OSX like Lunix bsaed OS
Operating Systems submitted by kingnewby
Jun 2
Windows Vista has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to Apple. The Apple OS is sleek and actually quite robust for what it is, and what is it but a BSD shell with a GUI and a few copyrighted mods. Apple is first and formost a hardware company. As a whole the population in general hates Microsoft, so why not take the Apple IS and use it as non- microsoft alternative. There is a whole underground community doing it already, so why not get together with Apple and work it out. It works great, and If I can hack it and make it work on my laptop that now quad boots with XP, Vista, OSX, and redhat, a couple of multi billion dollar companies should be more than capable.
-190
Dell should buy AMD.
Dell submitted by drewness
Jun 7
Dell Should buy AMD and offer AMD chips on most systems. Limit Intel offerings or eliminate them entirely. I just read today that the FTC opened a formal investigation into Intel sales tactics. We know how it works- Microsoft and Intel threaten the PC makers with loss of discounts if they don't play by Microsoft & Intel rules. Very uncool bullying tactics!
-250
Hidden USB
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by luscombe
10/07/07
I use some programs that requiere a usb key, as well as my wireless mouse.
Thats means there is something sticking out of my usb port at all times, getting bend and messing up the port.
I'll like to see a space under the laptop with a little cover, that once removed provides acces to at least 2 usb ports.
That way I could live my usb key and mouse fob on it at all times without them getting busted.
360
Standardize Power Cables for Laptops
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by badblood
08/27/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
Nothing is more annoying than laptop power cables that are not interchangeable from one computer model to another or from one brand of computer to another. Power cables have been standardized on most electrical applicances, including desktop computers for decades.
Make an effort to promote and implement standard power cables for laptops.
Please see dawn_l's comments below.
24760
Quality Checks by Humans
Service and Support, Desktops and Laptops submitted by lambchops468
08/31/07
I ordered a Inspiron 1520 and I am fed up with the issues:
crashed hard drive (first 6 days) (I will forgive this one, happens on every manufacturer, its just luck)
vibrating optical drive (shakes entire notebook, abnormal, new one fixed it)
Grainy Screen
Headphone Noise
Casing Defect (bulge in case seam, can see inside notebook)
I think that dell should instute a quality check system on the computers they ship out. Not just tests that can be run on the computer automatically, but a actual person physically inspecting/testing the function of the notebook such as:
- Grainy Screen/backlight bleed (go get a HP laptop and see the difference, go to the store)
- Headphone Noise
- Casing Defects
- Optical Drives that make too much noise
- squeaky keys
- and other issues that cannot be detected by a hardware check running on a CPU
If you do not have the finances to create such a program, then you can add the service as part of the warranty, with a garuntee that the devices that are checked will not have problems on arrival. (So therefore the QC is optional)
This will actually make/save money because people like me won't have to send their laptops back and forth wasting your shipping money/technician fee replacing parts that would be replaced anyway at the quailty check program.
you could also send a special survey to early-adopters to identify the biggest problems in a new computer line and check those at quailty check, certifying those parts free of defects.
990
BIOS for enthusiasts
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Advertising and Marketing, Desktops and Laptops submitted by cmdematos
09/01/07
Enthusiasts read and vote here!
Dell – you have great products and I am committed! In my house I have 3xE520’s, 1xPrecision 390 and 1xXPS400 soon to upgraded to a XPS410.
I am a highly technical enthusiast, and can tell you that 90% of the beef against buying a name brand computer generally and a Dell specifically is the following:
1. Power supplies – Your power supplies are ample for your configurations but enthusiasts worry that they will not be able to upgrade their systems for lack of power (for example, fancy graphics cards that draw a lot of power). Continue as you are, but offer after market power suppliers and enthusiasts can purchase.
2. BIOS – there is no effort to retroactively upgrade a BIOS to be able to support/recognize a new CPU if there are plans to launch a later machine.
3. BIOS – for home machines (Dimension/Inspiron) and enthusiast machines (XPS/Precision) the owner should be able to download and flash an enthusiasts BIOS that will allow some tuning of FSB speeds and voltages. You don’t have to be an overclockers dream, but you need to be within the mainstream of the DIY crowd. Tell your BIOS writers to replace or update their BIOS software with more current Phoenix/Award Bios capabilities.
4. Chipset capabilities – if a chipset has a capability (such as the Intel 965 addressing 8Gb of RAM) there is NO REASON to limit your motherboard to a lesser capability (E520/XPS410 – 4Gb). This smells of entrapment and forcing buyers to purchase another more expensive machine to get some capability they should have gotten in the first place.
These features do not need to be offered to your business machines (with the exception of your Precision lines which are used by many contractor/consultants such as me). This comment holds true for your home and home office laptops as well!
- Marketting Suggestions -
Add a section to your Inspiron/XPS/Precision pages that offer enthusiast options such as the above –
1. More Powerful Power supplies
2. BIOS upgrades for newer CPUs, long after the machine is no longer sold (XPS 410, Dimension E520’s/E521’s)
3. BIOS upgrades to unlock enthusiast features
Finally, if your employees again suggest limiting some capability for no good reason, give them 20 lashes in public.
