pointless, especially when we have email notification. there is no point in having two entries in Thunderbird go off when only one location has activity.

just stick with email notification.

RSS newsfeeds are an excellent idea -- with one caveat. If the newsfeed just becomes a vehicle for distributing PR and Dell advertisements, it will quickly become irrelevant to users. In other words, make sure that it is a newsfeed and not a spamfeed.

I agree with hotshotDJ. Good idea but could be abused.

RSS is a great tool and Dell should certainly be taking more advantage of it! It can be used for so much more than browsing news and blogs! Here's some ways I'd suggest Dell use RSS:

* The basics: RSS for forums and forum topics, RSS for news/updates, RSS for blogs.
* The useful: RSS for new software and firmware updates specific to each piece of hardware Dell sells (so I can subscribe to "Inspiron E1505n updates". Preferably with the ability to directly download said software directly from a link in the RSS feed.
* Advanced: Pre-install an RSS gdesklet (or system tray notifier) on your new Ubuntu desktops that provides updates/information *relevant to that system*. For instance, if a new firmware for a laptop is out my desktop should notify me in some way. RSS is perfect for that (and it allows 3rd parties to integrate with it).

To the person suggesting that "email updates are good enough": Only *YOU* control what is in your RSS reader. You only have so much control over what enters your inbox.
-Riskable
http://riskable.com
"I searched for answers but all I got was 404s."

Message Edited by riskable on 05-24-2007 02:01 PM

An interesting idea. The way I see it - RSS feeds are for constant streams of information, which isn't really what tech support is about, right? Support is about getting help when a problem arises. Ubuntu updates are so automatic and seamless it'd be silly to tell people about them in an RSS feed. I guess I could see a place for RSS feeds in the "Tip of the Day" category, whatever that would be about.

RSS feeds aren't that great for "constant feeds of information." For that you're better off with streaming systems such as news tickers or video. RSS is best for things that update sporadically.

Just last night I noticed in my bloglines that a friend of mine updated his blog... Which he hasn't done in about a year. He was simply stunned that I noticed his post right away and commented in it. Thanks to RSS I don't need to bother loading his blog every day.

That same functionality would be awesome for things like firmware updates. Unless I manually look at Dell's support page for my laptop on a regular basis I'll never know that there's an update out. Not only that but I'd have to remember what BIOS I'm currently running (A07?) to even know if the version on the page is actually new. The date of the update is there but if you deal with a lot of hardware on a regular basis you're not going to remember the last time you updated.

-Riskable
http://riskable.com
"I have a license to kill -9"

I personally would use an RSS feed for this forum. It would allow me to keep up with threads so that I only would need to visit the forum when I'd find a revelant thread. Not everyone would use it, but it is completely unobtrusive. Cheers.

RSS Feeds that indicate Dell-Linux are Firefox compliant and are at least as interesting as slashdot or tuxmachines.org would be fine. After all We can choose to subscribe or not. IMHO why does Dell not aggregate channel subjects (See The Register Channel) using slashcode? Just a thought. Vista-Windows Me II Edition!

I think RSS feeds for support information is a great idea. For me, RSS is a better solution than email notifications for any information that Dell wants to make available. The more RSS feeds available the better. People can then subscribe to the general or specific information that interests them. For example, I'd like to be able to subscribe to an RSS feed about Dell's free software strategies and results, one that provides Ubuntu tips, and one about the specific Ubuntu computer I purchased. I'd be free, of course, to ignore completely any Microsoft feeds you make available.