User selects which OS(Linux or Windows) to boot into on all new Dells

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User selects which OS(Linux or Windows) to boot into on all new Dells

240 points posted to Linux, Operating Systems - Multiboot, Desktops and Laptops by shannon_vanwagner 12/14/07

Imagine the headline.."With Dell you get a choice in what OS you can boot into when your computer starts up!" OR "Experience the best of all worlds Windows/Linux with your dual-boot Dell!!"

Dell could be the only company (at least initially) that sells all computers with the capability to select which OS (Linux or Windows) to use after the computer boots up. The computer can be configured to dual-boot Linux or Windows at the factory.

This would give both new users and experienced users the awesome capability to choose which Operating System they want to use every time they boot up their computer!! It's very important that common people get a choice when it comes to which OS they get to use - it's the future of computing!

Technology and Innovation is so important these days and so by offering this feature I think this would help to make Dell the market leader in innovation.

Here's how it might work:
The computer boots up and gives the user a choice with a snazzy, easy to use menu to select whether to enter Windows or to enter Linux (the Linux could eventually even be a few different distros so there would be even more choice!).

The user would then select which OS they want to use for that session, select it and then boot into it. Eventually Dell could then add the functionality for the two operating systems to share(or at least have access to) a part of the filesystem so the user's files could be accessed from whichever OS the user is currently booted into.

There would also be a simple recovery DVD and/or partition that could put the machine back to its original state if the user were to mess anything up.

Think about it, this would give users ULTIMATE POWER and more importantly A CHOICE!!! DELL CAN BREAK THE MONOPOLY AND SET THE NEW STANDARD!

Be INNOVATIVE, Think CHOICE!!

Can't wait to see it!!

DELL ROCKS!