Adoringly,
A loyal fan who wants to see Dell regain #1
180
Stop Overcharging on Notebook RAM
Sales Strategies, Laptops submitted by realskript
08/28/07 **UNDER REVIEW**
Dell really... REALLY need to stop overcharging... and when i say overcharing... i mean atleast double what you would pay to pick up the ram yourself.
On XPS Notebooks... you are charging $500 for 4GB of ram... when you could easily go pick them up at your local computer shop for $250... and pocket the other half of the $500...
It would be nice if dell could save the customers as well as the company itself this hassle.. and start charging NORMAL prices for an upgrade in RAM.
thanks =D
PS..... PROMOTE THIS!!!!
17420
Make memory upgrades EASIER, not more difficult
Sales Strategies, Simplify IT, Laptops submitted by nicopoon
08/19/07
I've always been able to upgrade memory myself on notebooks and laptops, but am concerned to see that Dell has made it so much harder to upgrade memory on new notebooks. You apparently now have to take the notebook apart by removing the keyboard to access memory slots. Why make it so hard for your customers, Mr Dell? All I can see is a lot of unneeded support calls and parts failures as a result of this change.
Besides, I am stunned to see memory prices on the online configurators. 4GB of notebook memory for $400+, while anyone can get the same quality memory under $150 in retail?
Please: either make memory price competitive, and I'll buy the 4GB upfront, or make it easy to upgrade it... before users break their notebook in the process.
1160
Some suggestions:
Operating Systems, Desktops and Laptops submitted by davidsco27
08/15/07
I am the owner of a small On-Site Computer support business in Eastern Massachusetts currently serving over 500 clients. I frequently am called upon for PC purchasing advise and assistance and have personally put a large number of my clients into new Dells. I am VERY unhappy with a number of changes Dell has made recently.
1. The idea of calling both the Desktops AND the laptops Inspiron is an stupid one. It makes ZERO sense and will only serve to cause confusion, both for customers and for service personnel
2. Whomever came up with the name, "Vostro" should be shown the door immediately. A worse name for a product is hard to recall
3. Your recent decision to make Windows XP less available to Home customers is another poor one. It is currently only available on the expensive XPS line of Desktops or an AMD based laptop. Repeatedly, we have seen evidence of customers and other manufacturers rejecting Vista. It's time we recogonize a FACT. Vista is NOT an upgrade from XP, it is NOT the "latest and greatest" it is, in fact, the WORST bomb since ME. Customers want XP. My customers want XP, ANY intelligent customer wants XP. Until something actually BETTER comes down the pike, people will want XP
210
Goodby and good riddance
Service and Support submitted by blueridge
08/15/07
That's it for me. Got a call from DELL corporate office from "Adrian" (who mumbled) and was informed that (yet again) no computer, process to replace mine hadn't started and would be another 10-15 days that I could pretend to get a computer. She didn't seem to even know what my problem was and kept interrupting me while we spoke. I tried calling support a few hours later (giving Adrian time to 'look into it') and was rewarded with yet another trip to India --where 'Sandra' asked me to let her know if I had trouble understanding her. I didn't. I understood perfectly that I had no computer and was unlikely to get one anytime soon. But she was nice about it.) Finally got her supervisor who informed me there was a parts shortage which would delay my machine even more. She also told me that there was never any chance of a replacement being overnighted to me.
I insisted on and got a refund. Which will take 16 business days. Funny it didn't take DELL 16 seconds to take my money. Oh well, 16 more days (a bit over a month total) and then I'm going to PC Mall, or Acer or Walmart. Anyplace but DELL. Assuming this isn't just another runaround. And I'm going to make sure none of my students or even strangers I meet on the street ever buy from DELL. People are already unhappy about the big tax break DELL got to build a factory in NC. I'm going to make sure there's another, loud, voice added to that chorus.
A suggestion to DELL, quit pretending to offer customer service. You could pass the savings along to customers and save a lot of ill will.
NEVER AGAIN!!!
40
Upgrading Dell Desktops
Desktops submitted by don2
08/15/07
I would like to point out that Dell doesn't have a decent trade-in program. I purchased this Desktop system less than 2 years ago, but I wanted to upgrade to a better system. Since Dell does not provide rebate for the old system when buying a new one, I may have to go to another computer company. I/We, my wife and I are paying on this computer and it is not fair that we can not upgrade without a decent rebate for a new one. Technology does not stop. It keeps getting faster and expensive. I am attending college and I need as much help with finances as anyone else.
90
Dell Intervention into MS Office 2007/Explorer Ease of Use
Software submitted by gaustralia
08/15/07
Dell has the market muscle to lean on Microsoft to make the software more user friendly - also Dell's own software. It could be a differentiator for Dell.
Overall Office 2007 with a jazzed up computer on XP - 2 months old still has me waiting. The following could help.
1) When I click on an internet shortcut I don't want to see a page I was viewing earlier come up infront of a page I now want to see. I have to close that page. Why the extra effort?
