Friday, May 11, 2007

Dell and Ubuntu: Match made in heaven?

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95942/95942.html?Ad=1


While it doesn't surprise me, I'm surprised to find out that Dell is going to start offering a build of Linux known as Ubuntu in their Desktop and Laptops. The question at hand is, is this a smart move made by Dell? Will the product sell?

Here's my speculation on it:

Of all the linux builds out there, Ubuntu is the best choice. Aside from it being free and well supported, Ubuntu is also very user friendly compared to other builds of Linux. Also, since Linux is free and much less demanding in terms of hardware requirements. Combine that with open office and other open source programs that are available for linux, and you have a very cheap computer that can do all the basic things that any PC or Mac can do. For beginner developers, this would also be a great setup for them to start learning the basics of Linux.

However, The major problem with Linux is the same with Macs on the surface. That problem being comparability with other programs. Also Linux is a very do-it-yourself OS. I would know, I spent over 2 hours trying to install the graphics drivers in my Linux. (but thats another post)

Personally I think this would be great for mass producing for businesses, schools, and developers. Cheaper then a Mac and less resource intensive then PCs, Linux on the Dell is a great idea on the surface. Hopefully a niche community will buy this help spread the word that Linux isn't all command lines and databaseing. At this point, anything is better then Vista for atleast another year.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Linux part 1: install

So I log onto google, type in linux white box, and hit search. I find a site that has 4 ISOs for Whitebox. I proceed to download them all (at very nice speeds I may add) After the downloading I burned the iso to 4 different disks. Upon doing that, I promply insert the first disk and restart my computer. The computer loads up and the disk takes over after the BIOS is done loading. It starts asking me the usual questions of this is a licensed product and are you sure you want to install this etc. After words I hit a small wall. I kept thinking to myself, "when is it going to ask about the partitions of the drives that I need to install it on?" In the back of my mind I was scared that I would delete the partition that has all my music and games and work and such on it. I didn't want to lose that for sure. Finally the partition menu showed up not taking any chances I created a new partition with the old partition I made that housed a beta copy of Vista (and by golly was that build glitchy.) It then prompted me on whether I wanted to install a workstation version of the OS or a Server version. I prompted the Workstation version seeing as I didn't think I would be hosting anything anytime soon. After that. the install takes place. It took around 15 minutes to install everything. Then I promptly restarted my computer.


Coming up next: I get lost in linux