Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 17th Apr 2008 16:23 UTC, submitted by Moulinneuf
About a year ago, Dell made an important move. Pushed by thousands of comments in its IdeaStorm website, the company started offering Ubuntu preloaded on a small selection of its machines. Initially only a US-based program, but later on, some European countries followed. However, criticism was not absent; buyers complained the machines were hard to find on Dell's website and that Dell did not do enough to promote sales of the Ubuntu machines. Today, Dell has commented on the whole Dell-Ubuntu marriage.
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RE: Why they won't advertise
by snozzberry on Thu 17th Apr 2008 23:18
in reply to "Why they won't advertise"
Member since:2005-11-14
RE: Why they won't advertise
by google_ninja on Fri 18th Apr 2008 21:35
in reply to "Why they won't advertise"
Member since:2006-02-05
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2005-06-29
Dell is afraid of Microsoft, pure and simple. Does anyone remember what Microsoft did to Compaq and Be Inc. back in the day? Bill Gates himself visited Compaq and "persuaded" them to back out of a Be/Compaq exclusive deal. The same thing happened when Hitachi wanted to sell dual-boot BeOS/Windows systems in Japan.
Granted, Microsoft no longer has such monopolistic power on the surface, thanks to antitrust lawsuits, but they still know how to play dirty and I'm positive Dell doesn't want to anger the one company they depend on for the bulk of their business. Dell isn't trying to sell dual-boot machines but I wouldn't be surprised if they've had a stern talking-to from Microsoft's lawyers about exactly how much advertising they can do for their alternative PCs. It's shitty and it pisses me off, but it's the way the IT world works right now unfortunately.
For more information about these despicable tactics:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/02/20/be_inc_sues_microsoft/
http://www.birdhouse.org/beos/byte/30-bootloader/