The PC giant takes a step toward Ubuntu, but leaves support, pricing and driver issues undecided
In a response to user comments on a new Dell discussion site, the company is announcing today that it will offer some desktop and laptop models preloaded with the Ubuntu Linux distribution, and seek certification for those models from Canonical Ltd., the company behind the popular software.
“We heard overwhelmingly from the Linux community that they wanted Linux preinstalled on Dell systems. In basically less than three months, we’ve been able to take that feedback and vet it through our organization,” says Dell spokesman Jeremy Bolen. “Overwhelmingly they said they wanted Ubuntu,” he says.
Dell opened a Web site for customer requests, “Dell IdeaStorm,“ on Feb. 16, and within a few days the most popular requests included preinstalled Linux, Firefox and OpenOffice.
Ubuntu will be available on some systems from Dell’s Inspiron, Dimension, and XPS “consumer” lines, Bolen says. Neither the exact models to be available with Ubuntu, nor pricing, which he anticipates to be “a little below” the same hardware with Microsoft Windows, have been set, he says.
Even the level of software support to be included with Linux laptops is still undecided, Bolen says. Dell’s usual hardware support terms apply, but whether or not a user will be able to call for help with a software issue is “something we’re working through right now,” Bolen says.
Customers will be able to buy Ubuntu support for the Dell systems directly from Canonical, says Jane Silber, Canonical’s chief operating officer. “There may be several options in terms of support packages, but it is an option,” she says.
Dell’s client-side Linux offerings include a mix of distributions available in different product lines. The company’s high-end Precision workstations are available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux preloaded, and some of Dell’s Optiplex and Latitude models are certified to run Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, but that distribution is not available as a factory preload, Bolen says.
Dell also offers some Latitude laptops and some Dimension, Optiplex, and Precision desktop machines as “n Series” systems with no preinstalled OS, but with a copy of FreeDOS bundled. Lenovo also offers some ThinkPad laptops without a preinstalled OS for customers who plan to install Linux.
Some Dell models include parts, such as Nvidia graphics hardware, for which no full-featured open source device drivers are available. “We cannot support that to the same level that we can an open source driver, and clearly we prefer the open source drivers,” Silber says.
Dell is passing on to its suppliers the demand for drivers that are free of vendor restrictions and available to be integrated with the kernel. Matt Domsch, Linux Software Architect for Dell, wrote on a company blog, “For new Linux desktops and notebooks, we’ll use drivers already in the mainline kernel.org kernels for as many components as possible. In these cases, the drivers will be included in your distribution of choice . . . . For device types where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, in our Linux offering we’ll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver.”
“We will work with our hardware partners to develop, test and maintain Free drivers, and continue to make progress toward that goal for all drivers,” Domsch added.
Company founder Michael Dell already runs Ubuntu on one of the five computers cited on a company web page.
Major laptop vendors have previously introduced Linux laptops, but consistently backed off from the idea. Dell briefly offered Red Hat Linux on two laptop models in 2000, and IBM also briefly offered Caldera’s Linux on two ThinkPad models later the same year. HP announced one model preloaded with a subset of SUSE Linux in 2004, and Lenovo began offering one ThinkPad model preloaded with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop in 2006.
