RSSWSJ: Dell, Google Near Software Pact
By Ed Oswald | Published February 7, 2006, 5:57 PM
In yet another symbol of Microsoft's softening dominance of the computer industry, news broke Tuesday that Google may be close to a deal with Dell to preinstall its software on new computers from the manufacturer.
According to the Wall Street Journal, quoting sources close to the matter, Google would pay Dell $1 billion over three years for the rights to place its software as the default applications on new Dell computers.
Such a deal could be potentially damaging to the Redmond giant: Google's ties with Firefox could mean the open source browser would replace Internet Explorer by default; its toolbar, search and instant messaging products upstaging similar products by MSN; and a host of non-Microsoft software the company has thrown its weight behind could appear on Dell's machines.
Dell controls a large portion of the personal computing market with a 33 percent share in the U.S. and 18 percent of worldwide shipments. By placing its software on Dell PCs, Google could continue to build on its dominating search presence while taking a big step in moving onto the desktop.
For many years, Microsoft controlled the setup process that consumers see when they use their computers for the first time. However, bigger PC makers such as Dell and Hewlett Packard wanted more control over the "first boot sequence" as a new source of revenue for their companies, and recently Microsoft acquiesced to those demands.
Internal studies by Microsoft that were viewed by the WSJ warned of the issue of third-party software being preinstalled as a possible financial problem for the company. The reports say manufacturers could use this as leverage to negotiate for lower prices as less and less of the original operating systems are used.
Most computer users after setting up a new computer don't change the original settings, which is also why being part of that "first boot sequence" is so valuable.
Both Google and Dell acknowledged they are working together, but neither would provide any further details as to the extent of the partnership.
Even the homepage of Internet Explorer on a new computer is a combination of Dell and Google Personalized Home Page.
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-John
CyberNet Technology News
http://www.cybernetnews.com
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|I recently set up a couple new Dell computers for a company and was surprised how much Google software was installed on it. I can't imagine how it could get much worst.
AHampton2K
www.fits.cc - IT Community
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|yay for replying to the wrong artical....
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|Google is making some idiotic choices for strategic partnering: Dell, Symantec, Adobe, FireFox...
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|I can accept your hate for firefox, but you're a fool to call that an idiotic partnership. Where is Firefox, and where is Opera? Obviously Firefox is better at spreading.
Agree about Symantec/Adobe. Verdict is still out on Dell for me.
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|For one they could partner with HP, eMachines, etc. Google utilizes Ubuntu in house so within a year or two of such a move they could be outselling both Dell and MS each. And instead of just partnereing with Sun, they should actually buy out the company at just $4 a share: they have the Niagara processor, practically identical to the IMB/Sony Cell...and even better, have grid array technology that can lump together large clusters of processors and memory w/o needing a bus: that's the way to take over the world in hurry!!!
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|I remember back in the day when if there was software you wanted, you went and got it :P
I hate all these manufacturers pre-installing [background running] software for anybody who throws 5 dolla at them. You start up an out-of-the box HP desktop and there's literally over 60 processes running. 50's for Dell.
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|Then you have to run down to the computer store to purchase more RAM, because it is so slow at startup.
I don't have a problem with software being available on the new PC's, but it should only be there in an uninstalled package, and the user should have the ability to install or uninstall as they so wish. I don't even have a problem with IE7 coming that way too on the new PCs.(though I really like IE7)
You're right in the way in which new PCs come now. Everyone has their own restore/fix program as well as an autoupdater. Users don't change it because they don't know what a lot of these programs do. They don't even remove the icons from the desktop.
I had one customer that thought if he removed the icons from the desktop, the computer would crash.
IMO
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|Even more bloatware to uninstall!!!
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|OEM SUCKS. just make your own os ppl!
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|"make your own os..."
Yeah. Um....
Do you know what an OS is?
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|Andy is doing it, and he's only been busy for about a decade, so you can too!
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|Someone will reply to this message saying,
"Man no kidding.
What a waste of 10 years."
I'm psychic.
Really.
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|Man no kidding.
What a waste of 10 years.
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|See?
Send me money, and I can tell you your future, too!
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|I´m from Mexico and I just bought a Latitude and it didn´t have any Google software pre-installed. I wouldn´t ming having Earth, Talk, and Google Desktop pre-installed.
How about Linux pre-lodaded? Is that asking (dreaming) to much?
