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As much as I'm not a fan of some of Dell's dodgy multinational practices, I have respect for them pushing mainstream adoption of pre-installed Ubuntu. I tried

by icc97 10y ago

As much as I'm not a fan of some of Dell's dodgy multinational practices, I have respect for them pushing mainstream adoption of pre-installed Ubuntu. I tried to persuade a UK company Novatech that offers computers without an OS to go one step further and offer Linux. They liked the idea, but the support overhead wasn't worth it for them.

shmerl 10y ago
Unfortunately, even Dell don't offer Linux on every model.
- icc97 10y ago
  No, I think it's basically one model only the XPS 13/15. But still, it's a mainstream supplier offering linux pre-installed.
  - shmerl 10y ago
    Which again doesn't solve the problem described above. Only massive availability can change things.
    - progman 10y ago
      If you want massive availability go with Android. If you want personal customization go with classical Linux.
      - shmerl 10y ago
        These issues are orthogonal and don't block each other.
scholia 10y ago
> They liked the idea, but the support overhead wasn't worth it for them. The support overhead killed Linux on Asus and Acer netbooks. That and hardware returns from people who found the operating system unusable.... Outside of Apple, PC margins are extremely thin.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  The only company i recall having trouble with returns were MSI, but then they managed to ship their Wind series with missing drivers for things like the webcam...
  - scholia 10y ago
    When your margins are as thin as they are in the PC industry, even quite a small percentage of returns can devastate your profits.