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Member since November 10, 2006

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  1. Comment - Dell to Ship Linux on Desktops, Laptops

    (Mar 29, 2007 - 10:22 AM)

    > 1. Dell has special OEM deal with MS for Windows.

    The special deal runs something like:

    Dell has to license X amount of Windows licenses per LINE.

    Dell has to agree to sell X amount of licenses per PERIOD (P) per LINE.

    If X is less than P then the price goes up.

    If X is more than P then there is a discount.

    If during the PERIOD the Retail Price Index goes up then the price is automatically incrementated.

    If Dell fails to reach X then the agreement is renegotiated.

    Dell takes full responcibility for end user support.

    Dell pays the 'Authorized Replicator' for duplicating the disks.

    So there isn't a lot of incentive for the OEMs to sell non Windows computers is there.

  2. Comment - Dell to Ship Linux on Desktops, Laptops

    (Mar 29, 2007 - 10:03 AM)

    > there's no shortcut created for it on the desktop or menu ..

    Rightclick on the desktop and select Create shortcut to application.

    Rightclick on the KDE 'start' icon on the bottom left of the screen and select configure ..

    If you don't know the location of the application, type $locate name.of.app ..

    But don't go knocking the command line. With a few scripts I can resize all the images in the current directory (maintaining aspect ratio, don't make smaller that a given size, convert to png), create thumbnails and make a HTML gallery with captions, in about twenty seconds. Now try and do that from your click and select from submenu interface.

  3. Comment - Dell to Ship Linux on Desktops, Laptops

    (Mar 29, 2007 - 9:54 AM)

    > if it won't run Office and most PC games out-of-the-box (or via a simple free download) its a waste of time.

    If MS hadn't standardised on the 'Office Open' format instead of the OpenDoc format that wouldn't be a problem.

    There is CrossOver from Codeweavers that runs more that 30 Windows apps under Linux. I believe it comes as standard on Xandros and the SuSE desktop.

    http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

    Maybe if there is a large enough market in Linux desktops the games makers will start making cross platform versions.

    This refers to a Linux version of Quake.
    http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/quake4/

  4. Comment - Dell to Ship Linux on Desktops, Laptops

    (Mar 29, 2007 - 9:42 AM)

    > boy iam glad i am not on their help desk

    As a former technical support operative I know about helpdesks. There is only one thing more futile than calling a help desk that is working in one. Once 'dave' in India has talked you through the crip sheet he invariably tells you to reinstall from the restore disk.

    As long as they don't log in as root then they can't do anything stupid like dragging and dropping the Windows folder into the trashcan (to save disk space). Or forcing two CDs into the slot because you never told them to take out the first one.

    Dell should take a leaf from Lenovo and provide a one button restore from a hidden partition.

  5. Comment - Dell to Ship Linux on Desktops, Laptops

    (Mar 29, 2007 - 9:35 AM)

    > The average consumer will not be able to figure out how to work Linux.

    I have sat the average user down in front of this OpenSuSE box and they can't tell the difference.