It's been a little while since we've heard more of Dell's plans to use Linux on some machines, and we've been left with a lot of questions. In particular, everyone has been wondering what distro of Linux might be used: would it be Ubuntu, for ease of use? SUSE, for its strong support and compatibility? Slackware for its incredible flexibility and stability?
And the winner is....Ubuntu. Officially.
According to Dell's "Ideas in Action" site, the world's largest PC manufacturer has chosen Ubuntu's latest 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" distribution. The option will officially be provided on "some consumer products," but rumours assume one of Dell's budget "Essential" line (also known as e-series) of desktops, an Inspiron-e laptop, and an XPS model desktop. The systems will begin to be sold at the end of May.
Ubuntu isn't that surprising of a choice, given that it did win Dell's distro survey conducted over the last couple months. Michael Dell has also recently acknowledged using the build on his home laptop instead of Windows, which is a pretty ringing endorsement to the average person. Users of the Ubuntu are also usually the first to admit that it has a striking similarity to Windows in several respects, allowing an easy learning curve.
Whether the Feisty Fawn build was actually assisted with by Dell to ensure compatibility remains to be seen. Also missing in the acknowledgment on Tuesday afternoon is pricing information, though guesses have been offered for a couple of the systems. Of course, these are entirely dependent on which systems Dell chooses out of its line-up.
Other flavours of Linux will still be for sale in the other business areas, including RedHat for Precision workstations and SUSE for servers. Ubuntu will only be used in the consumer sector of the company's product line. If you were Dell, which flavour of Linux would you have chosen? Is offering Linux the right move for Dell? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
And the winner is....Ubuntu. Officially.
According to Dell's "Ideas in Action" site, the world's largest PC manufacturer has chosen Ubuntu's latest 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" distribution. The option will officially be provided on "some consumer products," but rumours assume one of Dell's budget "Essential" line (also known as e-series) of desktops, an Inspiron-e laptop, and an XPS model desktop. The systems will begin to be sold at the end of May.
Ubuntu isn't that surprising of a choice, given that it did win Dell's distro survey conducted over the last couple months. Michael Dell has also recently acknowledged using the build on his home laptop instead of Windows, which is a pretty ringing endorsement to the average person. Users of the Ubuntu are also usually the first to admit that it has a striking similarity to Windows in several respects, allowing an easy learning curve.
Whether the Feisty Fawn build was actually assisted with by Dell to ensure compatibility remains to be seen. Also missing in the acknowledgment on Tuesday afternoon is pricing information, though guesses have been offered for a couple of the systems. Of course, these are entirely dependent on which systems Dell chooses out of its line-up.
Other flavours of Linux will still be for sale in the other business areas, including RedHat for Precision workstations and SUSE for servers. Ubuntu will only be used in the consumer sector of the company's product line. If you were Dell, which flavour of Linux would you have chosen? Is offering Linux the right move for Dell? Let us know your thoughts in our forums.
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