Dell Chooses Ubuntu

I have to say I am a curious individual.  If I was a cat, I'd probably be dead, but I am not a cat and I have a blog.  So I am curious about what you think about certain things and because of this I have created a new category on this blog called Commentary where I'll share my thoughts and ask for your comments.

Note: The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my team or of my employer. Remember that opinions are like {insert body part here} in that everyone has one :)

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The other day, Dell and London based Canonical announced that Dell would start selling certain PCs that you could order pre-loaded with Ubuntu 7.04.  Soon you will have the choice (US Only for now) to get your PC loaded with Feisty Fawn instead of XP SP2 or Vista.  Now this isn't the first time Dell has tried this, in the late 90's they tried it but canceled that program in 2001 due to low demand.  On top of that they do offer Red Hat on some of their servers and business workstations as well, but this is going to be sold with select consumer PC lines.

Great news for Dell (free PR), great news for Ubuntu (again PR), great news for Canonical (they are providing the support) but I have a few questions....

Is the Ubuntu version of a PC going to cost less?  I doubt it.  Microsoft charges very little to OEMs for the OS and a lot of the money the OEM makes is all the software that comes pre-loaded.  Remember the deal Google made with Dell to include the Google Toolbar on all PCs?  That was worth $1 Billion to Dell over three years.  A lot of this software just doesn't run on Linux.

How about support?  Microsoft offers 90 days of free email, chat and phone based support with every version of Windows Vista.  Professional support from Ubuntu costs $250-$900/year based on your SLA.  Both offer plenty of free community support options as well.  Is Canonical going to deliver a lower cost support option for Dell's Ubuntu customers?  Is this charge going to be swallowed by Dell, Canonical, or the consumer?  If it is the consumer, see my first point.

What about Hardware support?  I've installed Ubuntu and with some standard hardware the process is pretty straight forward.  Canonical is going to be tasked with ensuring the hardware in the Dell PCs is compatible with Ubuntu and I am sure they will do a great job.  What is an average consumer going to do when they want to install the latest and greatest USB device like an ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 (ATI/AMD does not supply Linux drivers)?

What about 3rd party applications?  Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with a pile of applications.  Open Office, FireFox, email, chat, and various other app's used by everyday users.  Now there is a learning curve with every OS and Ubuntu is easy enough to use, but what happens when a user wants to install their accounting program?  Quicken does not support Linux, will the OSS equivalent (if there is one) support importing Quicken files?  Who will support this app?  I am not even going to touch gaming :)

Finally, what about the user experience?  UX is important and one of the big UX complaints with Vista is UAC.  Well Linux (and OSX) have the same thing via Sudo.  Want to enable automatic updates in Ubuntu?  Open up Terminal and ......

sudo crontab -e

0 0 * * * aptitude -y update && aptitude -y upgrade && aptitude -y dist-upgrade && aptitude -y autoclean

Sound like something your average user could figure out?

Now I think this has the potential for three things really.  It takes off, Ubuntu replaces Windows as the OS of choice and I am out of a job, or enough hardcore Linux users buy from Dell to keep the program afloat, or it fails and Dell kills the program.  I really don't know what is going to happen, but I think my job is safe as this is unlikely to be profitable for Dell.  No matter what happens, I think this is good for everyone as more options and more competition lead to better pricing and more innovation.

So what do you think?  Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts?  Dell's decision?  Think about it and post your comments, I am curious to hear what you have to say.