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|HP has already started doing that in your neck of the woods.
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|This is a freaking joke.
The last 2 PC's I bought and installed for a side job I was doing were Dell Dimension PC's. They had Google crap installed by default also.
I was blown away at how slow a brand new Dell PC was with all the crap they load on it. I don't just mean Google stuff either. I mean all this Dell support junk that pops up all the time from the tray.
It's getting so bad that if you are even serious about not having people call you back for problems you need to just reload the brand new PC from scratch. What a shame.
I feel bad for average consumers that buy a Dell for home use and don't know how to deal with all the preinstalled junk.
It's sad to see what big money hungry corporate America can do when it's greedy.
Oh.....I almost forgot........
...Google is the Devil.
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|Most new Dell PC's seem to run slower than my IBM Thinkpad 390e(333mhz). :P
That thing is lean and mean. Mozilla starts up in about 4 seconds.
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|This is typical of *any* brand-name OEM PC nowadays. They are using this to increase their profit margin and providing an easy way to uninstall, or restore an image wihtout these products would make it less appealing to their "partners".
Still... For those of us in the know, it doesn't hurt too much. And I have to admit, it's nice to see MS get the smackdown once in a while. Even if it does come from, 'The Devil." :P
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|This only affects consumer/home models (Dell Dimension, Inspiron, and XPS models). Some small businesses may use these, but Dell's larger corporate customers go with Optiplex and Latitude where Dell has never bundled extra crap. Even if they started now, virtually all large organizations re-image new machines.
I predict this move by Google will have zero impact, given that Dell's consumer desktop is already so bloated, flashy, and busy with the preloaded AOL, Real Player, Norton, QuickBooks Trial, Dell-branded JASC PaintShop Pro, Corel blah blah blah, etc.
Out of everyone who will buy a Dell computer in the next 3 years, who isn't already familiar with Google? Maybe 100? For a total cost of $1 billion, Google is paying $10 million per person to reach those noobs? A couple of Super Bowl ads each year would have been cheaper.
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|Actually I just got 3 of the Optiplex 520GX desktops via my Dell corporate account, and they pre-installed Google Desktop and Google Earth. I immediately re-installed the OS.
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|Heh... send 'em an image.
Dell puts our image on all systems ordered by us.
That way it comes to us exactly was we want it.
Doesn't get any easier.
Heh....actually like the 520s. Wouldn't buy one for myself, but after the 100 or so bad 280s we had (bad capacitors on the mainboard), these things seem to be pretty solid.
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|Maybe the beginning of GoogleOS? One can hope...
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|"One can hope..."
Hope?
I think you meant, "suffer from psychotic delusions".
I know...the keys are really close..it could happen to anyone.
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|Google are already using a customized version of Linux (I don´t remember it´s name), on their computers.
So if they make a deal with Dell, we might be able to buy computers with Google Linux!!!
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|More Crapware I will need to remove
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|sheesh, harsh, please, i find both a lot of fun and useful
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|Both are resource hogs. WMP10 uses 1/2 the about of memeory iTunes uses(you need to count all their services). Windows Desktop Search using about 1/4 the memeory as google desktop search does.
Plus WMP is not always running.
Now I am not saying all MSFT programs are great, but who the hell wants a music player and all of its services running all the time.
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|I´m from Mexico and I just bought a Latitude and it didn´t have any Google software pre-installed. I wouldn´t ming having Earth, Talk, and Google Desktop pre-installed.
How about Linux pre-lodaded? Is that asking (dreaming) to much?
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|Media Player Classic
Locate
Locate is great since it overrides the default windows search, and instant finding of any file is sweet when you're setting up an OS.
Oh damn...windows can't find procexp.exe - where did I stick it?
Media Player Classic rocks for processor usage. ffdshow20041012 + MPC use barely 60% of the CPU on an IBM Thinkpad 390e 333mhz - fullscreen 352x270 @ 1024x768.
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|I have to agree with that.
Locate rocks man.
I'm a fellow Linux lover :D
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|Actually with the Precision desktops you can have Red Hat Linux v4 pre-loaded. You can also get servers pre-loaded with a variety of OS including Red Hat, SUSE and VMware.
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|Can you guys provide a link for "Locate"?
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|Dang. I'll try that again.
I found it here:
http://www.uku.fi/~jmhut...english/softwares.shtml
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|That link works, or this one:
http://locate32.webhop.org/
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