as F-Secure. Panda in particular I had problems with, and it kept switching itself off. Zone Alarm is too intrusive and Sygate no longer produce a free firewall.

Video editing: Sony Vegas. I like Vegas, I started with a trial version and found it so easy to use and intuitive that I picked up the basics right away and was creating videos almost instantly. I have tried Adobe Premiere and other editing software, but nothing felt as easy or comfortable as Vegas, and it works very well, I find. Certainly worth buying, so I bought the full version, which was version 6 and have not regretted it.

Operating systems: Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Linux. All other versions of Windows for a computer are not as good, including XP Home. I have not tried the Media Center Edition, so I cannot comment on that. But Windows 95, 98 and ME were all poor and never really lived up to their promises. Windows NT was good but lacking in configurability and software support, and only for serious business use. Windows 2000 Professional worked well, except when playing graphic-intensive games, when it would crash. But otherwise a fairly solid OS. Windows XP Professional builds on the good points of Windows 2000 and allows game-playing without crashing. Although it is not perfect, and the default Luna interface really sucks, at least I have the option to set XP up to look just like Windows 2000, which has the best interface of all versions of Windows. One thing 2000 had which XP lacks is a preview option in Windows Explorer, although that did not always work so well with very large files.
In regards to Linux, I have tried various different versions, and I think my favourite is Xandros, simply because they made it work more like MS Windows than other Linuxes can do. If I really had the time I would learn Linux properly, as I believe it is a powerful and useful OS, even if there is not as much power software for it as for MS Windows. And most versions are free! But as I have to use MS Windows at work, and it is pretty much needed in most office jobs today, I have spent more time learning that than learning Linux. But one day I would like to learn Linux properly and become a real Linux wizard.



You may disagree with my choices, but this is my blog and I can put what I like, and this is about my favourite software. So, you might think other software is better, you might even be right, but each person has their own way of doing things and their own needs, and everyone needs to find what is best for them. So I cannot say you must use the above or else you are not getting the best, because what is best for you might not be best for me or then again maybe it is. It is up to you to find out what is best for you.

There are other programs I really like too, but I have not yet added those to the list. Plus there are those I did not get on well with, or had problems with, some of which are briefly mentioned above, but some of the worse ones are not listed here. Generally, you get what you pay for, except for free software, which can sometimes be excellent (e.g. Firefox and OpenOffice) or very poor. But I usually avoid cheap and nasty software, after a few bad experiences with those.