Re: Just Got The Dell "Back To School" Catalog... Linux???? Where is it hiding????
Re: Just Got The Dell "Back To School" Catalog... Linux???? Where is it hiding????
In comp.os.linux.advocacy, JEDIDIAH
<jedi@nomad.mishnet>
wrote
on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:07:50 -0500
<slrng89nk6.kd4.jedi@nomad.mishnet>:
> On 2008-07-21, Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>> In article <RqydnXQLqpA2LBnVnZ2dnUVZ_hninZ2d@comcast.com>,
>> General Schvantzkopf <schvantzkopf@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Dell buries their Linux machines, it's easier to find the Loch Ness
>>> monster then it is to find a Linux box on Dell's website.
>>
>> Not really. Starting from www.dell.com:
>>
>> Clicked "Home and Home Office" in the "shop" section at the bottom.
Which they've moved, thank goodness; the old implementation
got hidden, presumably because of a z-ordering miscode.
>>
>> Clicked "Open-Source PCs" in the "PC Operating Systems" section in
>> the left sidebar.
>>
>> Clicked "Shop for Ubuntu".
>
> ...which is "fine" so long as you know that Ubuntu -> Linux.
>
> Although even that is rather obscure considering that you have to go
> through a link labeled "open source PCs" to get it.
To their credit, that link is now visible on the left
side without using their pulldown menu bar (which has
also been redesigned, to make it more obvious -- using
tiny downward-pointing triangles -- that it is a pulldown
menu bar).
Again to their credit, they have a small explainer on "What
Is Open Source?" on the page to which this link points,
plus short snippets on Ubuntu and FreeDOS, along with
green transference buttons (both of which are actually
put twice on this page, the assumption apparently that
one might either go directly there, or scroll down a bit
and read the fine print then go to where one wants; there's
also a "Shop for Windows" button in case one got here either
by mistake or has determined he does need Windows after all).
Of course one looking for Ubuntu will have to find this link;
I'm not sure everyone knows that Ubuntu is open source.
(I'm sure not everyone knows about Ubuntu, though. ;-) )
The blurb for Ubuntu mentions that it is "Linux-based",
which is probably sufficient for those "in the know".
The Average Joe is probably more interested in the rest
of the blurb, which among other things, mentions "office
productivity" software (going into detail what things are
in such), e-mail, calendar, and chat.
There is also a very tiny video viewer, showing a 4:53
video purporting to inform what Linux is without "geeking"
people out.
>
> Any navigation should be straight and to the point.
It could be better but this incarnation isn't too bad,
though it's still not quite equal to Windows. But
then, I'm not sure all customers "get it", unlike those
that
www.eRacks.com expects to visit apparently (they
offer a choice of non-Windows distros, among them FreeBSD,
Ubuntu, and Gentoo -- *after* choosing hardware).
>
> [deletia]
>
--
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