I'm sorry to see that Dell has chosen hardware which uses ATI graphics. I would have bought an Ubuntu laptop, but with ATI Radeon cards with model numbers >= X1xxx there's not even accelerated 2D support! I can't buy hardware that doesn't even provide 2D support. I'm sorry, but the proprietary ATI drivers aren't an option for me (and I bet alot of users will have problems with those).
Unless you have an ace up your sleeve to pull out a major cooperation agreement with ATI over free graphics drivers, which I strongly doubt even though there are rumors about ATI stating that they are going to work to solve their open source problems. Many people besides me where problably planning to buy the hardware and use it with another GNU/Linux distribution and where wishing for Dell to put together a computer with parts that are actually supported "out of the box" in Linux (and not with any proprietary legally-doubtful addons). Using Intel graphics, atleast for the laptop, would have been the obvious choice if you wanted to build a computer that actually had good driver support.
I'm sorry, but you just lost one customer... I might return in the future if you get this solved before the next time I'm looking for new hardware. :'-(

//fatal

Message Edited by nycnikato on 05-25-2007 07:21 AM

its still too early to tell, but from everything i am seeing, dell, you have failed yet again. let me ask these very important questions...

how are people supposed to know that dell offers linux on their home models if you dont offer it as a choice in the customize page?

how are people supposed to know to go to www.dell.com/open to browser the (rather limited) selection of linux supported computers?

how are people supposed to know to go to linux.dell.com for information on running linux on their computers?

and now, you have selected to use hardware that is rather incompatible with linux... for shame, dell. i honestly had high hopes for this venture, but from everything i have seem, dell just set linux adoption back 5 years.

Lets not be so quick to judge (although given Dell's history, it is easy to do so!). We do NOT yet know what hardware will be offered in these boxen. I tried to find evidence that the three initial offerings will be using ATI cards and was unable to find support for that assertion. If true, then I fully agree that Dell has made a huge error and perhaps is intentionally setting up this new Linux option for failure.

Will customers be able to easily find these offerings from the main dell.com page? Will the telephone sales representatives be able to offer them? Will working drivers be available for all the hardware (including modem)? Will there be a software repository where purchasers of these systems can easily get driver updates? Will these systems be able to update the system BIOS?

Some of you may recall when American automobile manufacturers "test marketed" electric vehicles. They created terrible cars and made them available under terrible terms. Those who still were willing to try them had a hard time finding them and then, at the end of their leases, they were not permitted to buy the vehicles outright. They were required to return them. The manufacturers then declared that there was no market for electric cars.

Of course, I'm waiting for the details to emerge on these three systems. But electric cars and Dell's past attempts to market Linux computers is still fresh in my mind.

dell already offers many drivers needed on their site.

http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/

but, like i mentioned before, how are we supposed to know about that site without having to search around every link and every page? the average user isnt going to know about that link.

"I'm sorry to see that Dell has chosen hardware which uses ATI graphics..."


I was pretty ticked at this, too. I went off the leaked rumor model (E1505) for hardware options. I decided to consult the Dell Chat. Here are excerpts from our conversation (edited only for formatting and names):

Initial Question/Comment: What are your Video Card options for the Inspiron E1505?

Agent: There is standard video card right now for E1505.
Agent: That is 256 mb ati video card Kevin.
Customer: Is that ATI card going to be the only option for a while?
Agent: Yes.
...
Customer: I'm planning on buying the Laptop that will offer Ubuntu, will that laptop
be using the ATI chipset as well?
Agent: No.
...
Agent: Is there anything else I may help you regarding this concern?
Customer: The Linux concern?
Agent: yes
Customer: as long as you are planning to offer Ubuntu as an OS and you aren't using
ATI, i'm fine
Agent: ok.

So if my agent was being completely honest and is correct, it appears that the laptop at least will not have the ATI mobility card. This is a great relief to me, but it seems that this means that they will only offer the integrated Intel video. While the Intel chipset /is/ good for drivers, I personally had wanted a dedicated video card so I could impress some people with Beryl. I don't think the integrated graphics has a pixel shader, so I guess I won't be using the water effects (not a huge loss I guess).

Any who, I hope that this gives you a little more hope in our Door #1-3 choices for an Ubuntu Dell system.

[edit] Cleaned up Chat area a bit, I wish this editor would keep whitespace.

Message Edited by kevinf311 on 05-24-2007 01:32 PM

I'm disappointed too, but we need to look at this from the Dell side.

I know that we would have loved to see Ubuntu as a choice on all of Dells products with a "[Subtract $200]" tag next to it. The thing is, Dell has put a good deal of money and time into providing this option. We are pretty much the "test group" for this Linux experiment that they are doing.

If we get ahead of ourselves and turn our backs because it isn't everything we had hoped for then it will never get any better.

If there is strong support for a windows alternative OS on these systems (which I'm assuming were chosen because of overall sales and probably a low cost to them), then we will probably see an expansion of the Ubuntu line. We may even see more distros offered.

What I'm trying to say is we need to think in baby steps. This is the first time (that I know of) a major retailer of pre-configured systems has offered Linux as a standard option for the main consumer/non-business market.

I have shown my support for Linux as an option. I have bought the E1505n (I needed a laptop anyway, this was excellent timing for me). I hope that the rest of the community can look past the faults of the current system and see the possibilities of the future.

This is a good start. I'm happy to see Ubuntu on Dell computers :