M$ Strong Armed Dell to Drop Linux

[Tecumseh]

This has just come out in the M$ trials:

http://www.theinquirer.net/19030214.htm

 

[Ebola]

yup thats crazy. it figures though. i remember dell having linux up as an option on their sales page when they first made the announcement but i looked back a while ago and it looks like they did pull it. sad sad sad.

 

[triflux]

but then again it all makes sense though when wine is perfected as all of us nixes talk about windows has no need at all

with distros like mandrake anyone can use linux

 

[Visidex]

Everyone talks about the downfall of MS, but what if it actually does happen? Does the average email/Word person need Linux? Do they want Linux?

 

[SpeeDj]

Everyone talks about the downfall of MS, but what if it actually does happen? Does the average email/Word person need Linux? Do they want Linux?

Those are the people that can be easily converted to Linux, it's the gamers that is the big downfall, gaming on Linux is a chore to install the game itself to be able to run it without having to do a thousand things. The Word e-mail crowd Linux should have out of the gates, business' Linux can have out of the gate. I swear gamers will be what will make Linux work.

J

 

[XWRed1]

The thing is that whoever takes down Microsoft must become Microsoft. Most computer users need something like what Microsoft provides.

 

[stompah]

The thing is that whoever takes down Microsoft must become Microsoft. Most computer users need something like what Microsoft provides.

But what does MS provide? if they made their OSes properly in the first place then users wouldnt need MS for much more than to send their inflated check to.

I had a problem with IE not loading webpages, I did everything I was supposed to and called HP tech support who told me the only next solution was to reinstall IE. I scanned MS's site to no avail. I eventually loaded Netscape. IE decided to work again after a few months of hibernation.


Now that I have installed mandrake I will be pushing MS out of my comps ASAP! i even thought going from 98se ME then finally win2k would solve my problems but they are still here. After less tahn a month I get random freezes and hard to define 'slow downs' its is starting to take too long to boot up now too.

 

[Cooler666]

What makes you think Microsoft are going down?

If Linux want to compete with Microsoft they need to support most hardware out of the box, so newbies can use it easily. Also someone needs to get Microsoft office working on linux and provide it for FREE, why waste your money on linux addons when Microsoft is dominating the market with trouble free Operating Systems that you pay only once for and you don't need to pay amateur programmers for programs that are not complete and full of bugs and only support a few things like a few games for instance.

that is why Dell dropped Microsoft, because Linux sucks, its only good for servers.

 

[Silver]

One would surely want to kill a threat while it is a baby for to wait for a teenager may well be too late.

And Mr. Gates knows this all too well for once he too was baby Billy.

 

[trey_w]

the deal DELL had(don't know if its the same), but for every system they sold they paid a royalty to Microsoft, no matter if it was a server with Linux or a notebook with Win 98

Either way, they had to pay

 

[Wa11y]

What makes you think Microsoft are going down?

If Linux want to compete with Microsoft they need to support most hardware out of the box, so newbies can use it easily. Also someone needs to get Microsoft office working on linux and provide it for FREE, why waste your money on linux addons when Microsoft is dominating the market with trouble free Operating Systems that you pay only once for and you don't need to pay amateur programmers for programs that are not complete and full of bugs and only support a few things like a few games for instance.

that is why Dell dropped Microsoft, because Linux sucks, its only good for servers.

Wait, what?! What do you mean "Trouble free Operating Systems"?? Where does that come from? And, sure, you only buy the operating system once, but it costs you both an arm and a leg. And that's just the OS. Want the office apps? Oh yeah, now you gotta give them you other arm and leg. So now you're a quadrapalegic in front of a computer with bloated software on it. But hey, you can get your email!

I bought a copy of Mandrake Linux 8.1 for $50. No arms, no legs, not even a finger. And guess what it came with...OFFICE APPLICATIONS! And at least THREE internet browsers! And no, it wasn't that hard to setup. It was indeed rather trouble free. Granted, I was running it on a crappy computer, and as such my video was crap, but I blame that on the crappy video card and computer. So I'm going to build a rig for Linux to run on.

Yes, I agree that Linux still needs some help in the hardware and game department. Perhaps a bit more standardization would help. But I really don't think that M$ OSes are really that trouble free or cheap.