2) When I would close an internet page it used to give me a question if I want to close all tabs. Extra effort. I changed the defults to make this go away.
3) When I want to now open a MS Office document that I already have opened on my screen why do I have some error message saying that if I continue all changes to the open document will be lost? Just bring up the page I want to see. If it is open already then bring it to the front without fuss.
4) When I get a web address wrong in the http: bar. Why must I suffer a Dell Page trying to sell me irrelevant items? What this does is put the http address for that irrelevant page up at the top, and while before I may change a letter or two of what perhaps I misstyped I must then go back into Google and then retype the whole thing. In this point Dell has intervened too far. Go away Dell on this one.
5) Silly Dell pop ups. One asks me to check all the components on my computer. I try to do this and it says it can't. Probably some kind of firewall blockage. If it will not work go away.
Summary, I still remember the good old days with an Apple computer and the ease of interface. Dell - lean on Microsoft to make its operation easier. Also, audit your own software for ease of use - not causing extra unnecessary steps for clients.
gAustralia
-230
Make an Official Price Cut Promise to stop people feeling ripped off
Dell, Sales Strategies, Service and Support submitted by pepitoe
08/16/07
At present when you place an order with Dell, it is a lottery whether the price you get now will still be a good price when you actually receive the order, especially with the current long delays. It is very annoying to see the price coming down every week as you wait for your order, and very difficult to get Dell to do anything about it (in the UK at least!). Some people are lucky and do manage to get fair compensation, but it currently requires hard work, luck, and patience, and you may have to reorder and wait even longer.
I would like to see Dell make a Price Cut Promise, in all countries Dell operates, that if the price for the same configuration goes down before you receive your order or within 1 week of receiving it, you WILL get the difference refunded automatically, without having to request it. This would cut down on calls to customer services, and make your customers who are waiting for orders a little happier to keep waiting rather than cancel.
*Note that this idea suggests an optimistic solution but please vote if you want Dell to do anything to improve the current situation!*
200
Offer Warranties for Hours of Usage not years of ownership
Service and Support submitted by badblood
08/16/07
Your service warranties currently last for annual periods. But people will use their computers more or less during this period. You need to make these warranties relevant all of your customers, heavy and light users.
Like car companies that offer warranties for the number of miles driven, you should offer warranties for the number of hours a product has been used.
How many hours would a Dell Warranty last anyway?
-130
Dell: Offer flash drive plug-in replacement or alternative for HD's
Servers and Storage submitted by phubert
08/06/07
Provide FLASH drive alternatives for Notebooks, Desktops, and SERVERS!
Flash drives would be faster, more reliable, quieter (zero is quite a bit quieter) and use less energy!
Offer this both as original equipment and for existing system hard drive replacements!
**
Higher cost, but many benefits. Customer choice!!
**
Also an excellent choice for the boot drive for VMWare ESX SAN-attached Virtual Host systems!
360
IdeaStorm: Remove accounts with advertising information in their name
IdeaStorm submitted by jorge
08/06/07
Due to IdeaStorm rules and regulations (not mine) the usernames which are using advertising links or website names need to be deleted.
So based on what we've seen so far the following needs to be prevented from happening on account creation:
No dell in the name
No dot in the name (as in the word dot and the character ".")
No cuss word in the name
No com in the name
No admin in the name
No staf(fer) in the name
No name longer than 10 characters
So IdeaStorm webmaster (not the admins) can you add the account creation limits? You should borrow from the phpBB add-ons for that, they have a plethora of tools for that not to mention valid e-mail requirements.
Thanks,
250
Offer an option of this new $0 Office Suite from Microsoft along with an option of OpenOffice to see which people like better
Software submitted by jmxz
08/02/07
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6927491.stm Free copies of some of Microsoft's office software will soon be available.
The software giant said it would make ad-supported copies of the Works package available within "months".
...
Microsoft has not said which PC makers it is working with on the project who will pre-install the ad-supported copies of Works. Sounds like their latest and greatest MS Works will be cheaper ($0). In some ways Microsoft Works is already basically adware (it itself is an add for Microsoft's full functionality Office suite) - and it sounds like this one will be more honest in showing what's an ad. It'd be nice if you could offer both this new Adware-$0-MS-Works *AND* OpenOffice side by side for the same price (after all, both cost $0) so you can see how many of your users prefer the adware compared to OpenOffice when price is not the factor.
Dell - please stay focused on the highest-voted ideas, though. Don't distract yourselves with this one until you've addressed the ideas below which have been the top-ranked ideas for at least 6 months without adequate responses.. - 147,808 - dhart - Pre-Installed Linux [and not just on a couple obsolete models in limited geographies]
- 127,719 - dhart - Pre-Installed OpenOffice | alternative to MS Works & MS Office
- 107,313 - robinjfisher - Have Firefox pre-installed as default browser
- 89,183 - ootleman - No Extra Software Option [only a couple models are crapware-free today]
- 78,007 - gergnz - Provide Linux Drivers for all your Hardware
- 73,600 - agreer - No OS Preloaded [and not just on a couple obsolete models]
130
 track my votes
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dawn_l