Shannon VanWagner

phubert 12/14/07	Hear! Hear! Great thoughts, Shannon!
phubert 12/14/07	Open isn't just software... it isn't just "Linux"... it's an ATTITUDE We hear TALK about "inclusiveness" ... and we PRACTICE _exclusion_. THIS is openness and inclusiveness at their best!
shannon_vanwagner 12/14/07	Think about it, a direct cutover from Windows to GNU/Linux is perceived to be pretty hard for most people that haven't tried GNU/Linux before. If the capability to CHOOSE were available, a lot of people that normally wouldn't think of trying GNU/Linux would now have the option(and they would see it every time they startup their computer). This would ween scores of users off of Windows and result in wider GNU/Linux adoption. It's a Win-Win!
shannon_vanwagner 12/14/07	See if this is popular... http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ideastorm_USER_selects_which_OS_Linux_or_Windows_t... http://reddit.com/info/6311n/comments/ http://www.mixx.com/stories/34819/user-selects-which-os-linux-or-windows-to-b...
okroger104 12/14/07	Yep, nice idea. But... (drum roll please) System specs will have to be brought into conformity with Linux as Linux isn't compatible with all components (drivers are the prob). I don't think windows users will be happy about "dumbed" down computers for the sake of being able to run Linux.
sugarbear 12/14/07	That`s why I have different computers with different os`s on them.
shannon_vanwagner 12/14/07	okroger104 - dude, have you tried Linux within the past six months? Linux supports more hardware Natively than any other OS out there. I think it's time you try it again, checkout distrowatch.com for your copy. Thanks for commenting! cheers Shannon
winoffice 12/14/07	While Dell customers now can choose between Linux and Windows, it is not satisfactory enough because only one can be chosen. shannon_vanwagner: "The computer can be configured to dual-boot Linux or Windows at the factory." I agree with you. With this the user really has a choice because he can buy one OS knowing that he can always start the other one and not have to pay full retail.
okroger104 12/15/07	Shan, that's not what I read over at notebook review. People with Dell's latest lappies are having problems getting Ubuntu to run every component installed. From webcam to wifi. While your idea sounds good in principle, I think a better idea is for Dell to list and offer on the options pages which components are Linux compatible so the buyer can choose what they want. There really is little reason to have two OSs on a computer for dual booting. Especially for the average user. Virtualizing is far more effecient if someone needs 2 or more OSs. Your idea strikes me as more political and not practical. You know, "expose them to Linux and they'll realize there's no need for windows." Well, yeah, that I get. Until they try to play music or watch a DVD that is.
shannon_vanwagner 12/17/07	okroger104 - I'm not sure what articles you're looking at over at notebookreview.com but I did see this one that talks about PC makers rolling out Linux as a choice - http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3779 As for Linux not working with some hardware out there, it's true in the case where the hardware makers have not yet opened up their drivers to open source programs - but this is changing very rapidly. What's cool about Dell is that they actively try to make their computers work better with Linux. Ubuntu Linux has a fresh new upgrade every six months, so much can and has changed over these short cycles. For instance, when I first installed Ubuntu 7.04 feisty on my Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop with NetGear PCMCIA wireless, I had to load the ndiswrapper in order for the laptop to use the Windows driver for the wireless card. This changed in six months, when I erased my hard drive(for a clean start) and performed a fresh install of the latest Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy, the wireless card worked flawlessly directly from the live cd. As for webcams, I agree - there's more work that needs to be done to make it easier to use webcams in Linux (Although I and many others give a gigantic thanks to Dr Michel Xhaard http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/04/30/one-man-writes-linux-d... for writing so many webcam drivers for Linux). The thing is, better support is on the way for webcams and all other things Linux, and very quickly. As for virtulization, this is a viable solution but may deem too difficult for the average user. The point of my idea is to give users a choice and yes this is very political in nature - I mean afterall America is based on Freedom-of-Choice and so why shouldn't that same idea apply to operating systems as well? Imagine if Dell had always offered the dual-boot of Linux and Windows as standard and people were accustomed to it, then imagine if they tried taking that CHOICE away - I don't think many people would be happy about that. The problem is that the average person doesn't get a choice - this is what I aim to fix. Finally, to say that Linux doesn't play music or DVDs is just plain incorrect. Linux not only allows you to listen to music and view DVDs, it also allows you to edit your own music and DVDs and all for free. Walmart is selling the $200 gOS Linux computer that both plays music from the ipod and plays DVDs - straight out of the box.. I bought one of these and it works great!! - take a look at this page to see it http://healthysystem.blogspot.com/2007/11/200-gos-gnulinux-photo-review.html< never said there's "no need for Windows", lots of people like Windows, I just think that people should get to CHOOSE for themselves which Operating System they want to use. At the current time the average person doesn't get a choice. I'm not trying to bash Windows here, I'm just trying to help people get more for their money and sell more Dell computers. Thanks for commenting! I wish you good luck in getting the most out of Linux! Get your free linux live cd here: http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php Learn more about popular Linux distros here: http://distrowatch.com/
okroger104 12/18/07	What I meant by "Dell's latest lappies are having problems getting Ubuntu to run every component installed" is that they can't get certain components to run. Especially Wifi. Also, Ubuntu doesn't play Mp3s and DVD's "out of the box." Unless I'm really mistaken. But I think this issue has been discussed on here also. I know you can get players in the repository. You can even get encoders like LAME. I got LAME to use with Audacity and for ripping DRM with Tunebite. But my point is, I seriously doubt anyone cares to dual boot. It's such a hassle. Plus they have to give up even more GB on their harddrives. All that for what exactly? Choice? True choice is offering what consumers want. Not forcing OS's on them and sucking up the HD space for political reasons. As far as I'm concerned, an extra OS that doesn't do all that more than the other is just more bloat. That's why I think it's better to have the ability to configure a system with components that are Linux compatible. This way, since Linux is free, they can choose to run Linux or Windows whenever they want knowing that their system is fully compatible. What's the point of dual booting into Linux if the hardware isn't fully supported? Won't that be bad for Linux? Make it look second rate? EDIT: Nevermind about DVD playback. Dell justed added LinDVD to their Ubuntu offering.