 

[Cooler666]

Nothing is trouble free, but if a Windows XP installation does not work you can be sure that its a hardware fault.
Now lets get back to Linux, Staroffice sucks as far as i can tell, don't know about you but i would say that its a very poor word processor.
Now i have nothing against Linux, infact i would be using it now if i wanted to try and fix things all day, which infact i don't as i want to use the OS to actually do something (like write this bullcrap). I know windows is a bloated piece of ... but at the moment there's nothing better.

 

[David]

Nothing is trouble free, but if a Windows XP installation does not work you can be sure that its a hardware fault.
Now lets get back to Linux, Staroffice sucks as far as i can tell, don't know about you but i would say that its a very poor word processor.

I agree, I don't like staroffice. But the beauty of linux is that it comes with loads of alternatives - AbiWord and KWord to name just two, which I like.
Linux will always install perfectly unless there is a hardware fault. The install proggie uses a RAMDisk, so I noticed a stick of my RAM was bad. Windows 98se gave me no indication of this problem.

Now i have nothing against Linux, infact i would be using it now if i wanted to try and fix things all day, which infact i don't as i want to use the OS to actually do something (like write this bullcrap). I know windows is a bloated piece of ... but at the moment there's nothing better.

It all depends on your opinion. Linux is becoming easier to use - with modern distros 9/10 people will be able to install with little in the way of problems. More and more people and companies are realising that Linux is an alternative and hardware support is getting better all the time.

 

[Silver]

Nothing is trouble free, but if a Windows XP installation does not work you can be sure that its a hardware fault.
Now lets get back to Linux, Staroffice sucks as far as i can tell, don't know about you but i would say that its a very poor word processor.
Now i have nothing against Linux, infact i would be using it now if i wanted to try and fix things all day, which infact i don't as i want to use the OS to actually do something (like write this bullcrap). I know windows is a bloated piece of ... but at the moment there's nothing better.

Why so irritated? "Like write this bullcrap"? Then why waste your time. Though I find the wording intellectually stimulating I must say that it does little to put forth your case.

 

[SpeeDj]

Complain all you want about lack of Hardware support but that is Not Linux to blame, companies need to make source available for it to be added into the os, without support from the hardware vendors that is a doomed proposition from the start. I am tired of hearing people blame hardware support on Linux as a whole. You want to see your vendor start supporting Linux you need to be a bit more vocal and then maybe they will start doing it. Creative releases the open source for their Sound Cards and that has done wonders for getting some great sound out of a Linux box. If switching over to Linux was meant to be painless it would be called windows. Don't try and tell me that MS doesn't have some crummy hardware support as well. I am amazed at the leaps and bounds Linux has strived forward and made in the past years. Pick up a recent distro and let me tell you that will prolly be one of the most user friendly os installs you have done in a long time. Half of the adventure of switching to Linux is yes getting it to all work together cohesively. Fills you with a good sense of accomplishment when you do get whatever you are trying to get working to work. I set up a Mandrake 8.1 Linux box just this week and installed various rpm's into it as well as set it up for some Seti Crunching while I was at it. It was one of the most refreshing things I have done lately, if I didn't want Netscape bam I could take it out, if I wanted to use XMMS bam insert the RPM and away you go, couldn't be easier. Yeah Linux has some things to overcome but all in all, it is for the best. Give it time to mature into something Joe sixpack would be able to install and run anything on and away you go. Someone stated earlier that they dislike staroffice, so why use it ? Why not vmware or wine and install MS Office then ? It is that easy, not as complex as people are making it out to be.

Just my two cents

J

 

[nihili]

Linux will always install perfectly unless there is a hardware fault.

I have installed numerous versions of Linux (Redhat, Corel, Debian, Slackware, Mandrake) on numerous computers (6 that I can think of right off the top of my head) and have yet to have a perfect install. On the other hand most versions of Windows installed fairly easily on these same machines. You can scream that it's hardware fault if you like, but it's just empty words. If Windows installs and Linux doesn't, that's a problem for Linux. If it's so sensitive to hardware problems that I can't ever install it, then it's not a viable mainstream OS.

