Dell Linux support promised

OH GAWD. Here they go. Dell mentions in passing that it's thinking about offering something with a penguin on it and a million saddoes crawl out of the woodwork and herald it as the second coming.

If their unctuous, grovelling comments weren't so depressing, they'd be funny. All the following quotes are cut and pasted directly from Dell's site here so don't go accusing me of making them up, OK?

What are we to think of someone called Artem who posts - apparently in all seriousness - a comment like "If I could get a 12 inch laptop with Ubuntu on it and full hardware support, my life would be complete."? Well, Artem, old chum, might I suggest that your life might be more complete if you turned off your computer, went out to a pub and met a girl who didn't require inflation with a foot pump?

Are we really supposed to take such drivel seriously? Ooh, hang on a minute, here comes Tom Cowap:

"I'm typing this on a 256MB RAM 30GB HD Inspiron 2500 with Kubuntu and an AMP stack which replaced the supplied XP. I feel like Scotty out of Star Trek, this baby must have Dylithium crystals to run so much and remain rock solid. Cash at bank is ready to roll for a long awaited upgrade that won't require another charitable donation to Redmond for software I don't need. It's like the twighlight zone, I was looking for a GNU/Linux HP the day before I saw the ideastorm site, now I've decided to hold off for a new Dell. Thanks!"

Adam brings this well-reasoned comment to the debate:

"Sweet sweet sweet!!! I am so glad Dell is doing this. I've got 2 Dells in my home and Dells are going to be all over my Christmas gift list. This is just an awesome direction that Dell's taking. It's going to be a great benefit for both the open source community and Dell as well. Thanks so much Dell!"

Hi Joe! What would you like to say?

"You guys are awesome! Thank you so much. My next computer will be a Dell!!! :)"

And Jacob adds:

"When I put Ubuntu Linux on my Latitude D820, a few things didn't quite work right. It took a bit of tweaking. 1. Display resolution for the 1680x1050 screen wasn't working. (fixed with 915resolution) 2. The wireless internet wasn't working. (fixed with nswrapper) 3. Built-in speakers would sometimes play at the same time as headphones, or sometimes sound wouldn't work. (maybe fixed?? by updating alsa, haven't tested it extensively with alsa update though) Having to use hacks to get stuff to work is annoying. The only thing I would consider a must for Dell is to make sure that I don't have to worry about this part. I really don't care if the solution is an open or closed source driver for Linux, although if the open source driver is available, it would make more sense to have it. Dell, please get people to fix the problems with my resolution and my wireless card in the near future and I'll be very happy with you."

This last comment should send a shiver down Dell's corporate spine. These loonies are Linux experts. They can't make the damned thing work. What chance has Dell's technical support department of helping Aunty Mabel get her Inspiron working under Linux? Absolutely zero chance, that's how much.

Dell says it yet has to decide which distro of Linux it will go with. This is an absolute lose / lose call for the system builder. Whichever flavour of penguin meat it goes for, there will be more disappointed Linux fanbois than happy ones because their personal favourite was passed over.

And I'll go further. I predict that if Dell puts any real money and effort behind this over-hyped, hobbyist OS, it'll be out of business within two years.

Finally, can I just ask that, should you feel the urge to email me on this subject - as I'm sure many of you will - please have the courage of your convictions and use a genuine email address and don't write in green crayon? That would make a very pleasant change, thanks. µ

L'Inq
More pathetic toadying here