Dell Thin Clients
Servers and Storage submitted by beijaflor
02/19/07
Dell is able to make full PCs for $359.
Imagine what would be the prize of "terminals" for thin client computing ...
- a low-consuming processor at 500-700 Mhz
- no fan design
- on-board 128 Mb flash
- on board 512 Meg RAM
- VESA mountable
- solid state architecture
- PXE bootable
- Remote OS and application :
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9097
Or even Windows Terminal Server for small deployment if people have the money to pay it.
Thin computing answers to 75% of needs related to computers in school, librairies, hospitals and more ...
Dell could even sell the servers coming with the "thin-clients solutions" ...
I also see the Screen+Keyboard+Mouse option
And think about the network ...
With modern thin-computing solutions, the deployments are made on a larger scale (thousands of terminals across fiber networks) and with thin-clients provided by a large company like Dell, the savings could be on the hardware AND on the software ...
1837
Thin client
Servers and Storage, Software submitted by gordona
04/24/07
The time for a thin client offering for home users has arrived. DELL could lead the revolution.
The average home user is completly overwhelmed by the impossible task of maintaining a safe responsive software environment and refuses to become a systems adminstrator. Many just give up and don't use their machines much. DELL should develop and offer a subscription model whereby the hardware (thin client) could be "refreshed" over a broadband connection, at the push of a button on the client machine, or whenever the server "senses" that something has drifted off-spec. All client data and applications would reside on the server with any time-sensitive application being downloaded to run locally.
The big rule to be followed is that the entire software/data environment can be recreated easily. The end user wouldn't worry about viruses, disk crashes, device drivers, software install procedures or operating system screw ups. Once the word got out, people would wonder why anyone had eve used the "fat client" approach that we're all stuck with today.
It's time for DELL to make a bold move (you did it once before).
140
Laptop & Desktop Boot in seconds from Flash Drives
Broadband and Mobility, Desktops and Laptops submitted by reg
02/19/07
Have laptops and PCs that boot quickly & quietly from fast internal flash drives,
and run the whole OS and application programs in RAM.
The New Dell PC will boot from internal Fast USB 2.0 flash drives in just a few seconds.
The Hard drive can stay powered down, completely off, unless the user needs to store some extra large files (video, photos).
Laptop Battery life is measured in days, not hours.
Have 2 Recessed USB 2.0 Slots.
Two USB Flash Drives would fit neatly into the laptop.
In this way the whole OS and Apps run in RAM, and stores data files on an 8 GB flash drive.
The 8GB is used transparently as the 'On Line' Storage, with a hard drive acting as secondary storage.
This gives desktops and laptops much greater speed and power savings.
<font> On-Line/Near-Line Storage Model for Laptops</font>
1. OS and App all run from RAM (so the machine should have 2GB+ of RAM)
2. Modified files are worked on in RAM, and stored on the Flash Drive
3. Older (non-system) files, that are 'inactive', get pushed down to the hard drive,
Hard Drive files are stored with on-the-fly hardware compression / decompression (back to RAM), with the flash drive file replaced with a pointer to the hard drive file.
Data is always safely copied down to the hard drive on shut down.
The flash drive is removeable and upgradeable, so later if someone wants to upgrade to a 32GB flash drive, just unplug and plug in the new one.
On-line / Near-Line storage works great on very large data servers, where data is mostly write once, read infrequently.
(Also known as Write Once, Read Mostly - WORM drives.)
It's time such ideas are put into practice for desktops and laptops.
You can run your Dell Laptop TODAY from 100% Flash Drive - Pen Drive using Puppy Linux.
www.puppylinux.org delivers a complete, small, fast Linux Distribution including all major tools in under 90MB. You can add Open Office, GIMP, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc and they all fit right in a USB Flash Drive.
Pupply Linux Applications.
Download Puppy Linux so you Can Try Flash Drive Dell Notebooks Today.
3498
Ubuntu & Win XP Dual boot; Open office and Firefox /Thunderbird
Linux, Operating Systems - Multiboot, Desktops and Laptops submitted by bsteff
02/20/07
Sell desktops (and yes laptops) with dual boot of Ubuntu AND Win XP. My particular work environment cannot tolerate Vista and I don't like the control Microsoft is attempting to exert over my PC. Consumers are NOT mindless idiots!!! GEt rid of DRM. I will gladly pay for digital content and I will not sell/give it to a friend or acquaintance (read pirate/thief). GWA is bad enough with threats from Microsoft to crank up the pressure on non-genuine PC's. I am a physician and I control, to a large extent, at my hospital system what type of software we get in the form of PACS (computerized x-ray digital image viewing on local PC's - thin client) Almost all of imaging is now digital.
