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The whole juggernaut that is now Linux on Dell started as the brainchild of two core individuals, Barton George (Senior Principal Engineer) and Jared Dominguez (OS Architect and Linux Engineer).
It was their vision that began it all back in 2012. It was long hours, uncertain futures and sheer belief that people really did want Linux laptops that sustained them. Here is the untold story of how Dell gained the top spot in preinstalled Linux on laptops.
[...] This first attempt at Linux on laptops failed mainly because most non-technical users were blinded by the cheap price and didn't understand what they were actually buying.
[...] This time the duo had the right initial market. It was big, commercial web-scale operators and their developers who were crying out for a fully supported Linux laptop.
People who do technical work, like Linux. People who don't, don't.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Freeman on Friday November 17 2017, @06:05PM (14 children)
So, what you're saying is, we need more crapware for Linux?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @06:45PM (3 children)
Honestly, it wouldn't hurt. I wouldn't mind having tons of crapware on a preloaded-Linux laptop, including crapware that sends all my private data to some company's server, as long as they're paying me by reducing the purchase price (perhaps down to zero...).
It doesn't matter to me, because I'm just going to wipe the HD and install my preferred distro anyway. The distros they choose are always some bullshit distro with some bullshit DE like Gnome. And no one ever partitions HDs right anyway.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @09:59PM (2 children)
Ubuntu is ready for you now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @10:23PM (1 child)
The April 2016 release disabled the Ubuntu Shopping Lens by default. [google.com]
It was something they tried and they responded to the negative feedback appropriately.
Get over it already.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by requerdanos on Saturday November 18 2017, @02:43AM
After fighting *for* it furiously for a time, they finally realized they were not going to get away with it and disabled it.
That's absolutely, completely false. Among other things, Canonical's Shuttleworth said at the time "Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root." and that this crap was necessary to make Ubuntu "World Class." Canonical has never, ever said anything then or since that indicates that they "get" that hijacking your local queries by default (rather than knowing, intentional opt-in) is wrong in any way--only argued incessantly that it was fine, not a problem, a desirous feature, etc. It was the least appropriate responses imaginable. As bad as no response other than "Get over it".
That would be exactly the wrong reaction. We already know that Canonical--and Shuttleworth personally--believe that spyware for profit is a good and noble thing and the only question in their minds is, how to do it and get away with it (not whether it's the right thing to do). "Never Forget" would be more appropriate, given Shuttlworth's rants about not getting his way.
The fact that they have thus far not found a way to get away with it does NOT mean that it's all good. Rather, it means, we know not to trust them and know that they have not changed any. at. all. They will spy on you for profit if they think of a way, and based on what they said at the time, they are doing plenty of thinking trying to come up with a way.
Please do not spread lies about them now being 'over it' just because they didn't get away with it. They aren't over it, and their potential users shouldn't be either--no one should use Ubuntu without making an intelligent decision with eyes wide open about Canonical's attitude on the matter.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday November 17 2017, @06:45PM (8 children)
I don't think he's saying that. No need to put crapware on Linux. I would be happy to pay the higher price to not have crapware and ads.
Of course, I'd be even happier to pay the lower price and not have the crapware or ads.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @07:36PM (4 children)
I'd be happy to get a laptop for free that's full of crapware and ads and even sends all my private data off somewhere. Why would you not want this?
In short, what kind of Linux user uses the OS that's pre-loaded by the manufacturer? Crapware and spyware doesn't matter when you just wipe the HD as soon as you get the computer and install a better distro.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 17 2017, @08:37PM (2 children)
It depends on whether the "Ubuntu" option is the same price as the "FreeDOS" option. If I'm going to wipe the preinstalled OS first (which I am), then FreeDOS may be the actual choice I want.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 17 2017, @08:44PM
Yeah, if the FreeDOS option cost more, why would you pay for that if you're going to wipe the HD anyway? In fact, hypothetically speaking, if you could get the exact same laptop with Windows preloaded for $100 less, why bother with those more expensive options? Just to prevent MS from getting a license fee (which effectively is being paid by the crapware vendors, plus an additional kickback to you)?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @10:56PM
OTOH, if it ships with Linux, you can check to see that all the hardware is supported under Linux before paving over the pre-installed distro.
N.B. Yeah, this is pretty ancient lore.
Most whitebox vendors have learned to just avoid hardware manufacturers who won't support Linux properly.
(Some years back, AMD muffed a quarter-billion dollar contract because they didn't offer Linux drivers.)
The partitions are probably already ext4 as well.
.
Heh. The thing that amused the hell out of me was when the vendors would pay to have their crapware installed on Windoze boxes then, after collecting that fee, the whitebox vendors would offer a de-crapped box to consumers^W suckers for an additional fee.
.
FTFS: People who do technical work
...in addition to those who don't want to paste a new layer of security^W band-aids on their OS weekly^W daily^W hourly.
...nor wait until the 2nd Tuesday of next month for patches
...nor defrag.
It's been quite a while since I had to maintain a Windoze box.
I may have (gratefully) forgotten some of the nonsense that I had to tolerate back in the day.
It took several years for them to catch up, but I understand that MICROS~1 now offers virtual desktops (multiple workspaces).
I liked those from the 1st day I used Linux.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 20 2017, @03:22PM
Reminds me of the punchline to an old joke: "We've established that you'll prostitute yourself. Now we're simply negotiating the price."
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday November 20 2017, @03:29PM (2 children)
I honestly don't understand why any serious Linux user would object to having tons of crapware and ads, in exchange for a lower price. What exactly is your objection? Are you really going to use the distro that comes pre-loaded? If so, you're not much of a serious Linux user are you?
(Score: 2) by cykros on Monday November 20 2017, @04:06PM
Even using pre-loaded Windows instead of a wipe and fresh install always struck me as immensely lazy and potentially costly down the line. Before I moved to Nexus/Pixel phones (which are 100% pure vanilla Android, so it's clean), I didn't even treat my phone with such carelessness.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 20 2017, @05:04PM
You're right. On the only box I ever got that had Linux pre-installed (1999, with Red Hat), I promptly installed SuSE 5.1.
Getting Linux pre-installed from the factory, instead of FreeDOS gives a level of confidence that all of the included hardware is supported by Linux -- even if you're going to wipe it.
I had not thought this through very carefully. Really, the price matters more, since I am convinced I would wipe it.
In more recent years, I have gone with Windows boxes, wiped and reinstalled. And most recently a very nice custom built box (not built by me). I built one back in the early 2000's. It was a fun adventure. But I'm a software guy.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @10:14PM
Well, you get systemd, don't you?