Why Can't Dell Put Linux On Their Really Serious Notebooks?

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3260

Why Can't Dell Put Linux On Their Really Serious Notebooks?

3260 points posted to Linux, Service and Support, Laptops by kenjennings 08/09/07

These guys can do it...

http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/dell/rhino/

Dell Latitude D830 or Precision M90

# up to 17" WUXGA w/ X @ 1920x1200
# Full Linux support: 1667 - 2333 MHz Core 2 Duo
# Full Linux support: 512 - 4 G RAM, expands to 4 G
# Full Linux support: 60 - 160 GB Hard Drive
# Full Linux support: DVDROM Drive, or CDRW/DVD Drive, or DVD+/-RW Drive
# Specification: 6.3 - 8.6 pounds
# Full Linux support: 10/100/1000 Mbps ethernet
# Full Linux support: 802.11a/b/g (54Mbps) WiFi
# Specification: Linux Pre-Configured (dual boot available)
# Specification: EmperorLinux user's manual
# Specification: Three year warranty & One year tech support

They've got everything working on Linux. Maybe Dell should partner with these guys to get a better selection of Linux-able Dell notebooks.

ubondell 08/09/07	So can this http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/biographies/en/msd_comput...< don't try to find it on the link under the description of that M90. Mr Dell does seem to have a sweet set of FOSS apps on it. Also, how about the I6400 being available in the UK with Ubuntu, but not in the US. It must be a language problem.
jorge 08/09/07	Plenty of people have Linux/Unix installed on Dell hardware not sold as such, its doable some tinkering required but its doable, been so for years. Dell is just sitting on their Microsoft kick backs and won't do it entirely for that fact alone.
cunckles 08/16/07	Its worth realizing that Linux lovers are computer geeks. So they are the ones who love the thrill of a powerful pc.
kenjennings 08/16/07	I like big powerful stuff for 3D design, but a lot of Linux fans pride themselves on getting Linux running on extremely low-end platforms that could never run Windows.
bulletgani 08/21/07	merge candidate http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/72525/Ubuntu_on_all_models_where_it_works
jorge 08/21/07	They're not the same, somebody isn't reading or can't read.
bulletgani 08/21/07	can't read ...... hmmmm. united we stand divided we fall. Too many similar threads will amount to nothing because older threads get forgotten and will not receive much attention.
coopersecurity 08/22/07	maybe because linux is not a serious OS. Unlike Windows.
jorge 08/22/07	Yea, thats why all the game go to Windows, its so serious.
jorge 08/22/07	They have games, just boring ones.
bk 08/22/07	Well, this tread is much more specific than the one which you call this to merge with. It's already quite big and lots of general discussion is there and here would be the chance to discuss "serious" notebooks. What that "serious" means is of course the question, but from the example notebooks given, I guess it means "generally powerful" for this idea. I think that the D830 would actually be a quite good choice to support Linux on it, because it can be shipped with the new fast Intel GPU which has T&L in hardware and also has shaders in hardware, the Intel 965 or GMA X3100. It's a quite big step forward in 3D performance for Intel and contrary to popular believe due to using shared memory, it can still run modern FPS shooters. They do not run in high detail settings but they run at low/med settings, do not look terrible and are playable on moderate resolutions. Considering that those who want to play the latest first person shooters may have to run these games in Windows anyway because wine/cedega support for these may be lacking, it should be quite ok if only the GMA X3100 which is supported by Intel by open source source drivers which are part of every standard Linux distribution (unlike the proprietary NVIDIA/ATI drivers which can be a pain and be illegal to distribute) is supported with Ubuntu. (Ubuntu and all other Linux distributions which I know do not include these proprietary drivers in their core distribution because of these issues). Why I'd like to see the D830 with Linux: I can get it with with up to: * Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz/4MB/800MHz) with Intel GMA X3100 - This is currently the fastest Notebook processor from