The threat of Microsoft DRM degrading images used for the critical diagnosis of patients is intolerable such that we are exerting considerable pressure on vendors to provide clients that run under open source. Why open source? Simplyu because it puts us back in control. If images are degraded and critical diagnoses missed, we docs and our patients are going to pay the price. Ubuntu, and other GUI's of LInux (such as Xandros) can let us avoid this. I run Ubuntu routinely and find it dependable and easy to use. I can trust it. Microsoft has lost my last shred of trust with Vista and its DRM and driver situation.
On another front, we in medicine are under tremendous pressure to cut costs. For a faculty of over 400 at my medical school and staff of about 1500, the cost of MS Office is tremendous. Open Office Org. software is a great help in this regared and even has features that MS Office does not offer. MS has lost our trust. We will probably all use Open Office Org in the future - so why not offer it as loaded at purchase time. I would be willing to pay a nominal fee, say $30-50 for the loading up of the software on my PC so htat i can use it immediately when I receive it.
Dell should know that the loading of all the JUNK software that comes on my PC's from Dell is a Large factor in my reluctance to order new PC's at shorter intervals, no matter what the technical hardware advances.
Brad A. Steffler, MD
Medical School Professor
1346
Diskless Dell system - Linux based
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Linux submitted by totosplatz
02/22/07
I suggest a system consisting of a base unit with disk and sattelites which are diskless, with each diskless unit able to locate master units on the LAN and boot diskless from one. The only "install" needed for the diskless sattelites would be to choose a master if more than one was available on the LAN. The master would have to be told what sattelites to accept.
This system would be superb for ofices because the harried sys-admin would administer the master and the sattelites would need little additional administration. It would be good for the home because the kid's units could be added cheaply and would be especially rugged, having no disk to wear out or get damaged. The sattelites could be much smaller than the usual "desktop" and yet be much easier to manufacture than other small machines like laptops. The sattelites would have a multi-card reader, USB, 1G-BaseT, DVI-out and a wireless antenna connector. Any DVD-R/W would be provided by a USB drive unit. The power supply could be external to the unit.
Users of sattelite units would have home space on the master machine and also would be able to use SD-cards and USB disks if desired.
Base this on Linux - include OpenOffice and the Mozilla browser and email client, The Gimp, and other open source software packages.
Networks are speedy enough these days for this to be an excellent solution.
Thanks.
180
Put the computer in a different room from the monitor/keyboard.
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by jmxz
04/25/07
If there are any cables that'll carry video across a house (and no doubt there are - cable TV is a proof by existence) I'd rather just ran that cable from the garage where I'd have an (ideally rack mountable) computer & dsl modem, etc.
It'd be even better if it didn't need a cable - I'm not sure if any of the powerline networking solutions would do it - the HomePlug alliance has decent industry support (Intel, LG, GE, Linksys, Sharp, etc) - and HomePlug AV talks about sending video through powerlines. http://www.homeplug.org/home< advantages would be:
* I stop caring how loud the fans & disk drives & graphics card are.
* I stop caring how the machine heats up the room.
* I don't need massive power strips for all the plugs.
* I get the space back in this room.
Note that this is different from a thin client - because thin clients are subject to the poor video performance of whatever card they put in the thin client. I still want the massive loud video card - just move it to the garage and stream the video to the monitor on my desk.
210
Provide Linux Drivers for all your Hardware
Linux submitted by gergnz
02/19/07 **IN PROGRESS**
I don't care whether the OS is pre-installed or not, I want all the hardware to be totally supported in the Linux kernel without in mucking around. I currently have a Dell M1210 and I wish the modem would work, just in case I need it. The web cam would work, just in case I need it. At least the Intel wireless card is totally supported. Thanks Intel!!
Drivers are available for Linux to make some but not all hardware work. We continue to work with our partners to provide for better hardware support. See more specifics from john_h.
84357
Silent / Quiet Computers: Sound levels in decibels
Desktops and Laptops submitted by pchris
02/17/07 **REVIEWED**
I'd like Dell to provide the sound level in decibels for each of their desktops, under max load as well as at idle.
How a manufacturer can produce an expensive computer, and then have the user acoustic experience of that computer dominated by the noise generated by a cheap fan worth just pennies, for the entire lifetime of that computer, is incomprehensible. Computers are noisy when brand new, but those cheap fans begin to rub and oscillate and make additional annoying noises, frequently within a short period of time of purchase.
