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230

No more crippleware (reduced functionality) OS's (like the feature-reduced Vista versions) on your machines - or make them pay and pass the savings to your customers

230 points posted to Operating Systems, Software by jmxz 04/02/07

Crippleware - a term for deliberately reduced functionality software - is very offensive to your end users and damages the Dell brand. Apple gets a pretty favorable impression from its users by including fully featured software rather than deliberately reducing the functionality of what they include with their hardware.

Many Ideastorm ideas complain of third party software on Dells that is artificially limited with the goal to frustrate the user (at the expense of the Dell brand) into buying an upgrade. But the biggest offender is rarely mentioned.

Microsoft.

* Please insist that your software vendors not put reduced-functionality OS's (Vista Basic, Vista Business - anything less than Windows Ultimate) on any Dell products in hopes that your end users upgrade. This crippleware is an insult to your users and damaging to the Dell brand. It doesn't cost them any more to print a full-activation-key than it does a crippleware-activation-key. And the fact that Vista Basic is even more limited than XP is very insulting to your new customers. Note to them that neither their competitive OS suppliers (Red Hat, Novell, Canonical) nor yours (Apple) try to force feature-reduced-crippleware on your customers.

* Make your software vendors pay you A LOT to put feature reduced versions of Office Products ("Office Small Business", "Office Home", anything less that Office Premium) on Dell computers. Note to vendors who want to do this that their competitors (Red Hat, Canonical, Novell, etc) don't try to force feature-reduced office suites on your customers.

* Don't let OS vendors ship an OS that does not include an Office Suite (and not a feature reduced one) on Desktop machines. No desktop machine can be considered complete these days without an Office suite. The idea of selling a machine without one is very annoying.

* Don't let your OS vendor ship a Server OS that does not come with a database. Note that many business users use databases; and that many of the OS vendors you're considering (red hat, novell, canonical) include one.

* Make OS vendors pay you *A LOT* to ship a database with artificial limitations like amount of ram or CPUs. Note that many of the OS vendors you're considering (red hat, novell, canonical) include one or more databases. And not weak databases - your Linux vendors will be including the powerful enterprise-class database servers that power Google Adwords and the .org domain and skype.

All of these practices are an insult to your customers.

If your OS vendors are unwilling to abide by these guidelines, make them pay *A LOT* for the damage they're doing to Dell's brand by artificially limiting the functionality of Dell systems and not letting your hardware work to its full potential.

benjesuit
04/02/07		 I could be mistaken, but I don't believe DELL offers Vista Basic. What is more, Not everyone really needs Vista Ultimate. Does the average user really need bitlocker? Nah. Among a few other things. Home Premium is more than enough.

Hey, how many need XP pro?

Anyway, here's a compartive list of

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3672_7-6687907-1.html< of what is in ultimate is not needed by the mainstream, so why should they have to pay for features they in all likelihood will not use?
phubert28
04/03/07		 Not to mention that Linux distributions can equally be SERVERS _or_ workstations _or_ BOTH... just as can Sun Solaris systems (and they always had that capability).

In fact, one of the security warnings for internet-connected Linux systems is to be aware of what is installed by default ON your system.

Point being: you DO get all these facilities with _any_ Linux distribution, but you also need to be aware of what parts you actually NEED and what parts, perhaps, you should _not_ automatically run on start-up.
benjesuit
04/03/07		 I think Ubuntu/Kubuntu might be the only one of the modern distros with seperate versions: Workstation or server.

Probably one of the reasons it's so popular.
phubert28
04/03/07		 Perhaps. Are the 'versions' substantially different in their _content_, though? Meaning, do they simply have different _defaults_ but still have all the same facilities available?

I would be very disappointed with them if their 'workstation' version was a stripped-down offering you _couldn't_ configure AS a server!