shannon_vanwagner 12/18/07	okroger104: I'm pretty confident there is a wireless adapter out there somewhere that requires extra configuration to get it to work with Linux. However, this is not nearly as much of a problem as it used to be and it's getting better everyday, very rapidly. As for Linux hardware support, what's so great about Dell is what John Hull manager of the Linux Engineering team at Dell amplifies in his interview with lxer.com: John says, "What has not changed is our overarching philosophy and trying to make Linux "just work" on all of Dell's systems." To me this means that any current problems there are concerning Linux and Dell hardware, Dell is working towards making it better everyday. See the article here: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/91429/index.html< for Linux playing proprietary multimedia out of the box, you're right it's not installed automatically because of the nature of Linux as a "legally free" operating system. But, in the case of Ubuntu, it takes only two steps to enable proprietary multimedia support - see this article: http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2007/10/install-multimedia-codecs-in-ubuntu-710...< see, even the idea of using "proprietary" or otherwise "legally" bound software is presented as a CHOICE in Linux (Choice IS user empowerment!). Such choices are what make it possible for Linux to stay free! As for the repositories for Open Source Software, these are the "meat and potatoes" of Linux! Ubuntu offers over 23,000 FREE software packages of all types (from accounting to bible study to engineering to education and much, much more) (with more added all the time) So to compare GNU/Linux as an "extra OS that doesn't do much more than the other" is a just plain inaccurate. According to the article below, the 23,000+ packages offered with the Ubuntu Linux OS are worth over $7 Billion dollars!! Vista (the currently preinstalled OS) does not give you $7 billion dollars worth of software for free!! See this article for more information: http://www.fsckin.com/2007/10/05/giving-away-software-for-free-costs-more-tha... As for "forcing" an OS on people, isn't preloading Vista onto new computers the biggest "forcing" of (sub-standard in terms of speed to XP) software onto users yet? Choice EMPOWERS, restriction "FORCES". See the article below for more about the "forcing" of Vista onto users as a sub-standard product in comparison with XP, or just google "vista failure": http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/09/vista_has_faile.html< users could choose whether to use Vista or Linux, they at least would have the CHOICE, this is more than preloading Vista offers. A side effect of having Linux/Windows dual-boot would be that 1.)Microsoft would work much harder to make a better OS to compete with Linux, and 2.)Linux would get even better, even faster than it already is! What consumers want is to have a choice!! a choice for the best product!! There's no denying that. As for being able to actually Choose a single OS to be pre-installed on the computer I purchase from Dell, yes that is EXACTLY what I'm working towards! Why do I support Linux as choice? Because Linux is driven by the ideal of advancing humans with technology, not lining the pockets of restricting people and keeping them in the dark about the CHOICE they could really have. Like whatever OS you want, it's a free country, but promote the idea that people everywhere can make their own choice and get the best from it. Please support and promote the ideals that GNU/Linux is based upon, by doing so - you will help us all! Thanks for sharing your comments. Sincerely, Shannon VanWagner http://healthysystem.blogspot.com
jdelidc 12/18/07	crud! wrong button!
ubondell 12/19/07	There are some things that Windows is really poor at. I have two networked printers, a new HP Photosmart D6180 and an older PSC 2510. On my Ubuntu 7.10 laptop, and on my daughters MacBookPros (home and work), it was trivial to install them by using the equivalent of the Windows "Add Printer..." operation. My wife added the D6180 to her WinXPpro laptop by using the HP install disk which put a load of other crap on it that cause issues when she tries to hibernate/standby. I tried to add that printer to my work WinXPpro laptop, but wanted to avoid the install CD route because I didn't want to junk it up with stuff that would be hard to uninstall if I needed to. Short story is that I couldn't get Windows to recognize the HP in "Add Printer...". None of the choices worked, and I even know the TCP port and protocol that it uses to connect (thanks to the Ubuntu config listing). It's might be something simple, but the way that Microsoft OS treats you like an idiot just frosts me. BTW, I have found that I can use all the same applications on my work laptop as I use on my home Ubuntu laptop; like Firefox, Thunderbird, OO.o, mplayer, etc. Now if only Perl, gcc, and xterm were as easy to access on the Windows side of things.
okroger104 12/19/07	Shan, I think we're on the same page. The only thing I feel we differ on is dual boot. We both agree on choice. Dual OS's though, IMO, violates the spirit of choice. There are some redundant ideas here that ask for the choice of Linux on all Dell systems or make all Dell systems Linux compatible. I think the best of both of those worlds is to offer configurable components that are Linux compatible on all systems and label it as that. OR to opt out of components that are not Linux compatible. That's true choice everyone can live with.
jdelidc 12/28/07	my computer is tri-boot. and for january, it will be quad-boot while i switch from fedora 7 to fedora 8. i strongly prefer linux but the games i want to run (or at least run best) in windows. so i got XP and vista as options
xivulon Jan 15	See also http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/75302/MultiOS_selection_via_checkboxes Which basically allows dual-boot, but on request
jdelidc Jan 15	that's my #1 most wanted idea because it combines so many ideas that i wanted, including my #2 most wanted which is no-os
okroger104 Jan 15	Xivulon. Thanks for pointing that out. That's the way you do it! That's what choice is really about. No politics and no nonsense.
shannon_vanwagner Jan 24	Here's a similar idea: http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/73237/Dual_Boot_Have_the_Choice_of_Ubun...
zanlok Jan 27	Also, with a virtualization hypervisor (in Linux, not MS!), it doesn't need to be conventional dual boot. Just have it not use virtual drives, but real disk resources so that all of your data (files: docs, etc) are readily available in either OS.
jorge Jan 30	What the heck, drives are big enough these days. Just provide to delete the OS you don't end up using, running the delete of the MS OS should bring up a refund screen as well.
zanlok Jan 30	Interesting. but the refund would go to Dell? And it might only be for $50 because of whatever backroom bulk deal MS has with them. Better to buy a system that is discounted from the get go. Personally, I hate rebate programs.
jorge Jan 30	Well what about refund?
zanlok Jan 30	I was trying to imply this sounded more like a rebate program. MS might be allege people could have copied their OS before deleting it. If Windows isn't your thing, then order an Ubuntu system.. I know there are issues with how selectively that is being offered, though. Hopefully someday you can just order any system with any OS you like. Dodging the royalty to Microsoft right when you buy the computer seems like the nicest thing to me.
jorge Jan 30	? The idea is based on something totally different man. A re-read is in order.
zanlok Jan 30	Okay, true. But you bringing up a refund is a different idea, too. You can reread the initial idea. The idea is to be able to have both installed, but choose which one to use in a particular session. It wasn't about choosing which one and uninstalling the other.
jorge Jan 30	I'm adding to it, as in brainstorming his idea, as in helping out, as in feedback, as in go team.
okroger104 Jan 30	Huge freaking step backwards Jorge. Loading up harddrives with stuff people didn't ask for. No better than bloatware. Just give people the choice when they place an order to choose what OS(s) or none at all. Saves time and money. (No need for refund hassles.)
jorge Jan 30	Options man all options, just like having No-OS!
zanlok Jan 30	Yes, options we all want. I was more commenting on approach. And I do most certainly appreciate the dialogue :)
okroger104 Jan 30	Yeah, options as in optional... Not http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/62715/Preinstalled_Software_Must_Be_Opt...

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