Personally, the peace and quiet of my personal workspace is very important to me, it's my sanctuary from the world where I can focus and be creative. To have that experience disrupted by cheap fans is sad, especially when slightly more expensive fans and some reasonable design would solve the issue. Another reason why I consider buying an Apple.
If the cost of a better sound design and fans is significant, it could be an extra cost option.
In general, Dell provides noise data of its products in the Environmental Datasheets. Tests are conducted according to ISO standards in a NVLAP accredited acoustics facility. Click here for more details
35967
Better keyboards please!
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Desktops and Laptops submitted by maco
02/19/07
All of my school's computers are Dells. They all have those infernal Dell keyboards that feel kind of squishy. In the past, I've described this as "they press funny" or "they press wrong." Anyone who has typed on a keyboard from the 1980s or early 90s knows how a keyboard should feel. When you press, you should feel and hear it click. As far as I'm aware, HP keyboards still feel like that. That tactile feedback, the feel of it clicking into place, lets you know your keystroke has registered and you can keep moving. There's a rhythm to your typing. You click and move on. Dell (and other squishy) keyboards result in thinking you pressed it because you made the motion to press it, only to discover your keystroke never registered (resulting in lots of typographical errors). To combat this, the typist might press harder, only for the key to register 2 or 3 times (not to mention the extra effort involved). I have an electric typewriter. That's how keyboards should feel. Typing is a breeze when you don't have to check that your keystrokes registered. You know they did because you felt it, and you heard it. Dell's "QuietKey" keyboards are the worst at this.
Now, I realize you can replace your keyboard after purchase, but practically every keyboard on the shelf is just as bad (except the HP ones that you can only get bundled with HP computers). If possible, I'd hunt down a Model M, but I can't carry that around to avoid the annoyance of using a desktop in school or the library or at work or anything like that. I'm at the point where I'd rather use the keyboard on my laptop than a Dell keyboard (and I resisted getting a laptop partly because laptop keyboards are terrible as compared to desktop keyboards).
I don't really want to touch laptop keyboards. That's a whole other annoyance. My advice it to just try typing on a Lenovo Thinkpad. Then type on any other laptop (Dell, Gateway, HP, I don't care what). You'll immediately feel the difference. Lenovo has superior laptop keyboards.
896
EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD DOCKING STATION FOR LAPTOPS
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Gaming, Laptops submitted by gsus
02/23/07
Essentially, the biggest problem with laptop gaming is the lack of power and ability to upgrade. Most of the laptops these days cannot keep up with the high powered laptops and SLi or Crossfire setups. A proposal should be to use the existing docking port located on most XPS systems and allow it to use an external graphics card. I have seen the option of using an external graphic card docking station in the BIOS in my M1710, and this would allow for greater flexibility and shelf life of your systems. In addition companies such as ASUS have announced plans for the XG Station, a PCI-E connector that would house a external video card, say a 8800GTS.
In particular with the launch of the 8800 series Nvidia cards, many laptops users are going to be left out with respect to gaming. Dell could help to expand the longevitiy of their product lines by allowing gamers to upgrade the one thing that matters most, graphic processing power. These external docking stations could allow users to swap, upgrade or change video cards as they see fit.
In conlcusion, considering the XPS line of styling, it wold not be a problem to fashion and mold a aesthetic docking station.
220
No OS Preloaded
Linux, Operating Systems, Sales Strategies submitted by agreer
02/17/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**
I have a XP Pro retail copy, will soon buy retail vista, I also like Linux: Make WINDOWS-FREE, and OS-Free an option for more than just expensive business lines.
Dell has systems available that do not have an OS pre-loaded called N-Series line. You can check them out at www.dell.com/nseries.
86070
National Call Centers [and other Service Improvement Ideas]
Service and Support submitted by henrieb
02/17/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
As a corporate customer I like Dell's products and my USA customer support. I have read the web about all the people that have had problems with Dell customer service and mine and others are not isolated incidences. If you want people to be loyal take a hint from the corporate sales and give Home users even a little customer support. My corporate help does not read scripts, they have the power to take ownership and fix the problem. Granted I do buy Gold support. If Dell thinks it saves money for bad support; I have personally talked 20 or 30 people out of buying a Dell.