It would be VERY un-Linux-like!
benjesuit
04/03/07		 The editions are somewhat different in content. Server is basically bare Ubuntu. You'll have to add X then add a desktop GUI environment and other apps. If that's what one wishes. It'll be a job installing X. On the other hand, to get workstation up to server level, you'll only have to add server components. Though, a bit of a task for many of the Ubuntu crowd to do.
phubert28
04/03/07		 Interesting. I suppose a single-CD-only distro has its limitations... I think I'd be MORE reluctant to go with Ubuntu in that case.
I'd far prefer an 'it's all there' distro with install defaults and options. After all, it could be such as : "Home Internet System Install Option"
and "Home Install w. Router/Firewall & multiple systems" etc.

Linux needs to get EASIER... including setting up your own mail server or mixed Linux-Windows-Mac environments.

**

Check out the LINK I suppled with the 'suggestion' that Dell merge with Sun... interesting read...

**

I'm really NOT interested in ANY side 'winning' ... it's a GREAT pity that so many GOOD solutions have fallen by the wayside due to unfair competitive practices...
jmxz
04/03/07		 phubert28: "I think I'd be MORE reluctant to go with Ubuntu in that case. I'd far prefer an 'it's all there' distro with install defaults and options."

Note that whichever Ubuntu you stared with, it may not be "all there" but it is "all available". With "apt-get install kde" you can turn your formerly server UI into something like a desktop. With "apt-get install postgresql apache rails" you can turn your desktop into an application server.

If by "all there" you meant all on one CD - that's unrealistic when describing Linux. There are hundreds of thousands of applications / modules / drivers that only apply to very very specialized circumstances (i.e. RTOS schedulers / features for large supercomputer clusters / Ada&Fortran development environments / legacy-server-languages like Visual Basic 6).

When people say Ubuntu has 2 versions - it's really just two sets of defaults that apply to two wide bases of users.
phubert28
04/03/07		 On one DVD it isn't unrealistic at all... so why CD's anymore anyway??????

As to the two wide bases... well, yes, you can DEFINE such and even NAME a bunch, but you also have those who straddle both ends... and not all of those are highly Linux-savvy.

Who are you trying to reach?

I'd suggest: EVERYONE... and there ARE ways to do that FAR more easily with Linux than with Windows!

Let me suggest the Mac is ALREADY capable of this.
steve2
04/04/07		 "Its all there" is often not a good idea. For a machine, that is not a server all server/sharing functionality must be fully off (read: not even installed). It is just an unnecessary security risk. If one needs something, Synaptic gets it. That was one reason for me, to choose ubuntu.

On the topic: Only a fraction of customers needs the functionality of a full vista ultimate and much of it can be replaced by free third party apps
jmxz
04/04/07		 steve2

I didn't mean to say "it's all there" - just "it's all available" without being bait&switched into having to buy an upgrade.

Of *COURSE* all services should be off by default (as they are with Debian). But certainly it'd be nicer if Dell would include the software - if nothing else to save people the time downloading. I also understand the software shouldn't even be installed (esp. if it's suid) - but that doesn't stop Dell from including it on a DVD in the box.

Of course only a fraction of customers needs all the functionality of any OS - but different users need/want different subsets - and those diverse needs are best met by including everything, not picking one subset of users to satisfy at the expense of others.
.

And it's not true that default Dell builds satisfy even the most basic users - I bet most copies of Office Retail come because Dell bundles a crippleware office suite.
jmxz
04/04/07		 phubert28: "On one DVD it isn't unrealistic at all... "

Well, Debian takes two DVDs. (and yes, I know that 2 DVDs is reasonable - just pointing out that the Linux distros have a lot of software these days)
winoffice
Jan 12		 jmxz: You mean that you want Dell to stop offering Vista?
winoffice
Jan 12		 That's Bashing Microsoft...DEMOTED.
jmxz
Jan 12		 @winoffice:

This Idea doesn't suggest that they should stop offering Vista -- just that the version of Vista they sill should match the advertising claims Dell makes for Vista. That means if Dell says Vista has features included in Ultimate, they should sell the user Ultimate. If Dell says Vista runs a database, it should include a Database. Etc.
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