Recently in Dell Category

As of today, here are all the machines I use and what they run:

At the office:

Work box:
Dell Optiplex GX520
Pentium 4 (3 GHz)
512 MB RAM
Windows XP SP2

The Debian Mac:
Power Macintosh G4
466MHz single PowerPC processor
384 MB RAM
Debian Etch

The Self-Reliant Thin Client:
Maxspeed Maxterm 5300(??) thin client
VIA C3 Samuel (1 GHz, running at 500 MHz for some reason)
256 MB RAM
8 GB Transcend Compact Flash module as boot drive
1 GB USB flash drive for backup
Debian Etch

At home:

iBook G4
1 GHz CPU
384 MB RAM
120 GB Fujitsu hard drive (replaced by me in a 3-hour odyssey)
OS X 10.3

This Old PC:
Pentium II MMX (333 MHz)
256 MB RAM
10 GB hard drive
Windows 2000 (I haven't booted this or connected it to the Internet in over a year)

The $0 Laptop:
Gateway Solo 1450
Mobile Celeron (1.3 GHz)
1 GB RAM
30 GB Toshiba hard drive
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Debian Lenny, Puppy 3.01

The $15 Laptop:
Compaq Armada 7770dmt
Pentium II MMX (233 MHz)
144 MB RAM
3 GB IBM hard drive
OpenBSD 4.2

I have quite a few machines in various states of repair that I might resurrect over the next year if and when I get the time, but this is what I have right now. With the exception of the white-box This Old PC, all of these get fairly regular use.

I'm supposed to have a meeting with Dell next week, during which they'll talk about their consumer-focused plans for the near future and at the same time show me some hot new product that I'll be bound not to talk about for a specified period of time.

Great.

I told the PR guy, "What I really want to know about is the soon-to-be-released Dell E," meaning Dell's answer to the Asus Eee (note the similar names) and HP Mini-Note.

The flack was pretty cool about it. He didn't let anything slip.

so I looked around for Dell E info, found some — saw that Linux is a big part of the whole shebang — and concluded that I really, really want one:

• More details surface regarding Dell's UMPC by Gina Hughes, the Techie Diva
• Dell E and E Slim revealed, taking on Eee and Air in one fell swoop by Engadget's Paul Miller
• Dell Mini Inspiron by Gizmodo

(Photo above from Gizmodo, below from Engadget)

Computer maker Dell Inc. is trying to regain the lead in the
notebook computer world (HP is the current PC market leader)
by adding a splash of color to their notebooks - faster processors?
better graphics? who needs that!?

How about a "ruby red," "sunshine yellow" or "espresso brown" notebook?

Remember last year's recall of Sony batteries? You know, the one that affected more than 10 million notebook batteries, including Toshiba's, Dell's and Apple's?

Well, it seems not everybody tended to that recall notice.

At least three more fires have been recently attributed to Sony's lithium-ion battery overheating.

In response to those fires, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba - who already feature a list of defective batteries and affected notebooks on their website - is stepping up efforts to contact customers who may own a notebook featuring the affected battery.

While Ed Bott at ZDNet had to wait for Dell to come and replace a fried motherboard (said frying happening during an unsuccessful BIOS upgrade), once he got the box running, it just flew on Windows Vista -- and he says all reports of slowness about the new Microsoft OS are, in this case, unfounded:

I’ve read several complaints about Vista taking too long to display menus or open Explorer windows. Everything’s downright snappy here. Menus show up instantly, and with the exception of Windows Mail, which takes five seconds or so to start, I experience nothing that makes me feel I’m having to wait even a little.

and:

Over a network using the C521’s Fast Ethernet (not Gigabit Ethernet) adapter, it takes me 16:51 to copy 6.3GB of files. On a nearly identical system running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and plugged into the same Ethernet switch, copying the same batch of files from the same source takes 16:56, a statistical dead heat. I plug in a 500GB USB drive and copy more than 80GB of music files to the Music folder, and the file transfer moves just as quickly as it does on Windows XP.

Shoulda popped for the gigabit Ethernet, I think ... but it's good to see a happy Dell/Vista customer.

By selling at retail, Dell will reach a different kind of consumer than it currently does with its direct-only channel.

While my current Dell box at the office (Optiplex GX520 with 3 GHz Pentium 4 and 512 MB RAM) was part of a big corporate order that numbered in the hundreds of units, it isn't my first Dell.

Way back in the early '90s, pre-Web, we bought a Dell at Price Club, the warehouse store now known as Costco. It was a 386sx 25 MHz model with something like 4 MB of RAM and an 80 MB drive. It shipped with Windows 3.1, which was barely usable at the time. We mostly ran DOS (I think it was at 5.5 or 6), and that box got us on a bunch of local BBSes, plus the GEnie, Prodigy and AOL online services. Never mind that this PC couldn't run much of everything today, but in its day, it was well-built and ultra-reliable. It gave me a good impression of Dell.

