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Why Dell’s Gamble On Linux Laptops Has Paid Off

posted by mrpg on Friday November 17 2017, @05:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-isn't-it-free? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!

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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @08:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @08:37PM (#598371)

    Now that you mention it, that was a big problem with Windows for a long time: you couldn't just install a clean copy, because you had to get a bunch of driver discs or download drivers from the manufacturer's website(s), and then go through a bunch of rebooting cycles to get all the drivers installed and the OS installed.

    I thought new versions of Windows had mostly built in drivers for most common hardware so this wasn't so much of a problem as it was, but I haven't messed with Windows installation in a very long time so I don't really know.

    Most hardware now comes with drivers distributed through windows update and it's been this way for some time. This usually works fine (though reboot cycles are still a thing).

    It has also been possible for a long time to add drivers to the installation medium (this was very important if you wanted to install Windows 2000 on a SATA drive and didn't feel like digging out a 3.5" floppy disk to load your disk controller driver).