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Create An Idependant Branch Of Dell To Deal With Ubuntu, Free DOS And Bare Systems

-130 points posted to Advertising and Marketing, Dell, Linux, Operating Systems - Multiboot, Sales Strategies by aikiwolfie 11/17/07

It has been speculated here on IdeaStorm that the reason Dell won't or can't provide bare systems with no OS pre-installed is due to licensing arrangements with Microsoft. If this is the case Dell should create an independent child company that has no dealings with Microsoft at all. This new company will handle all requests for Ubuntu, Linux, Free DOS and no OS.

cosh
11/17/07		 Um, not very likely.
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 Not likely is not a reason to demote. The idea is really to keep drawing attention to the fact people want this. Dells customers want this stuff. They want Ubuntu, they want Free DOS and they want bare systems. At least a lot of the people driving IdeaStorm do at any rate.
winoffice
11/17/07		 I believe that Dell should remain a single company. The licensing arrangements do not prohibit Ubuntu, as I see Dell selling it and no action from Microsoft.
jorge
11/17/07		 Yea, if they really do come up with a No-OS dept. I'd like to be the manager of product development!
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 Well you can have No-OS if I can have Ubuntu!

winoffice I'm inclined to agree. I don't see how Microsoft could force Dell to buy licenses for PCs they haven't built yet or aren't intended to have a Microsoft product bundled with them. I doubt Dell would be that stupid. But we never know.

It's more likely Dell buys inline with what it thinks it will sell. But then we're at a loss as to why Dell won't implement a no OS option. Perhaps the support deals are just too lucrative.
jorge
11/17/07		 What? No-OS still needs hardware support.
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 Yes it does actually. At the very least you need a warranty. In the UK all electrical goods sold must have at least a 1 year guarantee. So they would still need to support call outs to do repairs. You know the simple stuff like replacing all the on/off switches on XPS 700s.
benjesuit
11/17/07		 A very small, almost insiginificant number of Dell customers want this. When a meaningful amount of customers demand it, Dell will do it.

Supply and Demand.

Desktop Linux only accounts for 3-5% of the entire desktop OS market. Apple's share of the market is about double that. Obviously the lion share goes to Microsoft.

How would Dell recoup their capital investment in this venture? How will Dell profit catering to such a small minority when margins of low to mid tier systems are so thin? What is more, it's a known fact that the majority of Linux users install Linux themselves.
jorge
11/17/07		 Well we won't know till its offered, and not on a lame computer, with no top of the line components.
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 Most investments like this are made on a long term basis. Dell should allow at least 5 to 10 years to recoup their investment. If we take the example of the Microsoft Xbox. It still hasn't made a profit. I think you're deliberately looking at these threads in the very very short term. It sounds as though you expect Dell to be making a profit from Linux next week.
jorge
11/17/07		 Well lets see the cost of adding a No-OS options (by the way I have done this scenario before). The production line take an order for one such system, goes to the computer which processes the orders and inputs the components needed and adds a note to use a blank hard drive instead of one with the other globally installed OS. The assembly process continues as before with the special note to use a blank hard drive instead of one with the globally installed OS. End of assembly, ship it out.

Savings, no energy required to install the globally installed OS image on to the drive, no need to run a OS boot test (assuming they do one, which we know they don't). Whew! The assembly line is really sweating bullets at this point... NOT! Opps, forgot, they need to skip the globally installed OS sticker step! I'm sure that will cost... no another savings in energy for not requiring the robot to turn on for that step. Oh, forgot, no adding of bloatware to the drive! Yet another power savings! Seems like this is a win win for Dell being at least Green?
benjesuit
11/17/07		 No Aiki, I am looking at it long term. Desktop Linux will not explode in the next 5 years. Sorry to say. And that's regretable. It's got a lot of promise. But every forecast pegs it as such. And it's sort of obvious why not.

Even so, in the technology business, you do not look 10 years out to recoup an investment. That's just ridiculous considering how quickly technology evolves. If you can't break even in 3 years on a singular product or segment, you cut your loses. Dell has done this a number of times in the past. Most recently when they got out of the PDA and MP3 player business.
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 I never said it would explode. I don't want my PC to explode. Then it won't work.

As for Linux. It's not a PDA and it's not an MP3 player. It's an OS. 5 to 10 years is a reasonable leangth of time to allow an OS to take hold. Look at XP. 5 years on and people still want to use it. But the physical hardware has changed dramatically. The only way Microsoft can replace it is to refuse to sell it.

Dell have been selling Linux for a while now and they'll be selling SUSE Enterprise to an awful lot of people in China. While Linux might not explode it's uptake and popularity are increasing. And like it or not it's the Asian markets that drive technology in 21st century. The Japanese and Malaysians are already onto gigabits-per-second broad band while we're still struggling to get decent megabits-per-second connections. And if that wasn't enough, Linux is poping up everywhere in mobile devices.

You can keep talking down Linux all you like. Call it realistic if you want to. Linux isn't on it's way. It's already here for those who choose to use it.

I didn't buy a Dell with Linux. I put Linux on a Dell. It works. I'm sticking with it.

Resistance is futile!
matt_d
11/17/07		 The speculations are incorrect. There is no need to have a separate company to handle the Ubuntu and other Linux offerings, and it would in fact only slow down development.
sugarbear
11/17/07		 @benjesuit, you are right about Linux exploding in the next five years. There are several US govt. and state agencies looking at it.
jorge
11/17/07		 Remember I want first dibs at the No-OS Dept. Managers position!
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 Thanks for the reply matt. It's much appreciated. But can't we push it faster please?
hizzoner
11/17/07		 Screw Dell! Buy a better PC without Windows XP/Vista at http://www.yesplay.com/ and save youself money as well.
Dell does not deserve your business. Besides, Dell is more interested in corporate business.
Dell's products are not the best and are over priced....and Dell service (????) sucks big time!
aikiwolfie
11/17/07		 So you're not a happy camper then? And that web site sucks. No pictures of the PC? I want to see what I'm buying.
hizzoner
11/17/07		 Aikiwolfie: You got that one right,bud!
hizzoner
11/17/07		 Aikiwolfie: What do you need pictures for anyway? A white box, is a white box, is a white box! It is how you config or request.
benjesuit
11/17/07		 Aiki, you just don't get it. Oh well. Perhaps we'll talk again in 5 years and you'll see that things WILL more or less be the same when it comes to Desktop Linux. The reason; too many socialist dreamers and conspiracy theorists in the Linux community that just don't have an understanding of business. And that's a shame too. As I said, Linux has a lot of potential on the desktop.
jorge
11/17/07		 Somehow doubt there is any white paint on the white box...
aikiwolfie
11/18/07		 But hizzoner my Dell XPS 700 isn't a white box. PC design has move beyond shades of beige. I have a lovely aluminum case with black fascia and a brushed aluminum Dell 27" Ultra Sharpe wide screen display. It's all very pretty and it manages the produce more than enough grunt to do anything I'm interested in doing with it's Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM, Sound Blaster X-fi sound card and NVIDI SLI graphics. And with the 1.5TB RAID array I have set up, I have more than enough storage space to last for a while. That's not counting the additional 200GB external IDE drive connected through USB that I use to run Ubuntu Linux from.

Yep life is good. I can have power, looks, stability and versatility. Why would you want to go and buy a white box?
premcv
11/19/07		 I don't think this will happen. Not sure, its required also.
aikiwolfie
11/19/07		 It won't happen. But since votes decay and ideas disappear off the radar into oblivion we need some way to keep pushing Dell on these issues. A lot of people originally voted for things like things like Linux and so far they've been sold short.
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