Intel with the fastest 3D card which is fully suppored with free software drivers Some details: FSB speed of virtual 800MHz (in reality it's 200MHz, but it's always multiplied by 4 because four transfers happen in parallel) Based on Intel's latest-generaltion Santa Rosa technology. CPU details: 4MB second level cache, two CPU cores, Intel 64 support, VT virtualisation support. I've used this CPU in a Thinkpad T61 and it was fast like hell! * LCD 15.4" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) UltraSharp Wide Aspect Ratio TFT display - WUXGA (1920x1200) is currently the highest display resolution which I can find for notebooks and people like me have stated in other threads that they need 1200 pixel vertically for their work. I'm in photos and want to have the fines, sharpest display which I can get. 160GB serial ATA HDD 7200RPM - Big, fast hard disk. Yep, that's what I'd call a serious notebook. For fun, it would be nice if it had acceleration sensors like the Lenovo T61 so that one could play games like Tuxracer and neverball just by shaking the notebook...
ubondell 08/23/07	Great comment, bk. @Dell_marketing - Put out a D830N like bk described and you will see a lot of these snapped up. Having exactly ONE notebook that you can figure out how to put Ubuntu on is an embarassment. People like bk seem to know how to configure a PC for Linux, why can't anyone at Dell? So many of these ideas are virtually the same: More choices for Ubuntu PCs, notebooks especially.
tekhawk 08/23/07	; ; i want mr dells m90 on the dell.com/open lol
bk 08/23/07	After having read many search hits with suspend issues on the D630 and D830 notebooks, I'll have to head for another vendor for my next Santa Rosa notebook, unfortunately.
pell 08/29/07	Hmmm.... How about number of Dell Precision M90 ISV sertificates? Can Dell save these sertificates under Linux? Have thay to rename Precision M90 to not lose them? How much does it cost? How much does it cost for customer? Would customer pay such an overprice?
winoffice 08/29/07	Dell does NOT have everything running on Linux. Their Web servers must be running Windows, or else they could not have Web pages with an extension of .aspx (and most if not all web pages on their Web servers do have this extension...)
aikiwolfie 09/10/07	That might be why Dell forums are so slow. Maybe they should move to Apache. Apparently they use something called Mongrel 1.0.1.
arenaninja 09/13/07	I'll support this idea not as "Put Linux into everything" but "Provide Better Linux Support for Hardware"
kenjennings 10/17/07	I received my new M90 recently and openSuse 10.2 installed on it like it was made for the M90 -- out of the box, nearly perfect. The ease of getting openSuse running on th eM90 is documented here: http://www.kenjennings.cc/m90/M90_openSuse_10_2.html I've hardly had to look at the command line to get this working. The modem was the only thing that required some real intervention.
jmxz 04/29/08	Uh - Dell does put Linux on their really serious laptops, like their Precision M6300n" (8GB ram, Core 2 Duo T7500, 200G hard drive, etc, nnvidia Quadro FX 1600M 512MB ). They just make their high-end Linux laptops hard to find for some strange reason.
tekhawk 05/02/08	better question then is why dont they just offer those with ubuntu on them throw them in the ubuntu section and make LOT of people happier....they know they run linux already and it would make it look like they are taking the ubuntu project more seriously having a products page that size.......
tekhawk 05/02/08	http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10088371/Offer_the_RH_line_with_Ubuntu_... support that idea to help expand the ubuntu line with the Redhat Precision systems
kenjennings 05/04/08	@jmxz -- At the time this idea was posted it didn't exist or was too impossible to find. Nobody then posted that it already existed. I'll grant Dell that it's now Implemented.
jmxz 05/04/08	@kenjennings: Though until they make it reasonably possible to find (and that probably means putting it on at least one XPS and Latitude model too), I'd only say it's "partially" implemented.
winoffice 05/04/08	@kenjennings -- "Why Can't Dell Put Linux On Their Really Serious Notebooks?" Because it says "put" instead of "offer", I demoted.

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