I scream, you scream, we all scream for … DELL Ubuntu Linux?
*World* to Dell: We want desktop Linux!
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard the news:
The world wants Linux. And as we all know, the news can’t be wrong. Especially if it’s regurgitated over and over again on every tech site on the net.
Just one problem though…
This is Linux-fever journalism at its worst, and an example of a simple lie being easier for people to swallow than the complex truth.
Now I want you to take a deep breath at this point, because you’re about the get a sick feeling in your stomach. That feeling of utter hopelessness. And it’s going to come in shock waves, one after the other, over and over.
[You might want to stop reading at this point.]
Tsunami Wave #1.
And on Dell’s Ideastorm Web site, a staggering 41,210 users agreed with the thread, “Sell Linux PCs Worldwide — not only the United States”.
On another thread, 6,410 users agreed with the statement, “Make Dell Ubuntu PCs available to businesses and non-profits”.
They can’t even get the basic facts right…
When you vote on Dell’s IdeaStorm, your vote increases the total count by 10 points.
The reported figures so eminently talked about since day 1 are off by a factor of 10. That’s for every reported 10,000 users, only 1,000 votes were cast.
But don’t just stop there… Take into consideration that you get to register with a made up user name and password immediately, with no email confirmation or validation. You don’t even leave the page (thanks to JavaScript).
Log out, re-register again under the same exact IP address, and you get to vote once more, over and over.
The reported 100,000 users that started this mess in the first place on IdeaStorm, are at best 10,000 strong — assuming no manipulation was involved.
Not that the people doing the actual voting have any intention of getting a Ubuntu DELL anyways…
[While this quote is a joke, it sums up things quite nicely.]
I voted multiple times for Ubuntu on Dell’s ideaStorm so that others can have the opportunity to purchase it. As an Ubuntu advocate, I’ve done my part. It’s time for the consumers to do their part. Don’t blame me if consumers are too stupid to know what is best for them.
Tsunami Wave #2.
Dell has no intention of delivering Linux to the home user.
OEMs like Dell have razor thin margins. They live and die by the volume discounts, co-marketing funds, “Desktop Real Estate”, and leads provided by Microsoft.
The Ubuntu systems that Dell sells are nothing more than a type of a loss-leader designed to show the consumer that they are getting a better deal when buying the Windows counter-part… More features to select from, better promotions/deals, better components/upgrades, and sometimes cheaper upgrades.
If you’re part of the vast digg.com crowd that believes the US government perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, you’re probably also the type to believe that Dell will jeopardize its Microsoft relationship, and face the consequences, to sell an expected 20,000 Ubuntu systems [at a loss].
You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
What’s Dell’s incentive here?… To generate publicity to further sell Windows Licenses and provide Microsoft with facts and figures to use in future campaigns.
More OEMs are cashing in on this profitable tactic every day.
Tsunami Wave #3.
By *pushing* Linux upon users that have no need for it, you are setting yourself up for failure.
The Microsoft Windows installed base is soon to cross the 1 Billion mark.
That user-base is very diverse: with different cultures, languages, and processes. Take into account everything Microsoft has had to work through by catering to everyones needs. Major roadblocks have been overcome. And what has Linux been put through on the Desktop? Relatively speaking… absolutely nothing.
Linux does not have a secret formula that makes it immune to growing pains. Switch the market share between Windows and Linux, and Linux will be downright unusable. From viruses, to backward compatibility issues, to UI problems, to everything else.
Let me state it one more time since it’s a point never mentioned: With an increasing market share, Linux will have the same exact growing pains and problems as Microsoft did and currently has.
Not to even mention that you are now catering to a mass that thinks the CD tray is a cup holder and the mouse is a foot pedal.
Landslide #1.
Vista Aiding Linux Desktop, Strategist Says
“Windows Vista has probably created the single biggest opportunity for the Linux desktop to take market share…”
How ofter do I hear this delusional statement in all it’s variations.
Vista has problems. So did Windows XP. As did Windows 2000. And 98, 95, 3.1. There _is_ a pattern here. Its called SP1 [Service Pack 1]. After which every version mentioned took off.
The saying goes: if your first version is not horribly broken, you’ve waited too long to release it.
The current release of Vista has allowed Microsoft to get feedback from a very diverse user-base. Feedback that is priceless, that cannot be had any other way. How else is progress made?
You don’t raise your child in a plastic bubble.
History repeats itself, and just as Linux has not been able to make it to the Desktop since the promised year 2000, Windows users are also not migrating to Linux pastures in mythical herds. If anything, XP sales are up and Microsoft is readying to sell millions of Vista Licenses, of which an estimated 6 million are being sold each month.
Tell me I’m wrong.