[ILUG] Dell's pathetic Linux device support

[Liam Bedford]

Aidan Delaney wrote:

> Hey all,
>     I'm sure a good proportion of us buy some of our servers and  
> desktops from Dell Ireland.  I've recently had problems getting modem  
> drivers from them and am wondering how we can end the driver misery 
> for  the future.  Between us all there must be a reasonable purchasing 
> power  to warrent being listened to.  HP, IBM and several other 
> vendors have  made noises about providing proper GNU/Linux support on 
> their desktop  machines.  Can we get Dell to do the same?  All I'm 
> looking for is  source to (win)modems but I'm sure others are not 
> happy with the  support for some of their network cards etc...
>
Err, don't buy machines with products that aren't supported by linux. If 
you do, then they've no reason to stop selling them.
You could also make a point of telling them that you aren't buying 
because of it.

> a) How much (if anything) have you bought from Dell in the last year?

1 laptop.

> b) How many sales (if any) have Dell lost in the last year because of  
> their lousy GNU/Linux support?

 From me, none..

> c) How much will you be buying in the next year and will Dell be  
> considered a viable supplier?

none, and probably.

Then of course we have crap like this:
http://mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Dell-Linux_Story-01.html

"Dell are linux exploiters because they won't sell linux" ?

Dell won't sell AMD processors. I don't see people running around going 
whine whine whine they won't sell
me an AMD machine...

Intel and Microsoft make it worth Dell's while to use them. And they 
don't see a business reason to sell Linux
based machines. If a winmodem with no drivers costs them $4 more, how 
can they justify it, as they're not supporting
linux on their machines.

You could investigate something like the linuxlaptops stuff in US. But 
competing with Dell on price is nigh on
impossible, and you'll have fun persuading joe punter to buy machines 
that cost more. Dell will (AFAIK)
supply whatever OS you want if you buy enough machines though.

>
> The last straw, for me, is this
> <quote dell-today>
> Dell has partnered with Linuxcare to provide you with the best support
> experience possible. If you purchased your Dell computer with Red Hat  
> Linux 6.x
> installed, and have questions regarding installation and 
> configuration,  please
> go to the following URL:
>
> http://dell.linuxcare.com
> </quote dell>
>
> <quote linuxcare-today>
> Thank you for your inquiry.  Unforunately Linuxcare has not provided  
> this support for sometime.  Perhaps Dell can reroute you within their  
> group?
> </quote linuxcare>
>
That's not good. I suggest trying to find a representative to inform 
about this.

L.