It all depends on your opinion. Linux is becoming easier to use - with modern distros 9/10 people will be able to install with little in the way of problems. More and more people and companies are realising that Linux is an alternative and hardware support is getting better all the time.

Yes, Linux is getting better. Believe me, I'd love to get rid of Windows and move to Linux. I'm even happy with StarOffice for the most part. But Linux, even Mandrake, is a PITA to install. And even when I do finally get it installed, the configuration is byzantine at best. Now I may not be the world's foremost computer guru, but I'm a darn site better than most. If I can't get it to run acceptably, despite many hours and numerous attempts, then it's just not ready for primetime.

nihili

 

[Jeff Bolton]

i've said it before and i'll probably say it again. if you don't like linux, that's fine and dandy. but please don't come into the alt OS forum and diss it without much of an argument against it. i'm guessing you have had limited exposure to it, or else at least you'd have some more respect for it if you didn' t like it still. i've been using linux exclusively w/o windows even installed for more than a month now and i like it more every day. its little things that i keep figuring out that make me keep going...little things like learning how to stream mp3 audio with XMMS...or getting quake 3 to work and installing the bid for power mod and playing with my friend on his windows machine over the network. i agree that some things need to be improved on, such as drivers and support for things such as flash etc. but its getting there. i haven't had experience with any older distros of linux, but i can tell that even since i used redhat 7.1 a few months ago and upgraded to redhat 7.2 the differences included..better window managers, better file browsers (nautilus), mp3, on and on and on. if you are using linux and are in actuality spending all day fixing things then you are doing something wrong. there is a difference between looking around/experimenting and actually breaking things. and i think that comment about amateur programmers was a little below the belt. i usually don't get this offended, and its no beef against you personally, but i just can't stand to see people diss linux without actually having used it or know what they are talking about (not saying you haven't or don't, but you know). if you have then that is a different story and disregard what i have just spend 15 minutes typing

just my .03

jeff

edit: i notice nihili posted as i was typing this...this wasn't pointed at you, nihili

 

[Silver]

I really do need to play with it some. It would be fun to have something to play with while at the same time gaining a little insite.

 

[minoukat]

I already tryed 2 different distros on 2 different machines (Corel Linux 2nd edition and Mandrake 8.0 on the HP and Compaq). both were very simple to install. the problems I had were with configuring and installing and navigating through the OS. in Corel, I couldn't install anything, and Mandrake didn't want to boot up after some time. Plus, I could never get a hold of the extensions Linux uses ! so, it's not ready for me or I'm not ready for it ! Either way, it should mature and get a more distinct spot in the industry before getting to Joe Sixpack and his bro (what's his name already ?

 

[Beelzebub]

Before I started using Linux, the people in the office and my friends used to think it was crap. We would joke about why would anyone want to use an operating system that has no good programs.

Well, it came down to the point where I HAD to switch to Linux due to money reasons. I am so glad I switched. I would consider myself a fairly adept computer user, and learning new things is always exciting to me. After attempting to install Debian and Slackware on my computer, I got VERY frustrated with Linux. I just couldn't get anywhere in the installs for the two. Then Mandrake popped up and showed me the way.

Sure, I am using the Windows of Linux, but it has shown me how great Linux really is. I have a new respect for the entire system. Boy was I wrong about the programs. Rather than have an Oligopoly running Windows software, Linux offers a pure-competition market in terms of programs. There are so many programs to use on this thing, it has taken me almost a week to check out all of the programs I would need.

Windows is very easy to use.. XP has been nothing but stable and compatible with everything I have ever had to use. Linux, while having some rough edges on some hardware (USB Keyboard... USB Intellimouse explorer), has been very easy to configure with Mandrake.

I don't understand why people bad mouth things without really trying them. I used to get mad when someone would say that Windows XP was worse that 2000. In my experience XP has been nothing but better than 2000. Now I hear fools ripping Linux. I used to be one of them. Don't knock it till you tried it. Don't just 'play' with it, use it!

Ok, I am done ranting... just wanted to let the Linux users out there I am a new convert. I don't understand why I used to spend money on all this stuff when there is something out there that can do everything Windows can do for free.