I Vote For Ubuntu On Dell
I was thinking in the shower the other day (don't ask me why there of all places) that Dell may very well pick Ubuntu to run on their desktop and laptop computers. In case you missed it Dell announced that they would be looking into offering Linux as a choice on their desktop and laptop lines. Ubuntu makes sense for a number of reasons.
1. Ubuntu is easy to use.
I have many non-techie friends that have tried the live CD and love it.
2. Ubuntu is easy to install and upgrade.
The improved install on edgy was just a breeze and upgrades have been very well tested all along. This will be very important for Dell since all the main desktop distros update frequently, and once users find out that there is something better they will want it.
3. Ubuntu is very popular among the people who are likely to buy a laptop or desktop preloaded with Linux.
Just look at the number of digg posts that reference Ubuntu vs. any other distribution. On Google digg+ubuntu=11,100,000 hits! digg+fedora=1,240,000 hits. digg+suse=1,240,000 hits. Even as I write this post the ubuntu.com website has slowed to a crawl as they are releasing the next version, Feisty Fawn, today.
4. Ubuntu is visually appealing.
OK. I know some people don't like brown, but hey.
5. Ubuntu already has great community support.
It's not that other distros don't have good community involvment, but it if you have a question that's not already in the Ubuntu forums just post it and a few minutes later someone will respond (and they usually don't start their reply with "n00b").
6. Ubuntu has great non-community support.
Dell will need to do something to boost their tech support capabilities for Linux or this just isn't going to fly. They basically have two options: 1) they can train their existing employees to support Linux (not likely), 2) they can hire new employees to support Linux (too expensive), or 3) they could contract Canonical to do the support for them until either 1) or 2) is feasable. Option 3 could help Dell bring an option to market quickly with very little learning curve. Not only that, but I bet Mark Shuttleworth would give Dell a better discount than Red Hat or Novell. Perhaps if you are an aspiring Linux support engineer you should be watching the Canonical website if you are not already.
7. Micheal Dell already uses Ubuntu on his laptop.
Perhaps the best reason of all was this update to the Dell website yesterday. If that's not a leading indicator then I don't know what one is.
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I thought you were Fedora fans.
Hi
What happened, I thought you were Fedora fans?
Although I like Kubuntu too (I don't like Gnome).
But I think it would be better if Dell did something with proprietary codecs (like install them) before they start preinstalling Linux.
Personally, I prefer Fedora
Personally, I prefer Fedora over Ubuntu for the time being. But if I was the one in charge of making the decision for Dell I wouldn't recommend it. Perhaps, if Dell decides to build it's own distribution I would recommend using Fedora as a base like the OLPC project did.
Also, I am not sure how Dell does in the Education sector, but they could offer Edubuntu for schools without too much trouble. That's a nice little side benefit.
Aaron
He's Right To Go With Ubuntu
I think this sums it up best for me, and I left Fedora for Ubuntu:
http://www.thesourceshow.org/node/63
I'm also not a fan of KDE because GNOME has more support, less bugs, there are more GTK apps than Qt apps, and I don't like a desktop that is "shiny" like a KDE one is by default.
I vote for Debian Stable
If I were Dell, I'd go with Debian Stable. It's the only serious option which is not a support nightmare.
Remember that many computers will not be connected to the internet or only connected by dial-up. With any Linux distribution other than Debian Stable, that means Dell would have to deal with a nightmare of different versions of software on everyone's system.
Debian Stable is the only option where the versions of software won't be changing often, but security updates will nevertheless be provided.
That reason alone is enough to make Debian Stable the best choice.
Now, for reasons why most of the above justifications for Ubuntu are irrelevant:
1. Ubuntu is easy to use.
So what? Any distribution can be molded into something easy to use. Dell is going to preinstall software and customize it regardless.
2. Ubuntu is easy to install and upgrade.
This is half-irrelevant. Difficulty of installation is irrelevant, because Dell will preinstall the OS. Upgrading is a different story, of course. But is Ubuntu easy to upgrade for those on dial-up or not connected to the internet? Better to have Debian Stable, where those upgrades aren't needed often, and where the updates are only big enough for the security updates.
3. Ubuntu is very popular among the people who are likely to buy a laptop or desktop preloaded with Linux.
So? Anyone who is already an Ubuntu fan is someone who is willing to install Ubuntu on a computer. If a Dell comes preloaded with RHEL, that Ubuntu fan is just going to buy the computer and wipe RHEL in favor of Ubuntu. That's what happened to all those computers preloaded with Linspire.
The real question is what makes sense for Dell to support for all the people who will NOT just wipe out whatever comes preinstalled.
4. Ubuntu is visually appealing.
Irrelevant. Dell's going to preinstall with their own look and feel customizations anyway.
5. Ubuntu already has great community support.
Shrug...so do other popular Linux distributions. Debian Stable also has great community support, and it's also the least likely to NEED it in the first place.
6. Ubuntu has great non-community support.
Okay, this is a slight score against Debian in favor of Ubuntu. I don't think it comes anywhere near outweighing the advantages Debian Stable offers in reducing the need for support calls in the first place. Dell's a big boy, they can afford to hire ranks of Debian experts directly onto their payroll more than they can afford outsourcing to Canonical with a higher number of support calls.
7. Micheal Dell already uses Ubuntu on his laptop.
Cute, but a sad reason to make a billion dollar business decision.
It looked like Drupal marked
It looked like Drupal marked this as spam at first. Sorry for that. I have tight filters.
Anyway ... keep in mind, it's not that the other distros aren't great. It's not that they all don't have 1 - 6 already. It's just that I think Ubuntu does these things better in a lot of respects than the others. Also, you are right about number 4 probably not weighing in that heavily, however, I am not convinced that the all the folks that will ultimately make the decision are as savvy as you and I are. I think some of them might take the look of the default desktop into account even though they shouldn't.
Aaron
The fact that you didn't
The fact that you didn't allow my post earlier today shows that you are an ubuntu fanboy. The article reads like any other ubuntu fanboy recruitment spam.
Uh ... Actually, it just
Uh ... Actually, it just shows I have tight filters. In fact, I didn't realize your message was marked as spam until I tried to reply to it. For the record I am official registered as a Fedora fanboy. Member# 0000023. Anyway, thanks for your comments.
Aaron
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