* Addition: After reading several of the comments on this topic it appears that what we really want is someone in customer support that will listen to us, and hopefully help us. Culture and language barriers just make this harder. Maybe a better way to track customer performance would be to find out if they really helped someone and not how fast they can end the call. Dell management needs to start taking ownership of this problem. Maybe Dell management needs to start calling Dell support with fake problems and see it the system they created can help them, it sure does not work for us.
27681
Have Firefox pre-installed as default browser
Software submitted by robinjfisher
02/19/07 **REVIEWED**
Does what it says on the tin! Most people only use IE because they aren't aware of other browsers - they think Internet Explorer is the Internet! What would really drive take up of alternative browsers is if Firefox was pre-installed as the default browser so that when people look for the "Internet" in Windows, they are using FF.
Firefox advocates at Dell have initiated discussions and driven action around exploring alternative internet browsers and experiences. As you can tell from our response to the Linux community, open source continues to be a part of our conversations about new products and services.
118063
No Extra Software Option
Software submitted by ootleman
02/16/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**
Would love the ability to have a clean Vista install. No AOL software, no earthlink software, no google software - just a clean, original OS.
Check out jeremy_f's update on our current software options.
120774
Stripped down, fast Linux Box
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Desktops, Linux submitted by pawprintz
02/17/07 **REVIEWED**
How about a fast, Internet ready Linux desktop. Small form factor, pretty monitor, mouse & keyboard, the O.S., OpenOffice & Firefox. Cheap'n'fast
Dell sees the value of this idea, and is keeping the sugestions for a Linux small form factor on the radar. john_h will let the community know of any new information as it comes.
67940
Pre-Installed OpenOffice | alternative to MS Works & MS Office
Software, Desktops and Laptops submitted by dhart
02/17/07
Provide OpenOffice.org for free pre-installation alongside Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org is more capable than Microsoft Works, and a serious competitor to Microsoft Office, at a fraction of the cost (it's free!)
OpenOffice.org can open, create, edit and save Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
Provide as OPTIONS for pre-installation many other high-quality free software programs such as:
- Firefox: web browser with popup and privacy controls; say goodbye to Internet Explorer infections!
- Thunderbird: email program with free anti-spam and privacy controls
- Pidgin: instant messaging all-in-one program for popup-free MSN, Yahoo, AOL and others
&nsbp;[ed: GAIM was renamed Pidgin in April 2007 to settle the issue with AOL's trademark on AIM]
- PDFCreator: creates Adobe PDF files from any program
- Scribus, Inkscape & GIMP: desktop publishing, freehand drawing & powerful image editing
- Audacity & VLC: multi-track audio editing & universal all-in-one media/video/movie/DVD player
- Stellarium & Celestia: planetarium viewer & outer-space mapping, like Google Earth, but for our Solar System
Pre-installed quality free and open source software drastically lowers the cost of new PCs, and helps prevent software piracy. Cast your vote for Linux and other free software. Cast your vote for the Universal Education PC [ed: article removed/merged by dell_admin] utilizing free software.
CHOICE is what consumers want on their new PCs, not annoying surprise circus-ware (the typical smattering of confusing 3rd party popup-infested software found on most new Dell PCs). Quality free and open source software is well behaved, and may be legally pre-installed on PCs, and legally shared with friends and family, sharing is encouraged! Cast your vote for consumer CHOICE and public transparency at Dell.
140569
Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot
Linux, Operating Systems - Multiboot, Sales Strategies, Desktops and Laptops submitted by dhart
02/16/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**
Offer the 3 top free Linux versions for free pre-installation on all Dell PCs.
Quality free and open source software drastically lowers the cost of new PCs, and helps prevent software piracy. For example OpenOffice.org, the Microsoft Office alternative, can shave hundreds of dollars off the price of a new PC. Cast your vote for OpenOffice and other free software.
Offer easy multi-boot options with Windows Vista, Windows XP, or NO Windows (yes, Linux can entirely replace Windows!)
Offer trade-ins and Linux CDs for older model Dell PCs. Cast your vote for the mini Linux Dell PC and the Universal Education Dell PC, both utilizing free software.
Would you try Linux if it were this easy?
CHOICE is what consumers want on their new PCs, not annoying surprise circus-ware (the typical smattering of confusing 3rd party popup-infested software found on most new Dell PCs). Quality free and open source software is well behaved, and may be legally pre-installed on PCs, and legally shared with friends and family, sharing is encouraged! Cast your vote for consumer CHOICE and public transparency at Dell.
Please take a look at www.dell.com/open for linux options on the Inspiron.
152540
 track my votes
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