Today I'd be more inclined to assemble my own system, if only to facilitate easy upgrades of the various components, from motherboard to optical drives to video, sound and networking cards. While most of us don't do all the upgrading we say we're going to do, it's nice to have the option. I still plan to replace the motherboard, drives and even power supply in the now-10-year-old This Old PC, if only to a) prove to myself that it can be done, and b) from an environmental and "simplicity" standpoint to save the case, keeping it from going into a landfill and eliminating the need for a new one. And I'm cheap.

But back to Dell. Selling through a mass-market retailer and offering customizable systems online are two very different businesses. To compete with HP/Compaq, Dell needs to be out there, side by side with its competitors.

A smarter bet for Dell would be its own mall-located, branded stores, like the Apple Store, and unlike the current Dell mall kiosks in that they'd have actual store space and actual inventory that customers could purchase and carry home. It didn't work for Gateway, but it could work for Dell (or for HP).

... it's just a subset of the overall Dell forum, but it has a Linux logo, complete with Tux (that's it above). And here's the Dell Linux Engineering Web Site, where the project's Wiki lives.

Today's debut of Dell PCs with Linux preinstalled threatened to be eclipsed by another Dell bombshell -- the Round Rock, Texas, PC giant will supplement it's direct-to-you sales method with a heaping helping of Middle American retail through Wal-Mart.

Dell told the Associated Press that June 10 will mark the debut of two Dimension E521 desktop models at 3,000 Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

The deal "represents our first step" into global retail, Dell spokesman Dwayne Cox said, according to the AP report.

No prices were announced, but the cheapest Dimension E521 goes out the door for $359 at Dell.com.

It doesn't look like Dell will offer Linux on its Wal-Mart boxes, and a check of Wal-Mart's Web site shows that the company -- today anyway -- no longer offers the Linspire-based Linux desktops it had been quietly selling for some time.

Hmmmm ... maybe it's Dell and Wal-Mart's way of giving Microsoft an open-mouthed kiss with extra tongue.

But back to Dell's Linux offerings -- prices for a single laptop and two desktops preloaded with Ubuntu 7.04 begin at $599 and are slightly lower than when equipped with Windows Vista. Oh ... and Dell's Ubuntu won't be able to play .mp3's, DVDs, Flash and a whole bunch of other stuff without the user going through the usual hoops, a kiss of death for the Dell-Ubuntu experiment, according to Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 blog.

And finding Dell's Linux-equipped PCs at Dell.com isn't easy. What's more apparent is Dell begging its customers to stay with come-ons for Windows XP, which they really, really want you to know they're still selling.

There are no links on the Dell home page, and the first thing you see is the ubiquitous "Dell recommends Windows Vista Home Premium." Of course it does.

But in the dropdown menus for Desktops and Notebooks, there are links for "Open-Source PCs." The headline is "Ubuntu has arrived by popular demand." And there's a handy link, right there in the middle, for Windows users who somehow navigated to the page as if by evil sorcery:

The main thing to note is that when you choose open source you don’t get a Windows® operating system. If you’re here by mistake and you are looking for a Dell PC with Windows, please use the following link.

But for those who do want an open-source box, you can get one from Dell with Ubuntu ... or FreeDOS. Yep, nobody mentioned in this whole Ubuntu-Dell lovefest that the Texas computer giant will ship you a box with FreeDOS on it. What the hell? I'm sure there's a reason for it ...

Here's how Ubuntu describes its FreeDOS offerings:

FreeDOS is a completely stripped down PC operating system for experts and people interested in working in a DOS environment. The main things that set FreeDOS apart from Windows and Ubuntu is that it doesn’t have a graphical interface (i.e., it’s typing only, no mouse) and it only supports DOS applications, such as classic DOS games, business software written for DOS and embedded DOS systems, such as retail cash registers. Generally, users who want FreeDOS know what it is and what they want to do with it. Other users should look to our Ubuntu and Windows platforms.

Embedded DOS systems? If they're out there, I guess it makes sense ... but again, what the hell?

Anyway, when you click through on the Ubuntu link, here's what you get: A mid-level desktop, low- to -mid-level laptop and then a more upscale desktop

Not bad at all. As an exercise for this entry, I "built" a primo XPS 410 system with as many upgrades as made sense (i.e. nothing stupid), no extra warranties or support, and it came in at a hefty $1,964 with Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6700 (4MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1066 FSB), 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™, Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable, 19 inch Ultrasharp™ SP1908FP Digital Flat Panel, 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache, Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer, Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard and 13 in 1 Media Card Reader.

So you CAN spend a ton on a Linux box at Dell.

But here's the kicker for Canonical. Although this disclaimer appears --" Dell provides hardware support only. Software support is available through Canonical and Linux Community" -- there are options available with each system for "Starter Support" ($65), "Basic Support" ($125) or "Standard Support" ($275). That's above and beyond any extra money you want to give Dell for "In-Home Service, Parts and Labor."

Who's providing this non-free support? Certainly the "Linux Community" means Ubuntuforums.org ... but the others must be Canonical, which I hope is ready for what could be an onslaught. It's an experiment, all right, in more ways than three, and it will be very exciting (and I hope not disheartening) to see how it plays out in the months ahead.